How I explain what happens in a bris

Letting the cat out of the bag here will take away a little of the entertainment factor from those who will hear this shpiel in the future, but I imagine that this, like all blog posts, will eventually get lost in the blogosphere.

For the record, I've described how things look after the bris here and here and here, and I've even offered a link to a medical website that shows textbook images (computer generated, not photos) of a pre-circumcised and post-circumcised penis.

In the moments before or especially AFTER the bris, I like to explain to parents what has happened to their son.

Then I pull out my model, the one I "carry with me always" - and here it is:

Imagine my fist being hidden by the cuff of my sleeve (if you look carefully, you can detect it below the cuff). Now: CUFF = FORESKIN.  FIST = GLANS (head of the penis)

In the act of circumcision, the foreskin (imagine the entire cuff) is grabbed and excised, leaving the glans to emerge from the incision-spot, to be completely exposed and not covered by the shaft-skin, (or the shirt below the cuff.)

Watch as it emerges.

The tip emerges

It takes a second or two.

Almost completely out

And then we are free and clear!

You didn't really think I was going to cut the cuff of my shirt just for a demonstration, did you?

It is important to note that the fist (GLANS) is free and clear of any skin so that nothing will heal attached to it. Anything attached to the glans makes the bris "unkosher" and needing a repair.

It is important to also know that below the foreskin is a membrane that we aim to remove during the circumcision as well. Sometimes it comes off during the circumcision, sometimes it needs to be torn and folded back, and sometimes it needs to be excised afterwards - using hemostat and scissors.

One of the things I do is use a marker to help guide the incision so that the skin that should remain on the shaft remains, and we avoid having a significant amount of extra skin removed.

In other words - this should be avoided:

We want the glans to be revealed, but we don't need to reveal the lower layer of the shaft..

Now that I've given away my secret, what will I do for fun in explaining this stuff? Maybe not everyone will read this blog post. There is hope!

Knowing What To Expect Afterwards

[For much more detail on this subject, click here. The short version follows.]

When your child is circumcised, it is a good idea to get a good feel for how long the healing process takes.

In most cases, I need to see the baby only once after the bris, often enough to remove a bandage, but even when the bandage comes off on its own, just to see that everything is healing nicely. This has changed the time frame of my care for the baby - I used to see the baby, in some cases, two whole days after the bris. Now I see him within a few hours.

I FIND SEEING THE BABY A FEW HOURS AFTER THE BRIS TO BE MUCH BETTER: FOR THE BABY, FOR HIS PARENTS, AND YES, EVEN FOR THE MOHEL

There are mohels who like to see the baby a few days later, or even to see how things are looking a few weeks later. This is admirable.

At the same time, in the event that something is not OK at that two week period, there is really nothing that a mohel could/should do at that point. Any "correction" should be taken care of right away, which would perhaps necessitate an additional follow-up visit.

In simple terms:
* The glans (tip of penis) should be a dark red, and the extent of its outline - like a helmet on a head - should be visible all around
* There will or will not be remains of a membrane below the glans (also a dark red, though a slightly different hue). It is often swollen, though to what degree depends on how much membrane is present.
* The skin where the incision took place should be identifiable below the glans or membrance, and should be as close to even in its circumference around the shaft. Depending on the baby's anatomy, in some cases, the mohel might cut at more of an angle, to compensate for a differently angled glans.

If this is what things look like after the bandage comes off (with the caveat of the possibility of some swelling below the glans), all your baby needs is "time." Some colors may emerge (white, yellow, green) that are just the way the area scabs. But even all this goes away within a couple of days, and certainly very quickly once ointments (vaseline or similar product) are no longer applied to the area.

For instructions on how to care for baby, see here

When Baby is Cranky - Is Tylenol a Solution?

The impetus for this posting comes from two incidents which took place in the last few weeks.


1. Tylenol, and other OTC baby pain medications had some kind of recall (the details did not concern me personally as my children don't use any of the items in question, and I never recommend any of them as a mohel)


2. Someone I know, who lives in New York, had his son circumcised by a local NY mohel, and called me that evening, after his baby had an unusually difficult day, to confirm that what his mohel had told him was "normal" in the post-op care of the baby. Details to follow.


I will not address the Tylenol recall directly, as it is not my area of expertise. But the issue which is raised often enough is whether there is room to give the baby tylenol if he seems cranky after the bris?


My answer is twofold. Firstly, let your pediatrician recommend tylenol or something to ease your baby's discomfort. Most mohels I know are not physicians, and while they can offer advice, they are not in charge of your baby's long-term care. Even if the mohel IS a physician, if he (or she - there are female Dr. physicians who are mohelets) is not your baby's physician, the questions about medications should be directed to the primary long-term caregiver.


Secondly, and this leads into the second impetus as mentioned above, your baby should not feel discomfort after the bris.


You may ask, how could a baby not feel discomfort after going through this surgery? I don't know the answer to this question, but I can report on what I've observed.


Post-bris, most babies who have a bandage placed on comfortably, who have their needs met (clean diaper and full belly), sleep nicely, eat nicely, wet their diapers consistently, etc. They cry under the same conditions they cried for before the bris: dirty diaper, hungry, tired... The main difference will be that baby might wince when he urinates - which would be directly impacted by the bris.


So what causes a baby to be cranky after the bris?

The number one item that causes a baby discomfort is an uncomfortable bandage. It could be the material does not agree with him. The bandage may also be on too tight, constricting what should otherwise be an easy urine-flow.


In my personal experience, when I fiddle (as necessary, after the bris) to get a new bandage on, the baby will usually cry as I am reapplying a gauze pad. Once I am finished and leave the baby alone, he is usually calm and comfortable, the crying stops, and he either eats or goes right to sleep.


Solutions


And so I asked the father of the baby three questions:

1. Is it bleeding? (usually indicative of either a case that requires attention or a bandage that fell off prematurely)

2. Has the baby urinated? (if not, there is too much constriction on account of the bandage, and it needs to either be loosened, removed, or replaced with a looser and softer bandage)

3. Will your mohel come and check it?


If the bandage is on too tightly - guess what - Tylenol or Motrin ain't gonna do a thing.

*************************



I mentioned in a different posting that it is normal to see swelling after the bris, particularly on the ventral side of the penis. In this case, that was not as much of a concern from my perspective (though the father did see swelling and was concerned about it).


In the end, the mohel did come and check, he removed the bandage (or loosened it) and baby was able to urinate more readily, easily and comfortably.


The point of this story is not to knock another mohel. It is to encourage you to avoid jumping to conclusions, to avoid worrying, and to realize there may be a very simple solution.


I have taken steps to avoid this problem. The bandage I leave on the baby is a softer one, which usually comes off on its own a few hours after the bris. I remind parents from the get-go that they need to report to me if the baby has not urinated a few hours after the bris. I consciously put the bandage on tight enough to constrict the bleeding, but not so tight to be uncomfortable for baby.

With the exception of babies who are extremely hungry after the bris, most babies I care for are calm when I finally leave them alone, and may even sleep comfortably for a few multi-hour stretches, waking up for feedings and diaper changes.


And I tell the baby's mother, "You see how he is now? That is how he should be throughout the rest of the day, except when he is telling you he is hungry or needs to be changed (which is when he normally cries anyway)."


Instead of Tylenol being the solution, let us return to appropriate TLC which will undoubtedly help ease the pain and make the ordeal so much easier for parents and baby.

What Will It Look Like Before and Afterwards?

I try to leave graphic images out of this blog, so I will do my best to explain here what the penis looks like before and after the bris.

BEFORE

Take a look at your baby! Now you know how it looks before the bris!

Just kidding.

The uncircumcised shaft of the penis looks like an inverted hourglass. It is thinner as it hits the scrotum, and thinner at the tip, but significantly fatter in the middle. The reason for this is because the glans, the part of the penis which is revealed after the circumcision, is hidden underneath the foreskin. Were you to slowly (and gently) pinch the tip of the penis, you'd see the "bump" in the middle of the shaft move it's way towards the scrotum. Let go of the tip of the penis, and the bump will slide back to its natural position. That bump is the outer edge of the glans - usually the 1/3 or midway point of a baby's penis.

THE FORESKIN

The foreskin (a.k.a. "prepuce") is an outer coating which covers the glans. It covers around half of the shaft. As only the foreskin is removed during circumcision, when the glans is revealed, one can easily see (contrary to popular culture's 'complaint') that the penis is not "smaller" - it just looks different.

[While I won't put the photo in the actual blog - I believe you can get the idea of what this all means when you look at this photo of a circumcised banana.]

AFTER

Before you read this section, understand that most circumcisions do not necessarily turn out exactly the same. All babies are different, and may have different "surprises" under their foreskins, which are not usually detected until after the circumcision itself.

For example, every baby has a differently shaped glans. Thus the first thing you see will look different from child to child.

Secondly, some babies have a minimal mucosal membrane underneath the foreskin, which might completely come off as well during the circumcision. Others have much more membrane with a significant amount left over after the bris, even if it is no longer coating the glans. Still others have significant tissue webbing, which would be undetected until the foreskin is removed. Depending on the extent of the webbing, it may need to be removed separately after the circumcision.

THREE SECTIONS

After the circumcision, one can usually identify three distinct sections on the circumcised penis.

SECTION #1: THE GLANS is the first things you see. It is the tip of the penis, and it almost looks like an army helmet - were the shaft to be standing upright.

A kosher bris consists of the farther rim of the glans being completely revealed, visible, and distinct, with no skin tags attached to it, and nothing hampering its distinct view.

It is usually a very deep, dark, raw RED COLOR (though it is sometimes PURPLE).

SECTION #2: THE MEMBRANE may or may not be completely removed in the bris process. If some of it remains, it may be slightly swollen, and may seem a little puffy below the glans.

Like the glans, it is typically a dark RED COLOR, though it does not usually have the same deep color of the glans. It will also look raw.

If the Membrane is completely removed, the area below the glans will look empty, but there will usually be a gap of a couple of millimeters between the glans and...

SECTION #3: The SPOT OF THE INCISION. This is the spot on the skin itself where the foreskin ended - or at least where the mohel estimated the foreskin ended. Ideally, the incision mark will be fairly close to the glans - but depending on the size of the baby's shaft, the mohel may have found the need to remove more or less skin in order to avoid future problems which may come from the glans falling back into the shaft and/or scrotum.

Dr. Neil Pollock - a very busy circumciser in Vancouver, has detailed information about this on his website. Feel free to read through the information he has - it can be found here [Start with the "Parents Guide to Circumcision" and move on from there!]

WHAT YOU WILL SEE

Aside from the dark red colors and the swelling, the scab tissue which sometimes develops in the area will typically be of a yellowish/ greenish hue. This is normal.

It is not advisable to pick at this, or to rub it as it will only cause the penis to bleed. A warm bath is good and promotes healing. Otherwise, like any scab, it is best to put bacitracin on it for a few days and then stop using ointments when the danger of infection is gone and it just needs to continue healing on its own.