A stressful, painful event such as circumcision affects feeding patterns. Infants feed less frequently and are less available for interaction after circumcision. Observed deterioration of breastfeeding after circumcision may potentially contribute to breast-feeding failure and changes in mother-infant interaction.

—Howard CR, Howard FM, Weitzman ML. Acetominophen Analgesia in Neonatal Circumcision: The Effect on Pain. Pediatrics, 1994; 93:641-646. [Full text]

—Dixon S. Snyder J. Holve R. Bromberger P. Behavioral effects of circumcision with and without anesthesia. J Dev Behav Peds 1984; 5: 246-250. [Full Text]

—Marshall RE, Porter FL, Rogers AG, et al. Circumcision: II effects upon mother-infant interaction. Early Hum Dev 1982; 7:367-374 [Full text]

Extracts from: Howard, CR, Howard FM, Weitzman ML. Acetaminophen Analgesia in Neonatal Circumcision: The Effect on Pain. Pediatrics, 1994; 93:641-646:

“The observed deterioration in ability to breast-feed may potentially contribute to breast-feeding failure. Furthermore, some neonates in this study required formula supplementation because of maternal frustration with attempts at breast-feeding, or because the neonate was judged unable to feed post-operatively. This finding is disconcerting because early formula supplementation is associated with decreased breast-feeding duration [30,31].”

“Infants feed less frequently and are less available for interaction after circumcision. Subdued, less interactive behavior is in fact a common reaction to stress in the neonate [6,11,30].”

“The observed deterioration in postoperative feeding behavior has been documented by other investigators [29].”

[6] Marshall, ER, Stratton WC, Moore JA, Boxerman SB. Circumcision I: effects upon newborn behavior. Infant Behav Dev. 1980;3:1-14.

[11] Dixon S, Snyder J, Holve R, Bromberger P. Behavioral aspects of circumcision with and without anesthesia. J Dev Behav Pediatr 1984;5:246-250.

[29] Marshall RE, Porter FL, Rogers AG, Moore J, Anderson B, Boxerman SB. Circumcision II: effects upon mother-infant interaction. Early Human Development 1982;7:367-374.

[30] Emde R, Harmon R, Metcalf D. et al. Stress and neonatal sleep. Psychosom Med 1971;33:491-497.

[31] Loughlin HH, Clapp-Channing NE, Gelbach SH, Pollard JC, McCutcheon TM. Early Termination of breast-feeding: identifying those at risk. Pediatrics 1988;81:365-371.

For more detailed information on infant development and response to circumcision, effects on mother-infant interaction, etc., see Circumcision: The Hidden Trauma – How an American Cultural Practice Affects Infants and Ultimately Us All, by psychologist Ronald Goldman, Ph.D., Vanguard Publications, Boston, 1997.