Care for Intact (Uncircumcised) Babies & Boys
(Spawned from Circumcision: Much More Dangerous Than A Foreskin)
by Matheas
(See care for circumcised boys further below.)
The following is the opinion, experience, and perspective of the author.
This article is not intended as authoritative medical advice.
I, like anyone else, am capable of being wrong about anything.
But considering how little the American medical community
knows about the penis (either intact or circumcised), I refuse to
recommend what most people would at this point, which is to consult a
(North American) physician. Anyone who would actually recommend
that you pay one of them to amputate parts of your child's sexual organs,
especially when there is no problem, I would not trust for medical advice--
would you?
After reading how incredibly easy and how much easier it is to care for intact boys, and how risky, complicated, and high-maintenance a circumcised penis is and can be, it will become painfully clear how much lying has taken place in order for the medical industry to bilk a few extra dollars out of a birth, at the expense of a child damaged in body and psyche.
Intact (uncircumcised) boys are MUCH easier & safer to clean & care for than circumcised boys. Being intact (uncircumcised) is also much easier on the baby! So it's not just easier on you!
The bottom line of care for intact boys is to "leave it alone". The inside of a natural penis is as self-regulating and self-cleaning as a vagina and needs no attention. "Parts" between males & females are remarkably similar and require similar care. As one doctor put it, "the biggest problem a boy usually ever has with his penis is that somebody thinks there's a problem." You will find by reading this article, that regarding circumcision & cleaning, the "solution" actually creates the problem! As such, here is a list of "do's and don'ts" for intact care--comprised, in fact, entirely of "don'ts"!
Don't try to "do anything" with it. Intact penises need little to no maintenance, and trying to "do something" to it causes more harm than good, including attempts at cleaning.
To quote from MothersAgainstCirc.Org's page, "Contrary To Popular Myth, Cleaning is Easy":
During infancy and early childhood, only the outside of the intact penis needs to be rinsed with warm water. The foreskin should not be retracted during cleaning. It's that simple.
Please don't retract your boy's foreskin--ever. Make sure you explain this to any babysitter, doctor, family member, or anyone who might care for your child in your absence! Vigilantly guard that no one retract his foreskin! (See the "Intact Care Agreement" below for your doctor and babysitter.) This is for your boy only to do, and only when he naturally & instinctively decides to, when the time is naturally right for him. He will not have to be taught when or how. For the first few years of life (usually up till age 3 to 5, sometimes up to puberty), a boy's foreskin is fused to his glans via a membrane called the synechia. This fusion keeps out urine, feces, dirt, and microbes and is far more hygenic than having an unfinished & immature circumcised glans, surgically denuded like a ripped-off fingernail and constantly exposed to feces, urine, & friction from diapers & cloths, not to mention the bloody, unsutured open wound and scar caused by circumcision. There is usually a time after foreskin separation where the foreskin opening is too small to retract fully. This is normal; don't worry about it, as you should never retract (or letting others retract) your boy's foreskin anyway. Yes, during this time urine gets "in there" just like a girl. Only exterior cleaning is proper; nature has a way. No harm will come of it. If male circumcision really had any benefit, they'd do it to animals. But that would be animal abuse, and you would get arrested for such unnecessary cruelty, even on a food animal.
Sometimes parents make the mistake of retracting or trying to retract their boy's foreskin in order to "clean" under it. When done before natural separation, it takes what's called a "forcible retraction", meaning the synechia is forcibly ripped--that membrane fusing the foreskin to the incompletely-formed glans of a baby. Doing such a thing only permits dirt to get in, and is one very good reason why nature has it fused in the first place. Many couples with a circumcised father are overly-curious or overly-zealous because circumcised boys are trained to retract and clean often due to the many dangers and complications surrounding a circumcised penis (more on that below).
Unfortunately, once a foreskin is forcibly retracted, it will probably not re-fuse, or could re-adhere improperly. If forcibly retracted, then dirt (especially sand or water-borne silt) CAN get in, and then you've got a more difficult situation (although my advice would still be to leave it alone or just rinse once in awhile with warm water, as it still will be self-cleaning). Most "problems" surrounding intact penile care involve forcible retractions done out of ignorance, which is not fair to the reputation of foreskins. Not surprisingly, with complications stemming from a forced retraction (usually dirt getting caught inside), a doctor will of course want to try for circumcision again. Don't do it, just use warm water, but maintenance will be a bigger issue. To keep it simple: to prevent problems, simply never retract your intact son's foreskin or allow anyone to do so.
Even if not forcible, a retraction by anyone but the boy himself will be unnecessary and potentially dangerous. Only the boy himself should be allowed to retract his foreskin, and only when he naturally feels like it. Foreskin retraction is an extremely personal thing and should only ever be done by the boy himself, only if and when he chooses to.
Bathe your intact child from the outside, not the inside. Natural, complete, intact, "uncircumcised" penises are self-cleaning, and should always be thought of as such. An intact penis is self-cleaning just like a vagina, eyeball, nose/sinus, or rectum. The analogy of a rectum may sound repugnant, but it is quite fitting; you may have to clean the 'outside', but you don't need to wash out the 'inside'. And just like an eyeball, you may wash the 'outside' (outer eyelid), but you don't wash the 'inside' (inner eyelid or eyeball). The foreskin is amazingly similar to the eyelid in that it is two-sided skin, with one side serving a protective function, and the other side serving a moisturizing functions, and both sides serving important sensory functions (there are more functions). The eyelid and the foreskin are the two most elastic pieces of skin on the male body. All of these examples involve areas where there is an inner mucous membrane, and an outer protective (but still sensitive) area. Even the mouth (cheek and lips) qualify; the cheeks and lips are two-sided skin, with a sensitive outer layer and an extremely sensitive inner skin also featuring a mucous membrane.
A little child after the age of retraction, still should in my opinion not be taught to retract it to "clean" himself. If he is old enough and chooses to on his own, he may retract and just use warm water, then pull the skin forward again. He should not be taught to try to "wash off the smegma" unless he instinctively wants to, i.e. if he "feels like it", or if it is itchy, in which case he should. You don't have to teach a child to "care" for the inside of their nose, either--they'll pick it if they feel something itchy in there, but generally shouldn't be sticking their fingers up there or drinking milk through their noses. Same kind of deal with a foreskin. When people of circumcising culture stop think of the glans as an external organ, and see it as the internal organ it really is, this becomes a simpler concept.
A boy should certainly not be taught to "use soap" (he'll learn not to do that anyway!), "use a washcloth 'in there'" (he instinctively won't), or anything of the like. Overzealous cleaning disrupts the natural bacterial flora balance and immune system, identical to a woman's vagina. Both women & men produce smegma--in fact, women produce much more of it. It is the same exact stuff; even the smells are identical. Why fear it with men and embrace it with women? Women do not require "internal" washing, and neither do men. Female & (intact) male genital parts are almost exactly identical, and both function much better when uncut! Even though later in life, the foreskin will retract, and urine will get inside the foreskin, this is not a problem for boys/men any more than it is for girls/women (actually, it is far less of a problem than with girls), as mother nature has a plan for boys, too (a better one, arguably).
Smegma is not dirt. It is necessary, healthy, and part of the immune system and natural septic system of the body, just as it is with women. Smegma is produced by not just produced by the inner foreskin, but by the vagina, the anus, and sometimes other parts of the body as a function of healthy sebaceous activity.
If a child instinctively feels like cleaning the inside in some way, this is probably proper, but to interfere by enforcing a well-intentioned but overly-zealous "hygeine education" or "regimen" is usually misguided. That part of the body in boys seems to be designed to be able to go for long periods of time without cleaning. Taking care of teeth is much more difficult than taking care of the intact penis. And boys have much better instincts regarding their penises than they do their teeth! Do not teach a boy to go against his instincts with touching/cleaning himself! If it hurts, it shouldn't be done. Parents who surgically remove their child's parts (boy or girl) to avoid dealing with smegma are cowards and moral criminals. And they'll probably end up dealing with smegma" a lot more than with an intact child, ironically. Bathe your child from the outside, not the inside. Any attempt at so-called "cleaning" the inner foreskin or glans of a boy is tantamount to douching a little girl. I mean this in every respect.
When a child is older (old enough to bathe himself, if and only if his foreskin is even retractable by then), he can be taught that he alone, only if he chooses to, may (or may not) choose to retract and rinse his glans with (warm) water only.
Never use soap on the glans penis or inner skin (would be the same as using soap inside a vagina). Bottom line: don't mess with it! Don't worry about it! Clean the outside! The inside is an internal organ almost exactly similar to the vagina--treat it in the same way! With an intact (uncircumcised) child, the outside of the penis is not painfully sensitive, and is easily and even for the boy pleasantly cleaned from the outside with wiping. This is not so with circumcised boys, who will have a painfully sensitive and irregularly-shaped area which is not only more difficult to clean for the caretaker, but it's also much more difficult on the boy. It is usually painful for circumcised boys and babies to be wiped directly on their denuded, sensitive circumcised glans
"What's this overhang?"
Baby boys are born with foreskin overhang. In other words, they seem to have a little "extra" foreskin, but it's not extra. It's important. It is to ensure that the glans be fully covered, and as the penis grows (especially during adolescence), that overhang will gradually be taken up & used. Pre-100 A.D., it was only a bit of this "overhang" which was cut off for religious circumcision, if not just a little slit in the overhang, leaving the child mostly intact. Today's "radical" circumcision amputates not only the overhang, but all of the covering and protective and moisturizing function of that inner skin, deactivating whatever little mucosal tissue the child is graced with being permitted to keep. Foreskin is 2-sided, but is fused to the glans for the first few years. Remember, only clean the outside. When a child is circumcised, the inside is forcibly externalized. So keep the outside out and the inside in--don't circumcise!
"What happens if there is a problem?"
Yeast Infection
When the boy is older and he is bathing independently with a retractable or at least detached foreskin, over-attention to washing and hygeine, just like with women, can disrupt the healthy bacterial flora of the inner foreskin. Disruption of the healthy bacteria can sometimes lead to a yeast infection, though less-commen with men than women. Such a yeast infection is basically impossible in most babies or little ones because the foreskin is still probably naturally fused to the glans for the first few years (or more) of life (providing a babysitter didn't forcibly retract your son's foreskin). Because of that, this section of the article is primarily for older boys & men.
But if it does happen in a man or older boy, yeast infections are much easier to deal with than women. Yeast infections are easily recognizable by the smell, which most women (and men, for that matter) can and will recognize. That smell will be identical between genders because it is the same tissues and functions. But men have an advantage women don't have: they can simply retract their foreskin for a few minutes (or sometimes seconds) and let the area dry out! Temporarily drying out the area effectively "reboots" the microbial environment of the glans & inner foreskin. The "drying" effect of circumcision was touted in the 1980's was touted as the main supposed "health benefit" of circumcision. That is really ridiculous, because circumcision causes the penis to become dry forever, and tough and leathery in a process called keritanization. This supposed health benefit of drying was never an original intention of circumcision. To quote circumstitions.com, "Circumcision is a "solution" looking for a problem-- constantly looking, as each new problem is disposed of." Circumcision is insane in part because the sterilizing benefits of "drying" can be simply had by retracting the foreskin and letting it dry out! And then the foreskin can be drawn forward again (probably washed before so, if there is already a yeast infection), and the wonderful moisturizing, protective, and erogenous functions of the foreskin are preserved.
Again, men are much less complicated to maintain! I have included this paragraph primarily for adult or adolescent males and the women who love them, as it is basically impossible to my knowledge for a baby our little youngster to get a yeast infection. Remember that a male, if he chooses to, must do this himself--only at the age of natural retractability--remember, never retract your boy's foreskin, unless you medically need to.
Urinary Tract Infection
Boys (either intact or circumcised) are far less likely (multiple hundreds of percents less likely) to get a urinary tract infection than girls. Surprisingly, the complication rate for circumcisions is actually at least double the likelihood that the boy will ever even getting a urinary tract infection! The so-called and supposed prophylactic (preventative) effect of circumcision on UTI's wasn't even claimed until 1985, over 100 years after the establishment of routine circumcision, and the belief in those medical benefits, however insignificant and irrelevant, are increasingly in question. Circumcision is far more dangerous, traumatic, and damaging to the body, mind, sexual development, and long-term sexual viability than a urinary tract infection! Urinary tract infections (UTI's) can be treated with antibiotic pills or natural remedies. Circumcision is also an extremely poor "treatment" or response to a UTI, although a surgeon or doctor may try to convince a parent to do so because it makes them money, or it is the only way they were taught years ago. Doctors used to also amputate tonsils for tonsilitis, but that doesn't even happen anymore--tonsilitis is now treated with antibiotics, as it should've been all along.
Surgically amputating the foreskin to prevent a UTI's is like:
· Pulling teeth to prevent cavities
· Surgically removing eyelids at birth to prevent pinkeye
· Doing a double mastectomy at birth to prevent breast cancer
Please remember that the possibility that a boy can get a yeast infection or urinary tract infection is no reason to have cut off functional, necessary, & integral parts of his genitals. Females could (and do, in other parts of the world) benefit much more greatly from the "health benefits" of circumcision, as they are much more likely to get a yeast infection or urinary tract infection, but the thought of removing genital tissue from a girl as "preventative maintenance" to prevent or lower infections is seen, in this country, ironically as insane and cruel (rightly so). However, such "medical and health reasons" are used by doctors in Muslim countries as reasons for female circumcision, just like they are used in this country as justification for male circumcision. Both are insane, backwards, and unwholesome, rooted in half-truths which are worse than lies. But male circumcision is even more insane than female circumcision, from a health and usually also a sexuality perspective. Please see my "What About Infections?" page for more information & links.
Probably the the most important link concerning UTI's on the above "Infections" page is "Circumcision and Urinary Tract Infections" from the Circumstitions site. Quick facts from this page:
· It takes 195 circumcisions to prevent 1 UTI, so rare is a UTI in a boy. And this is a conservative figure.
· Circumcision may actually cause UTI's.
· UTI's are several times more common in girls
· At best, circumcision only reduces UTI's by 1%.
Don't let a doctor, babysitter, or family member retract your boy's foreskin.
Talk to your doctor and any of his/her staff who may come in contact with your child beforehand and say that you insist he/she not retract it. It sounds obvious, but you'd be surprised how little circumcised doctors and American women in general know about the actual complete penis. Circumcised doctors are known to sometimes forcibly retract a baby's or boy's foreskin during a checkup to "inspect" the glans for no valid reason during an "exam". This is absolutely wrong and could lead to big problems and lots of pain for you and your boy. Don't let your boy out of your sight with a doctor or medical assitants, epecially during a "checkup" or if his pants or diaper could be removed. Talk to any doctor or medical staff before a problem can even occor. Do the same with any family members, babysitters, or anyone who might end up caring for your boy, even for a short a period as a diaper change. Speak up, even at risk of disturbing your doctor or friend, before any problem can occur. Ideally have your doctor and any staff which may treat the child sign the Intact Care Agreement below. If they are unwilling to sign it, find a foreskin-friendly doctor, or at least read it to them aloud, and have them verbally agree to it.
The below was taken from the Intact Care Agreement. Have your healthworker sign this before you have a baby or when you bring your boy in for a checkup. It was written for health workers, but you can use it as a parent, or just learn something too from it. Most of it is review from above, but valuable in its own right. It was written by Jennifer Gardner, who "made the mistake of trusting the doctor to know not to retract infant foreskins. I was wrong; he did-- while I was standing right next to him. I then wrote up this agreement, which has been signed--and adhered to--by our current pediatrician. (It also helps that he's already 'foreskin-friendly'.)" The author has heard of numerous experiences of doctors forcibly rectracting little boys' prepuces during an examination right in front of their parent.
...
2. The proper care of the intact penis is to "leave it alone" (Dr. Benjamin Spock and many others). His parents do not retract his foreskin, as it is unnecessary, and likewise will not allow anyone else to do so either. Only a very small percentage of babies and young children have foreskins that are
retractable. In the majority, the foreskin is firmly attached to the glans (head) of the penis in much the same way as the fingernail is attached to the finger, and DOES NOT retract.Furthermore, any retraction of the foreskin before natural separation has occurred, as early as age three, but as late as early adulthood, can cause irreparable damage through bleeding and the formation of adhesions. The ONLY person who may retract our son's foreskin is our son himself, once natural separation has occurred.
3. There is NO reason whatsoever to touch our son's penis during an exam: Not "to see inside"; not "out of curiosity"; not "to break adhesions (the attach points are synechiae, not adhesions)"; not "to see if the foreskin retracts"; not "to clean it", etc., etc.
4. The intact penis needs no special care, such as "irrigation" or "loosening of the foreskin". His parents wipe the OUTSIDE with soapy water at bath time (and rinse after with warm water), and with water or baby wipes at each diaper change. Any "cleaning" other than the afore-mentioned can cause infection, and problems which stem from infections. When his foreskin has naturally separated on its own, his parents will inform him of the proper care concerning retraction, and concerning cleaning; (i.e. to retract gently and wash [ed. note: I think a more specific term is "rinse"] the entirely exposed foreskin with warm water.)
Care for Circumcised Babies & Boys
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You will see through reading this that with circumcision, The Solution Is The Problem, or at least ironically brings about or greatly increases the likelihood of the feared problem. Circumcised boys, ironically, require much more maintenance, and experience many more risks even years after their circumcision, beyond those mentioned by Dr. Fleiss in The Case Against Circumcision. He did mention, however, the bloody open wound of the entire glans, and later the sensitive healed glans, being exposed to feces, urine, and the septic environment of the outside world, from which the foreskin is intrinsically designed to protect against). Circumcised penises are much more sensitive to irritation (from diapers, urine, feces, and dirt), and much more likely to become infected, and circumcised boys are extremely more likely to get rashes on their penises than intact boys, who are intrinsically robust, having all their natural protection. Many complications of circumcision, sometimes leading to (completely unnecessary) death, can and do result from circumcision. Among the risks are that the stump of the foreskin can re-fuse to the glans in an improper way, urinary difficulty, and pain/sensitivity/complaining during cleaning. A caretaker of a circumcised boy will note complaining of a baby who is wiped on his bare glans with anything. A baby wipe, a diaper, a towel or a washcloth can all be excruciatingly painful for a circumcised baby or boy (or an adult!). With a penis, even a circumcised one, the general rule is, "if it hurts, it's bad." Nature naturally makes it pretty simple for us, and it's only when we mess things up that things get complicated. Circumcision is obviously in conflict with nature, Natural Law, and Laws of Happiness. So never use painful things such as washcloths and soap on such a sensitive area--only warm water! No soap, no washcloths, only warm water! Circumcised babies are even more sensitive than circumcised boys, who are in turn more sensitive than circumcised men (circumcised males slowly lose all sensation progressively throughout their whole lives). Because circumcised babies cannot be easily "wiped down" in good conscience the way an intact (uncircumcised) baby can, circumcised babies are much difficult to care for because of the hypersensitivity of the denuded glans, and the channels for feces to get caught in, not to mention the huge open wound initially created by the circumcision.
Once again, a boy's glans should not be cleaned with soapy water--just warm plain water, as the glans lacks its own sebaceous (oil) glands. The soap dries out what moisture the boy is lucky enough to have left there. Also, no effort should be made to "go in there" into the sulcus (the mucosal ridge between the stump of the foreskin and the rear glans corona) with a washcloth and wash out any smegma which the boy might be lucky enough to still produce (circumcised boys will, or at least should, produce smegma in their sulcus, at least while they are young before their penis grows and their circumcision becomes tighter at puberty [yet another reason to avoid circumcision]). Yes, young circumcised boys will usually produce smegma--in fact, even though they produce less smegma, you'll have to deal with smegma far more having a circumcised child! Smegma is not "dirt" and it is necessary, and should not be washed away unless the boy instinctively wants and chooses to, or the smegma has dried out (which can generally only happen on a circumcised boy). Any smegma the child is lucky enough to still produce after circumcision will, in itself, help prevent improper re-adhesion (fairly graphic link, see pics at bottom of adhesions resulting from circ as well as a few other complications which can be spotted) of the foreskin stump to the glans. Another slightly complicating issue is that dried smegma can look exactly like fresh smegma. Sometimes, the only way to tell on a circumcised male is to touch it and see, but only touch with very clean hands, and try to keep touching the bit of remaining mucosa (the sulcus and inner foreskin stump) to a minimum.
<>If the smegma in the sulcus is dried-out or yellowed (not off-white), or both, then unfortunately with circumcised babies warm water may not be enough to get the smegma off, since the natural balance has been disrupted. Smegma could dry out or become old in a circumcised child because mucosal membranes can only function properly when they are touching each other, and when circumcised, there is only the stump of the foreskin left, (hopefully) covering the sulcus, which coverage may be intermittent. (This is not part of the risk of having an intact child.) With a circumcised child incapable of cleaning themselves, you may just want to gently use your fingers--clean skin and warm water, which is the softest and least-offensive sensation you can offer at that point. If you use a cloth, make sure it is the softest cloth you can get, and be extremely careful for the baby's comfort. Try not to use a regular washcloth or baby wipe or other cruel thing--your baby won't thank you for it, and you'll know. Go slowly and do only a small portion at a time in the sulcus channel, being extremely gentle; this is even more important than what you use to clean him there if he needs it. If your child is old enough, he may be able to do it himself, which is better, as he will instinctively be disinclined to hurt himself. Again, this is only if your circumcised boy has hardened or yellowed smegma in his sulcus as a result of his circumcision--not the normal, soft, off-white smegma. Parents circumcise out of fear, ignorance, or laziness usually over not wanting to "deal with smegma". But the irony is that circumcising parents usually end up "dealing with smegma", cleaning/maintaining their child's penis, and generally needing to check to make sure nothing is "going wrong" much more with a circumcised child vs. an intact one.
Unfortunately, on top of this, occasional but gentle retraction of circumcised-ONLY boys does also seem to me to be recommendable to help prevent re-adhesion of the ripped-away foreskin stump to the glans, a complication resulting from circumcision, for reasons stated. Foreskin stumps, or any unnaturally-detached prepucial skin (usually caused by circumcision, but sometimes by forcible retraction of intact boys), sometimes re-fuse or re-adhere to the glans (again, graphic link; same one as above). While proper fusion of the foreskin to the glans is a normal state in young uncircumcised (intact) boys, circumcision involves a forced retraction (ripping away) of the foreskin (prepuce), and an unnatural joining together of two pieces of skin which weren't meant to go together. That is called the foreskin stump: the tiny bit of skin which circumcisers "permit" to allow just enough skin for an erection (sometimes not enough). It can sometimes re-adhere to the rear glans corona. This is not only aesthetically disturbing, but it can be problematic in other ways, sometimes requiring yet another penile surgery on the boy. And even when re-detached, adhesions usually leave skin "tags" on the glans even afterwards (see link several paragraphs above), although skin tags can remain from incomplete ripping or amputation during circ.
Although "adhesion" is the technical term, I call it "re-adhesion" to remind people that the foreskin was first properly "adhered" to the glans at birth, and that re-adhesions are caused by circumsion (ripping, cutting, and drying--all the effects of circumcision), not by the foreskin. It is amazing how many complications of circumcision are somehow blamed on the remaining foreskin, not the circumcision which caused the problem. Most people, even circumcised doctors, don't even know that the foreskin is naturally fused to (i.e. part of) the glans at birth. Most people do know that circumcised penises need to be fiddled with (such as checking for and preventing adhesions), and they probably fear that intact penises incur even more problems or need even more maintenance, when it's the opposite. This is probably why circumcised doctors sometimes try to forcibly retract intact boys--they're so ignorant of the natural penis that they frighteningly sometimes "check for adhesions" on an intact penis by, not knowing that the foreskin is non-retractable for the first number of years of life! (Don't miss the Intact Care Agreement above, even if you only have circumcised children.)
Parents of INTACT children are actually the ones who have it easy, not having to manually maintain or constantly monitor their childrens' penises for health problems, or worry about causing them pain every single time they bathe them, dry them, change a diaper, or clothe them. Just a quick painless or even pleasant wipe and you're on the go with an intact child--not necessarily so with a circumcised baby boy. Circumcision can change cleaning from a pleasant moment between mother and child, to a painful drudgery for both parties. The parent may not ever notice the lingering hypersensitivity from circumcision ("My boy never complained"), or know the difference in ease of cleaning from an intact boy ("I never seemed to have any problems"), but the difference remains. Cleaning is substantially more painful for all circumcised babies, and substantially more difficult for all parents of circumcised children--whether they know it or not.
As you can see, circumision creates frequent awkward situations which have no easy answer. Remember that circumcision was not instituted in this country to make it any easier at all to take care of babies! There is no dispute that the original motivation behind circumcision in this country and elsewhere was punishment, pain, and sexual repression. "Behavior modification through sexual damage" was the goal. Circumcision was intended to complicate sexuality. But one of the innumerable unintended consequences was the complication of cleaning babies.
<>
When Your Circumcised Boy is a Teenager
When your circumcised child is in his teenage years, let him know about the Non-Surgical Foreskin Restoration Community so he can start researching this option on his own. One of the co-founders of NORM.org, National Organization for Restoring Men, a non-profit Anti-Circumcision and Foreskin Restoration organization, Wayne Griffiths, is LDS. Around that time, buy your circumcised son some ManHood "Undergarments for Circumcised Men" to prevent his underwear from wearing him down, especially if he goes on an LDS mission and will be walking & bike riding a lot. ManHood is a folded, sewn, soft satin sleeve which slips over the penis to protect the glans & preserve sensitivity, acting as a dry "artificial foreskin" of sorts. I know from experience what damage (permanent sensitivity weardown) can be caused during a mission. Preventing that damage will help ensure you have granchildren! When not actively Restoring, I have relied on ManHood undergarments for years to make bearable the constant chafing and discomfort resulting from circumcision and underwear. I have also been attempting foreskin restoration for somewhat less time (I wear the ManHood when not actively Restoring), and have found the process slow-going, difficult, and tedious, but with invaluable rewards even at the early stages I'm still at.
Complications resulting from circumcision are common. Many circ complications also go undocumented or are intentionally classified incorrectly (i.e. under "gangrene") to avoid adding to statistical circumcision complications. Every year there are thousands to tens of thousands of completely unnecessary deaths of babies and children worldwide resulting from circumcision. A number of these deaths occur in the USA, one of the few circumcising populations on Earth and the last English-speaking one, all the remaining circumcising nations being heathen, violent nations, primarily in the mideast and Africa. This essay was not intended to fully expose those complications, but rather to explain proper care for both circumcised and uncircumcised boys.
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