Parents face so many difficult decisions when it comes to having a child: decisions about nursing, sleep patterns, discipline, teaching methods and, in the case of boys, whether or not to circumcise. In addition to being the most common surgery for males in the U.S., circumcision has been practiced in various cultures for centuries. Yet when it comes to the health and best interest of your newborn, is circumcision the way to go?
Clinical Professor of Pediatrics
The bacteria that cause kidney infections, mainly fecal bacteria called fimbriated E. coli, bind to the moist inner surface of the foreskin and ascend up the urinary tract to cause kidney infections. Although urinary tract infections (UTIs) have been found to be more common in uncircumcised males of all ages, they are most prevalent and dangerous in infant boys below the age of 1 year, when they are more likely to lead to kidney damage. Since the mid-1980s, when the link between infant UTIs and circumcision was first discovered, more than 12 separate research studies have found that uncircumcised males are on average 10 times (1000%) more likely to get severe, potentially dangerous UTIs within the first of life as are circumcised infants.
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