Balanitis - any experience of this?

[Indecisivelurcher]

My ds 4yo has balanitis that it's proving really hard to get rid of. He first had it in Jan, treated with caneston. He's got it again now, caneston hasn't seemed to cut it and now also using a hydrocortisone on doctors advice. I'm starting to get worried this will never go! Especially as I've read that it can lead to circumcision as a way of getting rid. Anyone got any experience of this?!

My DS had it at a bit older - I think he had canesten and doc also encouraged him to retract his foreskin to wash as much as was comfortable. From memory it happened a couple of times and then all was fine - haven't thought about it in years and he's in sixth form now.

Cheers @gnushoes

Bumping for any more, poor boy was awake every half hour from 2am thinking he needed to wee...

My son had it a few times. He had a circumcision aged 6 and it was the best thing we could have done, the recovery uncomfortable for him but he never had balanitis again so was worth it in the long run.

Ah crap. That's what I'm worried about @Unicornhorns

Although good to hear it was a good move for your son!

My son was given antibiotics and a cream for his

DS had it at 4yrs, circumcised within 7 days, as soon as infection had cleared, no problems since. His foreskin was welded to his glands, there would never have been any other route than having him circumcised.

I have a friend who battled on as she didn't want her DS circumcised so poor boy went through 2 years of on off infections before she gave in and had him circumcised.

@Twinkie01 could you tell that was the case?

I'll think I'll make a doctors appointment to actually take him in. This is week 5 of applying caneston at least twice a day, multiple night wakings, poor boy starts school this week...

We had a pretty good idea as his father had to be circumcised, although that was 35 years ago and as his parents were quite Victorian so never addressed the continuous issues he had with it.

DS doesn't remember anything about it, although as he had open wounds on his glands it was a lot more painful than the normal op.

Your poor DS. My son had it twice when he was a toddler (once it was actually diagnosed by helpful Mners as we were on holiday somewhere remote), but it's never come back -- I still remember the amount of pain he was in, because he was newly toilet trained and refused to wee in the bath. Circumcision was mentioned in his case if it recurred, but proved not to be necessary.
Hope it clears up.

@Twinkie01 my DS was in a similar situation, his foreskin was welded on due to scar tissue from balanitis - it was a brutal operation to remove it but there was no other option. We were offered steroid cream to try to loosen the foreskin but decided to go straight for the operation, once they operated they said the cream wouldn’t have worked.

All this is filling me with dread a bit.