Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Cleaning Baby Boy's Peeper (aka. Penis)

Changing a baby boy’s diaper is simple, right?  Wipe.  Diaper.  Done.  Not like a girl, where you have to remember front to back.  Actually, there’s a little more to it, and Henry and I learned the hard way.  Around Henry’s third month a friend was over, and she watched as we took a bath – I wore a bathing suit.  She wrinkled her nose in disgust at his little peeper and said, “Is it supposed to look like that?”  His foreskin was looking a little strange.  The head was shrunk into the skin.  I inspected more closely and discovered that the skin was growing back together!  “Blurg.” -- as Tina Fey/Liz Lemon would say.  I pulled the skin back a tiny bit and it resisted and then pulled back revealing some raw skin.  Poor little Henry didn’t scream, but it didn’t look pretty.  I put Aquaphor on the area and made sure to clean his peeper’s head really well at every diaper change.  Henry’s pediatrician instructed us to pull the skin back at every diaper change; otherwise it would grow back again.  This has happened to three other baby boys we know.  Since then, I pull the skin back really well and clean around Henry’s peeper head meticulously.  I have a fear that he will blind me by peeing straight into my eyeball while I’m inspecting.  But it hasn’t happened yet.  Thankfully, we haven’t seen the shrinking peeper again.    

8 comments:

  1. One day Henry will appreciate all the attention you have given to his peeper. And he'll also die if you show this blog to his future girlfriends - so save it as secret ammo for the nasty ones. LOL! Love the candid discussion of an uncomfortable topic. We need more of you in the world!

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  2. I did want a boy as my first child, but now am reconsidering. :)

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  3. God bless you for saving (and nurturing) Henry's foreskin. Circumcision is just plain wrong!

    - Circumcised

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  4. It's called circumcision ....

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  5. you aren't supposed to retract an infant's foreskin!

    your physician should be shot.

    Once you've already retracted.. I honestly don't know proper protocol.

    If you are interested, I will subscribe to this comments section. Let me know if you'd like me to find out what you should do about this.

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  6. Just to clarify, Henry is circumcised.

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  7. There was no "retracting" involved.

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  8. Oh.. okay okay.

    Well.. you are right, that is fairly common after circumcision.

    For education's sake, if not circumcised, you would simply clean it like a finger... no special care required.

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