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We circumcised our son for religious reasons (for me being Jewish). My husband is not and wasn't for it, but knew it was important for me traditionally. He showed me tons of articles stating there was no medical reason to do so.

In saying that, I have friends that had to do it for one reason or another as a teen or an adult and they remember everything about it.

We did ours with a doctor at home - we were in the room (they didn't have to take him from my crazy hormonal self after birth), we used a numbing cream as directed by the doctor rather than an injection to the penis. It took longer to get the sterile equipment ready and laid out than the actual procedure, and was healed in less than a week. He did cry - but not from the procedure. He was cold when they took his diaper off. When my nephew had the same procedure done - not a peep.

Not in my case, but I have also spoken to friends who believe while they can do their best to clean and teach their child to clean, it doesn't mean they will continue to do that as they grow.

That's all of the info that I want to share. I know you will decide what's best for you with any information given!

We circumcised our son. I left the decision to my husband since I don't have a penis, but although we don't practice there was religious reasoning for me too. I have a lot of Jewish family, but for some reason our little branch is Christian, but... That's a whole other conversation

I was for it because working in a nursing home, it was difficult to get the residents to clean it themselves or let us do it for them. So it wasn't bad to clean, if they would let me; but it was terrible if it went for a long time. Also my aunt's dad had to be circumcised at like 65 for some health issue and always told us how terrible it was to recover. (So although it's totally not common, I think he traumatized me and everyone else he told about it )

I don't feel strongly that it should be done by everyone, it's a choice; but it was what I chose based on my experiences (which admittedly isn't standard probably)

Our son slept through the procedure, they gave him Tylenol and a binkie of sugar water. He only fussed when they opened his diaper (hated diaper changes) and basically slept through the rest. It was done at 8 days old.

TMI but my husband is not circumcised but our boys are. When it came down to deciding, it was more about my husband wished he was and although my husband is a very clean person and learned at a very young age how to maintain cleanliness down there, we couldn’t garentee that our sons would do the same as they become older. And I didn’t want them to grow up wishing they had it done like my husband.

I second@Sams Mom: I worked in a nursing home and hospital and men don’t want help cleaning and end up with horrible infections.

I will say that DS1 had to get it done twice (only a few days after the first time) we found out he has a healing problem like most of my family (keloids) but the second time did the trick. And while it was traumatic for me, he seemed just fine. We didn’t even hesitate to do it with DS2 even knowing he could have keloids as well but it was no problem.

I’m not for or against and all you can do is do what’s right for your family.

We did it because dh wanted it. I didn’t love the idea but went with it. It’s common in our area - there is a Jewish mohel who does a lot of non-Jewish kids (he sets aside certain days you can make appts for). I felt better that it wasn’t done at a day old, and was done by someone with immense experience whose job is to keep the baby fairly happy/quiet at a bris (to my understanding at least). He just used a numbing agent, it was very fast. My husband held the baby’s arms, it was done quickly and then I could immediately nurse him. Actually the mohel asked me for a clean diaper specifically to get me to look away, he said he always uses that trick since moms have a hard time watching! We only have one boy but we would have done it again.

Our 2nd on the way is a boy as well (first is a girl), so we are having to make this decision as well. DH is circumcised and very much in favor of having his son be as well. I am Jewish, so culturally it is important to have it done. But I'm conscious of the fact that it would be a painful, cosmetic procedure (not medically necessary) done to my infant who has no say in the matter. I don't feel great about that aspect.

We will be having it done in the hospital though (no bris as is traditionally custom in my faith). I don't feel comfortable with the ritual aspect of it and the fact that it is done in a less sterile environment.

Anyway, those are my thoughts on the matter!

I think people have to to choose what’s right for your family and I don’t think father and son need to be the same. However I think brothers should be the same.

@Pollywog: How did you know about the other kids? Just curious!

We had our son circumcised. DH is circumcised and it wasn't even really a question. I will add that it looked painful after it was done but it didn't appear to bother DS at all. We had it done in the hospital when he was 1 day old. We had no issues, it healed easily.

We did not circumcise our two boys and no regrets. It’s becoming less common in our area and I don’t even think anyone at the hospital asked us when our second son was born (they did for our first during the bathing part after)

We are a two mom family so we did ask a few male friends and family to do our due diligence and find out if there was something we were overlooking. If course everyone knows someone who had an infection, horror story, etc. But when it came down to it we just didn’t feel it was necessary to do a procedure that is optional and to us, and not important. We have had no issues with cleaning or otherwise.

We did it for my DS for a lot of the same reasons you listed above. FWIW, my OB does it at like 2 days while still in the hospital, and for us the healing was a non-issue, in fact our pediatrician commented a couple times what a nice job the OB had done. So my lesson learned is, if you do decide to go for it might be worth exploring options because I think the quality of the circumcision can make some difference, especially in how fast/easily it heals, how much blood is involved etc.

@graceandjoy: it came up in conversation with my provider. I asked if she had cared for kids who weren't circumcised and she responded that over half of the kids were. I was surprised!

I work in healthcare. I was trained to do circs (and did probably a few dozen as a resident). My DH is intact and LO3 due in August is a boy and will not be circumsized. It wasn't even a discussion in our family. And I actually made the decisions to not perform circs professionally anymore either. I just don't feel like an elective, cosmetic surgery makes sense in the first world country that we live in. There are some circumstances where being circed would be a benefit as an adult, but those are minimal and I feel like they are balanced out with the risks of a circumcision. Those are my 2 cents anyhow.

Also, most insurances won't cover them anymore - so if you decided to do it, check first!

@smuckers: we circumcised our son because my husband felt strongly about it, and we’re both from families where all men are. My OB did it in the hospital at 1 day old. I always thought it looked weird and like she left way too much foreskin on. We ended up taking him to a pediatric urologist at 28 months and the surgeon was like, “yep, your son is half circumcised.” Hard to describe and it was purely aesthetic, but he really looked strange and every one of his caregivers or our close friends had noticed and wondered what the deal was—I just didn’t want him to have to go through his whole life explaining himself or feeling self conscious. So in February we had a surgery that went perfectly and now he looks completely how we expected from the get-go. It was not ideal, but ultimately fine, recovery was a total non issue, and I’m glad we got the correction done sooner rather than later.

We did for both boys. I left the decision up to DH as I didn’t feel strong either way. The procedure was quick both times and the healing went fine.

I hope you don’t have too hard of a time deciding, just do what feels right for your family.

We didn't circumcise.

You might be surprised at how low the rates of circumcision actually are in your area, as a previous poster said. look your area up.

Also, I disagree with the comment that there's way less pain as a newborn compared to a teenager. You can't measure pain. Maybe you mean that there would be less memories of that, but the pain is still there, because the procedure is still essentially the same. It's cutting off some of the most sensitive tissue on the human body.

Part of why I really love the HB community is because we can discuss such a hot topic with so much civility and respect. Here is my story. We were team green with my first and I was pushing to circumcise. My husband was against it. We were both raised Jewish and everyone in our families is circumcised, including DH himself, but he felt it was mutilation and is unfair to do absent evidence of major health benefits. Every guy I’ve ever been with has been circumcised and for some reason I felt strongly that we should do it. We had a boy and I somehow got my way. My OB did the procedure when DS was 2 days old. I was still hooked up to the IV post c section so my DH was in the room and I was not. It truly traumatized him. My OB did a good job but we found there was also a lot of maintenance afterwards. You need to make sure the skin doesn’t adhere and need to constantly apply vaseline. My son is 2.5 now everything is fine but feel bad that I pushed for it without a good reason. We had baby #2 a few months ago and it would have been a very difficult decision to make but thankfully it was a girl.

We got my son circumcised for many reasons. He wasn’t uncomfortable or in pain and the procedure was quick(15mins) completes by my OB. It was easy to take care of for the few days to week after bringing him home. We are expecting a girl now but if we were having a boy I’d do it again and get him circumcised.

We chose to do it because we have a close friend that had to have it done later in life and they told us about the experience. That friend had a boy prior to his surgery that he didn't do it for and was heartbroken over that decision, given what he had recently been through.

That said, I left the decision entirely up to my husband as I felt that was more appropriate as I didn't have the body part in question.

We circumcised DS in the hospital. We discussed it a lot first and ultimately I let DH make the decision. He is circumcised and he felt like he was more familiar with that and that it would be easier to keep clean.

In the hospital I almost didn’t let them take him away to do it. And then I was so upset afterwards. I felt like I had cut off a piece of my beautiful perfect baby for no good reason. And I felt that way for a long time. I was worried that our second would be a boy and I’d have to decide if they should be different from each other. It was girl though, phew.

Fast forward to almost six years later and I have a five year old who’s constantly grabbing at his penis because it’s uncomfortable. We have to remind him all the time to clean it and wipe after he pees because if he doesn’t it gets red and irritated. It seems to get irritated a lot in general. (Is this a normal boy thing??)

So now I’m more okay with the decision we made. I think the issues he has would be worse and it would be harder to get him to take care of it.