Is it painful to circumsize newborn? Is there any medication to numb the area?

Question

My husband and I believe we should circumsize our son. The only thing keeping me from going for it is I'm worried about the pain my son will go through. He is a month old now, are there any medications to at least numb that part of the area when they do the procedure? What does the procedure consist of?

Answer 1

I answered your other question and have a description of the procedure. Yes, it hurts, but yes, they can and do use pain medication. The best is a warm clean environment with circumstraint (board with a baby shape inside it with straps to hold down arms and legs), then use pacifier or finger dipped in SweetEase (50% sucrose solution) to keep him busy/happy, then an application of EMLA cream to numb the skin to prep for injection (takes a few minutes to take effect), then injection of lidocaine, then a five minute procedure with either a Gomco or Mogen clamp or sometimes the Plastibell.

To SHANNONMANGAN - wait....at your hospital they do newborn circumcisions in the OR? That's pretty bizarre. Why would they transport newborns away from the L&D or postpartum floor all the way down to the OR to do a simple infant circumcision? And why on earth would you need to "scrub up", only sterile gloving is needing for the surgeon, not much assisting is done other than handing instruments and drawing up the lidocaine and handing the doc the needle for injection - and we are in a large metropolitan hospital with Magnet status. I also assist with 3-4 circumcisions a day when I work in the nursery but they are certainly nothing like you describe. I dislike doing them but I try to make the babies as comfortable as possible. I guess the babies in your state must be made differently than the babies in California, because all of our babies cry - at least a little bit.

Why would you say they don't have nerve endings on the tip of their penis? Of course they do, why wouldn't they? Anyway, the skin is cut about halfway down, not just the tip. If you have a circumcised husband, take a look sometime and you'll see the scar about 1/3 to halfway down the shaft, and encircles the entire penis, thus the name "circumcise". The word "circumcision" comes from Latin circum (meaning "around") and caedere (meaning "to cut") and that is exactly what happens, the foreskin is pulled up and crushed with a hemostat, then a scalpel is used to cut away the skin. Obviously you are pro-circumcision and that's fine, but to say there are no nerve endings there - and then ridiculing people saying they "don't know anatomy" is really over the top. Also yes, they don't use a "knife" for this procedure - when's the last time you handed what we call a "knife" to a surgeon - when he was cutting up his birthday cake in the breakroom? C'mon, you know the correct term and instrument is a scalpel, which is a lot sharper than anything anyone here would refer to as a "knife".

Answer 2

Let's be clear here: circumcision is not a necessary procedure. There are no more health risks in not circumcising and in fact, is a natural and important part of the penis....with lots of nerve endings, thank you. Yes, you can give anesthesia and pain meds, and your son may be fine. But my question is, why would you? It is painful, even with meds and perhaps a newborn would not remember it, but it is traumatic. How do we know what that means later in life emotionally, physically and sexually? As for the argument of "looking" like the father or other kids, I think you will find that more and more families are choosing not to circumcise because that reason is not good enough. Frankly, I know very few families at this point who have circumcised. Circumcision became popular in the US as a way to prevent masturbation (it's true- look it up-didn't work very well, did it?) and I don't think we are honoring our boys, our sexuality, and our bodies by continuing to support the practice of it. Please consider that most of the world does not circumcise their baby boys, and it is my hope that eventually it will be considered a procedure saved only for the rare case of necessity. After all, it is not that different from the practice of removing a girl's clitoris, and that is illegal, as it should be. Why then would the discussion of circumcision be not as serious? This IS a person's body we are talking about, and that person does have rights, baby or not. My point: THINK and KNOW about what you are doing, rather than subscribing to what the norm has been.

Answer 3

There are 3 things they consider "pain relief" when doing a circ:
-A pacifier dipped in sugar
-EMLA cream
-injected lidocaine

The paci is obviously not adequate, but if you request "pain relief" they can technically just use that.
The EMLA cream is what is used most often. EMLA does not penetrate the skin, it only dulls the surface. It also takes at least half an hour from the time you apply it to the time it starts working. Most docs just slap in on right before the procedure so they can say they used pain relief. Even if they do wait for it to take full effect, it is like using Orajel for a root canal. VERY inadequate.
-The injectable block is used very rarely. It consists of 3 injections into the root of the penis. The injections are very painful themself, and they carry quite a few risks (nerve damage etc)

If an adult or child were to get the procedure done, they would get put under and get narcotics for the healing time. But a baby only gets at best, a local injection, and maybe some tylenol for the healing time.
It does NOT hurt ANY MORE in adults than babies. Its just that an adult can voice their pain and fight back from the pain. In fact, having it done to an adult is LESS painful than having it done to a baby. Why? Because in an adult, the foreskin has already naturally separated, eliminating the step of having to forcibly rip the tissue away. In a baby, the foreskin is attached to the glans (head) with the same material the holds your fingernail to your finger. They have to rip that tissue away before they can clamp and cut it.
It has been PROVEN that babies DO FEEL PAIN. It is absurd to think that it would hurt as an adult but not a baby.

As for the teasing, that didn't really happen in the past (who wants to get caught checking out another guys dick?) and it certainly doesn't happen anymore. Do you know what the current circ rates are in the US? Only 55%. In some areas its as low as 20%. And every year the numbers drop even more. When our kids grow up, if anyone if making fun of anyone, it is going to be the intact boys making fun of the cut ones because they have part of the dick missing.

Answer 4

when some one says its no big deal and their baby slept htrough it, well, its not thatbaby slept, its that baby passed out from the pain. they may use a little emla cream(topical numbing agent) but to be honest, i had that cream before a procedure and it did not help at all.
if they do injections to numb it, those can cause permenant nerve damage making them impotent.
as far as teasing as they get older, in my school the ones that actually looked enough to notice anothers boy penis was different were the ones that were teased. called homo's and fags.
also, how many fathers and sons when the child reachs an age where they can comprehend they are different, actually are naked in front of each other, how many fathers and sons drop their pants and compare penises.
the foreskin is there to protect the head. they can get some nasty callouses and scar tissue when its gone.
as long as they wash there is no increase in disease or smell(just like a cric'd penis they do need to be washed)
circumcision does NOT decrease the risk of STD's, only good education does and instilling morals and standards.

they CAN have sex with an intact foreskin lol never heard that reason before

Answer 5

It's painful. They remove a good amount of skin, but the doctors put a local anesthesia on the baby's penis so the baby doesn't feel anything during the procedure. After the anesthesia wears off, your baby will probably feel discomfort.

I don't remember my son being too terrible after they brought him back to me, but he was only a day old. I just held him for a long time to make sure he knew his mommy was there for him. It takes about a month to heal completely.

Answer 6

I had my son circumsized when he was 4 days old and yes i made sure that they numbed the area with Lidocaine. My son did not even cry. Some doctors don't use a local numbing agent so you better be asking beforehand. Why this late about getting it done?

Answer 7

Oh my God some of you people are completely clueless. I am a surgical tech in the OR, meaning I scrub in and help assist on procedures like this. I do about 3 to 5 of these a day. They do NOT use a knife for this procedure. I have been doing this procedure for years and I hardly ever see a baby cry due the procedure itself. Most of them that cry start crying when they are taken out of their nice warm blanket and put on the circ table. They usually stop when the overheads are turned on. I stand over them and talk to them and yes, sometimes they sleep. NO they are not passed out because they were asleep when they were brought in and never woke up. We DO use anesthetics upon the request of the mother otherwise, NO we do not because it is NOT necessary. It is not painful due to the fact that a newborn does not have any nerve endings developed in its penis at this point, anyone that knows the anatomy of the penis would know that. The anti circ people will tell you all kinds of things to keep you from doing it but they are full of crap, I know I see many of these done first hand so I know. Depending on the hospital and the doctor you can probably go in with your son when he has it done. If you don't like the way things are going up until the point that they start the procedure then you can change your mind.

I don't believe an EMT would have the same knowledge concerning the procedure considering you have to go to school for it (as in surgical classes). I've had 6 years of medical classes and still continuing. I know the procedure and have seen it done on enough babies to tell you that the majority of them do not cry nor do they even flinch. EMT's do not learn OR procedures. Just because you may observe a procedure during a rotation does not mean you know anything about that procedure, and seeing a couple times on rotation is totally different then seeing 3 to 5 times per day and standing right ove the baby and assisting.

Answer 8

It's not as painful as waiting until he's a teen. Because he will more than likely want to get it done so he can have sex. A lot of boys are really self conscious about that area to begin with and it doesn't help when they aren't considered normal by their peers. I got both my sons circumsized and there was no complications. Yea they cried, but I got it done when they were infants (a few days old) so there wasn't a lot of blood down there yet. After the procedure was done, I gave them tylenol (the recommended doses) all day for the next 2 days and they were fine. The worst part of the procedure is when they have to strap them down cause they don't like it.

My husband was also circumsized as an infant and he hasn't lost any pleasure with having it done. Believe me!!

You might want to check with your insurance to see if it's covered. Now a days it's considered cosmetic.

Answer 9

Look at this website which shows the procedure.

http://www.cirp.org/library/procedure/plastibell/

Usually on a newborn, they do not numb the area and it is very painful.

Answer 10

I have 3 boys, all snipped. they will put some cream on their little penis that will numb it somewhat. It does hurt them but only for a little bit. I would get it done asap. My baby was done at 6 weeks. My other 2 boys were done at 5 days old. He is old enough now to give him some baby pain relief which they will probably tell you anyway. Don't think of him getting hurt. It will all be over in 5 minutes.