Eek! One should never, ever, Ever retract the foreskin of a baby boy’s penis to clean it. Really bad advice. The normal intact penis should only be cleaned like you would a finger, no special procedure necessary. In fact, much damage can be done with forced retraction. Please everyone, do your homework on this! http://www.drmomma.org/2009/11/raising-intact-sons.html

Well I’ll be! Having parented two uncircumcised baby boys, I always thought that I should periodically (not every day) veeeeeery gently retract the foreskin and give it a little wash. I guess I was wrong (and I never needed to panic about this issue in the first place!)

Thanks Lia – Katie

Nedira – I can’t say enough good things about the way LOTS of other mombloggers (and especially Dooce, who has been amazing) have stepped up to help me since Henry entered the hospital last April. I have been so grateful and felt so supported by the entire momblogging community. But that’s always been the case, even before something terrible happened to me. Those of us who blog enjoy celebrating each other’s successes, too, and that’s what I am doing with this post. I am really happy for Alice and Eden. Their new book is terrific :-)

-Katie

I’m so with you on the nails. I distinctly remember my sister-in-law seeing the twins for the first time and telling me to clip their nails. I told her, “No way am I coming at my kids with even a tiny blade. You are welcome to do it if you’d like.” I always filed them.

My biggest fear still exists. Dear God, how do I feed them well? Nutritious? Delicious? Easy? Something they will love?

Um, having one. And if it’s going to be a boy, breaking the news to my father that I may not want to circumcise. Yikes!

Leslie – I’ve bitten my babies’ nails too. I was just too embarrassed to admit it until you did! – Katie

When my oldest was a tiny baby, we slipped when cutting his nails and it took FOREVER to get his finger to stop bleeding! You have to be sooo careful with that.

I guess what I panicked about with my last baby was sleep. She was a preemie and on an apnea monitor, and had bronchiolitis at 6 weeks old, which meant she had lots of apnea spells (=baby not breathing and turning blue quickly). After she got better from that we kept her on the monitor for quite a while longer, and she didn’t get sick again for a long time. But it was scary.

Katie-

“Let’s Panic About Babies” had a nice little mention in Redbook this month. Not a big write-up or anything, but a nice couple of paragraphs.

-C.

I’m not very good at nail trimming; my children always nibble away the annoyingly long nails because I have failed to notice. I now need to break them of the habit.

As for the foreskin, my husband and I had an argument about it a few months ago — he was of the “retract every once in a while and splash some water on it” school, and I (as the fingernails might indicate) am of the “leave it alone” school. I showed him internet source after internet source to no avail (I must have shown him the American Academy of Pediatrics site…), his position being — “I have one, you don’t; I’m not going to start telling our daughter about menstruation when the time comes”.

Now it seems to be a moot point as the owner of said foreskin does what he damn well pleases with it.

What made me panic was having a child with just those sorts of laser beams — I swear my daughter had ‘em (has ‘em still, actually). I kid you not. At the ripe old age of 1 day, I put a pair of socks on her feet — socks that mothers up and down the internet swore no baby could every wiggle out of our remove of their own volition. She obviously didn’t like them when I put them on, but I thought she’d get used to them. Then, I watched one of the said foot coverings fly in a graceful arc across the room, to fall behind the radiator under the window. The second sock followed in short order. Mystified, I got someone to bend and retrieve the socks, and stuck them on her feet yet again. Within 5 minutes, they were sailing across the room yet again. I spent an hour “experimenting”; it was no fluke. The girl is even scarier now at age 7… I have never met a more strong willed person in my life!!! (I shudder to think what the teenage years will bring…)

I don’t know – this book just sounds hopelessly juvenile. But maybe there’s an audience for it out there.

Before having one, I was scared of babies totally! To hold them before they can sit up on their own?? No way. Nappy changing? God no, and not because of what is in the nappy, but just simply terrified of handling a wriggling baby. What for anyway, their mommy should hold and mind them. I freaked out. But I also knew, I won’t be scared of my own, and I wasn’t. And guess what, now that he is nearly 3, I am scared again of holding new born babies. I can handle it, sure, I do it if I need to, but I have zero desire to hold a small tiny baby, I’m just scared I would hurt it, drop it, etc.
My biggest fear with my own was that he won’t be healthy. Especially after he was born, I used to have nightmares where my sweetly sleeping baby’s face turned into some orc-monster face while I was watching him sleep. And still up until today big fear: I go into his room in the morning and he died in his sleep. This one is not even a nightmare, I just can’t get it out of my head even when I’m awake, and if he sleeps longer than usual, I would creep up to his door every 5 mins and listen for his breathing.

I too am a nail nibbler! Much less scary than scissors or clippers and very effective. I usually wait until my little guy is having a bottle and is thus properly distracted, then a few quick nibbles and we’re done! No nicks or bleeding and no nails for scratching himself or anyone else.

My panic…I was on an almost constant vigil for the three months after we brought our son home from the NICU. He’d had a difficult birth and spent 3 weeks on various breathing apparatus, medications and monitors. I used to spend most nights watching him sleep and checking (every 10 to 15 mins) to see that he was breathing properly. Thankfully that has mostly passed…though when he gets a cold I still check on him a lot.