Circumcision

The American Academy of Pediatrics policy statement has shifted over the years.

They still don’t recommend that boys routinely get circumcised though.

Instead, the latest recommendation, which was published in a 2012 policy statement, states that:

…the benefits of circumcision are sufficient to justify access to this procedure for families choosing it and to warrant third-party payment for circumcision of male newborns.

While the health benefits of getting circumcised, including prevention of UTIs, penile cancer, and transmitting some STIs, outweigh the small risks of the procedure, the AAP states that parents still need to decide if circumcision is in the best interest of their male child, thinking about their own “religious, ethical, and cultural beliefs and practices.”

Don’t get your child circumcised because you think it will be too hard to clean his intact penis and don’t get your child circumcised because you think everyone else is doing it and he will have problems in the locker room. Those aren’t good reasons.

It is also important to keep in mind that if your child is circumcised, the AAP also states that babies should be given “adaquate analgesia,” (that’s pain control) including:

  • penile nerve block techniques
  • nonpharmacologic techniques, like positioning and sucrose pacifier, can be used as an adjunct to a penile nerve block

And of course, the AAP came out with a policy statement in 2010 against the “traditional custom of ritual cutting and alteration of the genitalia of female infants, children, and adolescents, referred to as female genital mutilation or female genital cutting (FGC).”

For more information:

Last Updated on October 2, 2016 by Vincent Iannelli, MD

Author: Vincent Iannelli, MD

Vincent Iannelli, MD

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