The Good Mommy’s Guide to Her Little Boy’s Penis

Author: Adrienne Carmack, MD.

The Good Mommy’s Guide to Her Little Boy’s Penis. By Adrienne Carmack, MD. Adrienne Carmack. $9.99. April 2015. 16 pages. Review by J. Steven Svoboda.

Adrienne Carmack is a urologist and a colleague who has collaborated with ARC and published academic papers supporting genital autonomy. Her self-published book, titled The Good Mommy’s Guide to Her Little Boy’s Penis, is a short sixteen pages in length. It includes nine very appealing drawings showing a happy intact male baby and–in several of the drawings–different, helpfully labeled parts of his anatomy.

Carmack provides a patient, very user-friendly description of normal male genital autonomy, explaining why no mother needs to do anything to change the wonderful system with which our boys first enter the world. One chapter answers the question that concerns many mothers (and fathers): how should the boy’s penis be washed?

Carmack ends by suggesting further reading and with a few useful conclusions: The foreskin is a highly sensitive part of the penis; cleanse the delicate foreskin gently and do not wash it with soap; the foreskin will separate naturally and painlessly as the boy ages; allow time out of diapers when feasible, and use positive language when changing diapers.

As a father of two children, I did wish that the author had made an allusion or two referring to the child’s father. Adrienne’s book is so charming and so clearly devoted to doing the right thing that I wholeheartedly recommend it to any interested reader.