Foreskin

[gravepenguin]

When / should you show / help your son to clean under his foreskin? Someone has sugested i should already be doing this with my twin 3 year old boys. They don't seem to have any problems in this area but a friends son has an infection and shes been told its because he wasnt being cleaned inside! Sorry if this is a repeating question. Please help!

Well, yes, of course you should BUT I'm not sure at what age the foreskin detaches completely from the glans, which I believe is when you can safely pull it back.

I have been told to leave it well alone because too much cleaning/pulling back when its not ready can cause the infections in the first place.

My ds is 4 and I have never pulled it back and cleaned inside. He messes with it and it gets washed but tbh I'm not even sure if it does retract yet. He is clean and there has been no problems so I will stick with what we are doing.

I don't have any advice but will be interested to hear what others say. My DS is eight and shows no inclination to pull his foreskin back (plenty of other willy fiddling goes on though ). He knows that his dad pulls his own foreskin back to wash under it but doesn't want to do the same. It all looks fine and is clearly not infected, sore or itchy - should I get his dad to encourage him to wash under it? Or will it just all happen in its own good time?

Have wondered this too

The infection may be balanitis caused usually by the opening at the end of the foreskin being so small that urine gets trapped and then bacteria grow.

It is not usually about lack of washing. Get it checked by a GP as it can have serious implications if left until adult life. The solution is sometimes a cicumcision but there are less dramatic solutions for less severe cases. Young boys usually/often cannot retract their foreskin until they are older.

Bottom line is get it checked by a GP and ask if it might be balanitis due to urine being trapped under the foreskin.

Don't retract! They will retract it themselves as they tug and pull as they're growing up. Balanitis is actually more likely to be caused by strong soaps being used in the area than anything else (same reason women are told not to use soaps around their vaginas, it undoes the normal pH).

Great page here if you have any doubts.

Thanks for that link, SirBoobALot. Particularly like "Our primate ancestors did not waste valuable food foraging time cleaning their children's genitalia down at some river."

Thank you all very much for the info.