Babies Health & Safety Properly Caring for Your Baby After a Circumcision By Stephanie Brown Stephanie Brown is a parenting writer with experience in the Head Start program and in NAEYC accredited child care centers. Learn about our editorial process Stephanie Brown Medically reviewed by Medically reviewed by Lyndsey Garbi, MD on November 25, 2019 linkedin Lyndsey Garbi, MD, is a pediatrician who is double board-certified in pediatrics and neonatology. Learn about our Review Board Lyndsey Garbi, MD Updated on March 05, 2021 Print Inti St Clair/Getty Images After your son's circumcision, there will be either a visible incision or a plastibell, which is a small plastic ring. Learn how to care for him when you bring him home. Plastibell Circumcision After a plastibell circumcision, a plastic rim is left on the penis while it heals for the first week. After the first day, you don't need to use the gauze dressing. You can apply a lubricant to the penis after washing and cleaning the area with warm water. Do this for three to seven days to help keep the penis from sticking to the diaper. Be sure not to pull on the plastibell as it can cause soreness and bleeding. Call your doctor if the plastibell hasn't fallen off from eight days to two weeks or if it has slipped down the shaft and seems to be constricting it. Don't use diaper wipes as they may sting. Only use water, and be gentle. For the first day, the penis is covered with a gauze dressing, which you should replace with each diaper change. You can expect your baby to urinate within 12 hours of the circumcision. Clean the site with warm water and a cotton ball once or twice a day. Only give sponge baths to your baby for the first week. The head of the penis (glans) is likely to be red at first and swollen, It will develop a yellow coating (scab). A dark ring around the plastic rim is normal until the plastibell falls off. The plastibell ring will fall off by itself in five to eight days. Schedule for Well-Baby Care Gomco or Sheldon Clamp Circumcision Three or four times a day, you will need to clean the area with warm water. Soap is not necessary. If you were given a peri-bottle at the hospital this is an excellent way to apply the water. Try to avoid getting the umbilical stump wet while cleaning. At each diaper change, you will want to apply a small amount of petroleum jelly. Make sure that the petroleum jelly is pure, without perfumes or other additives. If your doctor sent you home with an antibiotic ointment you will want to use this as directed. It takes about 10 days for the scab over an incision to fall off. After the scab or plastibell falls off, no further care is needed outside of normal good hygiene. Baby Care Basics When to Contact Your Doctor You will want to call your health care provider if you notice any of the following: Bleeding (other than just a drop or two) Consistent redness that appears suddenly and does not disappear after a few days Dark or black discoloration Difficulty urinating Fever Foul smelling discharge Skin adhering to the glans which causes penile adhesion and could require surgery Swelling Your baby hasn't urinated for 24 hours after the circumcision What to Know About Penile Adhesions Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Track your baby’s most exciting moments with our milestone checklist. Get it free when you sign up for our newsletter. Sign Up You're in! Thank you, {{form.email}}, for signing up. There was an error. Please try again. What are your concerns? Other Inaccurate Hard to Understand Submit Article Sources Verywell Family uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy. KidsHealth. Surgeries and Procedures: Circumcision.