Post bris question - mohel not answering phone

amother

Tiffanyblue

Fri, Aug 18 2023, 8:12 am

amother OP wrote:

So mine is the only mohel who says the bandage should come off the same day?! (Yes, the underneath one that's wrapped more tightly around the shaft)

He called me back and said to just take it off, a little bleeding is ok, and then send him a pic if I'm still nervous.

I think I'll call the pediatrician. I hope the one I like is in today, it's a group practice and they're not all equal.

I don't know if your mohel is the only one but I've never had a mohel tell me to do that. And they all took off that bandage. That's the mohel's job.

amother

Dahlia

Fri, Aug 18 2023, 9:35 am

Reading this thread is making me so grateful for the mohel we used.
My baby is 2.5 weeks old.
The mohel used some kind of powder that stopped the bleeding. This isn't my first but and I never had such a stress free post bris.
No bandaids or string around the bris like by my other boys.
Instructions were just to cover bris area with fresh gauze with Vaseline on it for the first 24 hours. After that zilch. Nothing.
For all those saying no baths, our mohel said the opposite. Maybe it's the method he used. He said frequent baths will speed up the healing process.
So we did. And his cord fell off the same time as all my other kids that we didn't bathe till the cord fell off.
I'm writing all this just so posters can be aware that not all Mohelim are created equal.
There's definitely better and easier methods these days.
Like I said this isn't my first boy and I never had a bris heal so quickly with no blood.

(Edited to add, our Mohel is in Brooklyn but we had him travel to us in NJ. He didn't need to come back even once. I whatsapped him pictures daily and all was ok.)

amother

Feverfew

Fri, Aug 18 2023, 9:37 am

amother Dahlia wrote:

Would you mind sharing where you're located or the model you used?

amother

Dahlia

Fri, Aug 18 2023, 9:40 am

amother Feverfew wrote:

Would you mind sharing where you're located or the model you used?

Sure.
We used R' Moshe Yosef Unsdorfer from Boro Park. He is the Rav of Zlozitz shul.
If it's relevant to you I'll post his number.

amother

Nemesia

Fri, Aug 18 2023, 10:02 am

Op, no advice on the actual issue. I just want to advise you NOT to send photos of your baby's pen>s in a message. I don't know if you have a Google acct, but it is against their rules to distribute child pornn and even sending a photo to the dr can get your entire Google shut down and you will probably never be able to access it again.
This has happened to people in the past.
Google follows your every move, so even if you don't send it in a Gmail email and do it by text, they can ban you.

Hatzlacha with finding proper care for your little one.

amother

Fri, Aug 18 2023, 10:15 am

Uh wow I just sent a whole bunch of pics by Gmail lol. I doubt any AI could tell what it is though.

Mohel said davka want the bandage off earlier because the longer it stays the more stuck it could get.

He did use powder but in addition to bandaging, not instead.

He didn't receive the pics yet (kosher phone, needs to get to a computer) but based on what I described he said everything sounds great except for not getting the bandage the rest of the way off.

But I still made a pediatrician appointment anyway. In addition to the bris I want to check on the cord that's still gooey 2 days after the dry part fell off, and his weight which was still going down last time we checked.

I can't deal with this anymore Sad

amother

Buttercup

Fri, Aug 18 2023, 11:02 am

amother Nemesia wrote:

After my first boy the mohel was showing me pictures on his phone to show whats ok and whats not. I was grossed out and felt it not right. I didnt use him the next time.
I know someone who does brisim on older men and his phone has a lot of such pictures.

amother

Nemesia

Fri, Aug 18 2023, 12:42 pm

amother OP wrote:

Actually it was AI that flagged in and couldn't differentiate between the fact that there was a medical reason and not [filth]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/a.....ocked

Too late. No helpful. I know.

amother

Fri, Aug 18 2023, 12:55 pm

That must be some pretty clever AI because at least for my pictures it's not that easy to tell what it is. Very close up and obscured by things like bandage, blood, and something that looks like pus but is apparently a normal part of the healing process.

I took the baby to the pediatrician who removed the rest of the bandage. It did cause bleeding and the baby was very unhappy, but at least I didn't have to be the one doing it and he calmed down as soon as it was done. Praying so hard that things just work now. I hope the gauze doesn't get stuck like the bandage did, with new blood to make it sticky even though there's bacitracin on it.

I just hope this is the beginning of the end. I can cope if it is but if it continues to be an ongoing saga I'm not going to deal well.

amother

Dahlia

Fri, Aug 18 2023, 1:31 pm

amother OP wrote:

Make sure that whatever ointment you're putting on the gauze apply very generously. Then it won't stick.

amother

Coral

Sat, Aug 19 2023, 7:13 am

OP I hope things are settling down for you. Postpartum is so stressful.

I just wanted to point out that there are different types of bandages and different mohalim have different protocols they recommend to help healing. So the op’s mohel wasn’t negligent for doing something different to what others experienced.

Last year we used the same mohel we had used 10 and 15 years earlier, even his advice was a bit different to what he had told us in the past. (From what I remember with foggy pp brain)
He was using a new type of bandage that he told us would fall off within 24 hours, and then after that to just use the gauze squares with plenty of Vaseline for a few days.

amother

Mon, Sep 11 2023, 1:51 pm

Update:
When I went to the pediatrician for the weight check, he removed the bandage the rest of the way. Said the mohel was totally legit including that the most important time to check up is 2-3 days later rather than the next day (though if your mohel is local I still think it's a great idea to look it over just in case. I'm a worrier like that.) Anyway it did bleed when he took off the bandage but at least I didn't need to be the one causing it. And it was really just a tiny bit of blood that stopped pretty much right away, though I still wish it didn't have to bleed (I did try applying oil and water before. They didn't help.)

As for the weight checkup, he was still losing. We started a regimen of waking him up at regular intervals and shoving bottles down his throat until he got back on track. We're still supplementing a month later but a lot less, he's getting the hang of eating and growing bh.