my son was a general ana. he was just under 6 months when he was done due to recurrent uti's. Here is what happened (this is posted in another forum so I have just copied and pasted it here). He had the plastibell...

Well, our day was pretty full on. Got up and made sure DS was fed by 7:30am. Tried to feed him some boiled water at 9:15am but he just screwed his face up at me and refused to drink it - don't blame him really.

Left for the hospital at 10:30am. Admission was for midday (we live a fair distance from the hospital). I didn't think DS would cope very well without a feed for so long but he did amazingly well. Was admitted at midday and told we were second in line as they do the youngest first and there was a baby who was younger then DS so that baby would be going first. So they told us we were looking at about 2 - 2:30pm for the procedure. We got a private room for the day in the women's unit and all the nurses were really lovely. Took all his vitals etc. and everything was fine. Healthy boy.

The anaethetist popped in at about 1pm to ask a couple of questions and give me the estimate for the bill. He was great - really friendly and easy to talk to.

We were then told that the pedeatric surgeon had had to book in another baby before us (12 week old for a hernia) and therefore we were knocked back to third in line so we didn't actually get in until 3pm. By this stage DS was starting to get a little bit cranky as he was tired and hungry but was still really good.

I walked down to the theatre carrying DS and got dressed up in the very fashionable theatre gown, cap and shoe covers and sat with DS on my lap while the nurses played games with him. The urologist came over and told me that it wouldn't be long and explained how to look after him once all of this was done.

Carried DS into the theatre with the anaethetist and a couple of the nurses and was able to stay with DS until they knocked him out with gas. They just put the gas over his mouth and he slowly drifted off over a couple of minutes. The anaethetist tried to keep my mind otherwise occupied with some stories about his kids etc. Once DS was out to it, I went back to our room and waited about 30 mins.

Got called back to the recovery room and took his bottle with me. He was crying when I got there but mainly because he was hungry and also a bit because of the after effects of the anaesthetic. They let me jump on the trolley bed and put him on my lap and I fed him there and then. He was still pretty groggy from the whole thing so drank a bit, dozed, drank a bit more. They monitored him for the next 20 minutes or so. While he was in theatre they had put a drip in his arm and one in his foot for fluids. They had taken the one out of his arm before I got there and left the one in his foot for fluids. But it wasn't bothering him at all.

The nurse showed me what they had done with the circumcision while I was in recovery with him and it is actually quite neat. I was expecting blood and gore but there wasn't any. Just a clear plastic ring tied off with some sort of string. That was it.

So we were then wheeled back to our room and told that we needed to wait another hour and a half before we could go just to make sure that he recovered from the anaesthetic alright. Which he did.

So my instructions are to put a cream (is actually eye ointment) on the ring 3 times a day until it runs out. Am also supposed to put some vaseline on a nappy liner everytime I change his nappy to make sure nothing sticks. If it does I have to soak him and the nappy liner to get it off. Am to keep putting the vaseline on for another month and have to go back to the doc in two weeks to make sure everything it ok. Was also told DS will be a bit cranky for the next 24 hours and to keep up the panadol if this is the case. Also, the ring will fall off anywhere between 7 - 10 days and as it starts to fall off it will get a bit red and swollen.

The next day DS was acting as if nothing happened at all. Was completely himself. Didn't need any further panadol.

After the op I gave DS salt baths twice (sometimes three times) a day. was paranoid about him getting an infection which can be one of the complications with circumcisions. Also kept putting the ointment on three times a day and new nappy liner with vaseline at every nappy change.

Sometimes when he did a big poo it would go all over the plastibell, so I always gave him a bath to make sure it all got washed off.

it is quite worrying to go through because you don't know what to expect or how well your child will cope with the procedure. in my case, DS coped really well. he never once cried from any sort of pain from the procedure in the following days. As the plastibell started to separate from the rest of it, it got quite red and swollen and where the plastibell was tied off, the dead skin goes white. It also starts to look a bit weepy/pus-like as it separates also. The plastibell also tended to slide out a bit when I gave DS a bath and about 12 hours after I noticed the separation starting it came off completly in the bath. DS bumped it and the last bit let go. Almost had a heart attack!

Checked him over (i got a bit of a shock when it came off) and all seemed to have healed alright although I did notice that the underside was quite red and raw looking - a bit bloody in fact. I started to stress about that and worried that he might have an infection. Worried all night about it, DS wasn't though. Ended up ringing the doc this morning to see if he could check it for me to make sure it had healed alright. Doc said it was fine and that rawness would go away after a few days. Doc also advised to keep pulling the foreskin back to make sure it doesn't re-adhere to the glans (which can happen) and to clean out all the smegma left underneath. Am to keep up the ointment until my second tube runs out and the nappy liners with vaseline and go back for another checkup in a month.

OK - that was my post. Phew! At the moment we are going back to the surgeon on Thursday for what I hope is his final checkup. Doc just wants to make sure it has healed properly - which i think it has.