My 5 year old needs to be circumcised! Advice needed

[Mrst63]

My LB has been suffering with painful erections for well over 12 months, we've always thought his foreskin didn't look quite right since he was born, but after discussing with doctors when he was approx 1 years old, the docs told us to wait until he was at least 5 to do anything about it.
After having a very bad water infection approx 6 months ago, we have been assigned to a consultant who saw us last week and said "he will have to be circumcised and soon!"
I have obviously been worrying and reading about circumcising an older boy and have got myself worked up.
Has anyone had experience of circumcising an older boy? How was the recovery? How sensitive was the penis after recovery? Were you offered any alternative treatments?
Any advice will be much appreciated!

Have they never suggested creams and stretching exercises? Is the foreskin tight?

Dh was 7 as was his father and Uncle.
Dh said he woke up was sore for a few days, then just fine

@dementedpixie no they haven't.. which since reading up about the op I have wondered why this hasn't been offered first. It is very tight.. doesn't move over the glans at all 😓

@FedUpAtHomeTroels thank you for that. Any first hand experience is greatly appreciated 🙂

son of friend had it done at 8 after a couple of years of infections, etc, similar to your DS's. Was fine after a couple of days, and she wished they'd done it earlier.

DH had it done a bit older, around 9 I think, says it was painful & had a few days on the sofa, but fine quite quickly.

An Ex had it done at 12 (obviously long before I met him!!) after an infection. He woke up in bed the second day covered in blood, completely freaked out. The stitches had burst. I don't remember all the details, but he said it was sore for a few days, but no lasting issues. (The head was still very sensitive in his 20's, but may have been regardless)

Obviously it's much better to get it done at 5, than 12!!! He was at a dreadful age for it.

Prepare your DS for lots of Drs & nurses needing to have a look if you think he'll be bothered. Though all the 5year olds I've known have been completely unbothered! 🙄🙄

Hope it goes well 🍫

My DS had a steroid cream which we used for a few months. He wasn't circumcised but I do think his foreskin has got tighter again since we have stopped putting it on so it may be he will need it done on the future.

Thank you everyone for your replies!
They're very helpful.
I have called our gp surgery to ask about a cream to try, but can't speak to a
Doctor until Wednesday.

@JerryBoor no I live in the UK. His foreskin has never been able to retract and it has never been forced.
We've always had suspicions since he was a few months old that something wasn't quite right with the foreskin so I read lots of info around that time and many articles stated not to retract the foreskin until boys were older, so we never tried. Whenever he gets an erection it's always been obvious there is little to no retraction.
I have recently learnt that male family members on both sides have had to be circumcised due to medical reasons so I fear this could be an inherited issue 😓

Dh and DS1 both had to be circumcised for medical reasons. DH was 21 (long before we met) and DS was 7, I think. Ds was fine, very tender afterwards and wore very loose clothing, long tee shirts as a type of night shirt. It will honestly be fine.

Also DH told me that his mum had spent his childhood using creams with him, and he had to do stretching exercises regularly and none of that worked.

DS was very similar and was fine. They tried a lesser procedure first which involved loosening and stretching, it didn't work and so then he was fully circumcised.

Tips would be to keep on top of the pain relief for the first couple of days, waking him up at night if necessary. He had a lot of pain in the mornings, plus of course needing to pee first thing, led to a couple of difficult days. It would have been better to just wake him at night to get some painkillers down him.

My brother had it done when he was about 13. A wee bit sore but A couple of days on the sofa and he was fine.

DS was done at 3 years old, his foreskin was actually attached to the glands and no amount of tugging would have retracted it. He was ok, was v painful for about 5 days but surgeon said if was just tight it wouldn't have been so painful afterwards.

DH was done as an emergency at 19 and had a horrible time with infection and split stitches. Has PTSD from it to this day.

I've had 2 other partners who were circumcised, one v young due to religious reasons and he didn't remember and didn't have a problem with it and one who had it done at 11. He still remembers it and said he felt quite traumatised by it and felt like something was missing so I think it's better to get it done earlier if that's what the surgeon is recommending.

My son was 17 when he was circumcised. He was about to start uni so refused a general anaesthetic and had it done under a local so it would be carried out quickly. Obviously done for medical reasons but also obviously he didn't want to go into detail about it!