2 yo with swollen willy

[BooBooGlass]

Help! Ds is 2 and I've just changed him ready for bed and he wouldn't let me wipe after takign off his nappy. His willy looks purplish red and swollen :( and it clearly hurts. He won't let me look so I have no clue what to do about it. He seems to have been fine today, a bit whingey maybe but that's nothing unusual. He had taken his nappy off when I went in to get him this morning (he likes to do this as he thinks it's helping :)) so I'm wondering if he hurt it then? Maybe he scratched it? I don't know. I don't drive and am on my own so A & E seems a bit of an overreaction. Is it a job for the walk in centre in the morning? Anything I can do to soothe it in the meantime?

Sounds like he has a bit of an infection. My DS use to get them all the time when he was a toddler. If I were you I'd give him some calpol and take him to the walk in centre in the morning, although if he becomes very distressed then I'd consider A&E

Is it the very end of his penis?

DS gets minor inflamation on the end of his penis (he is now 4) every so often. I spray the end with "wound wash" which is a very mild antiseptic and that always clears it up.

Is your DS dry during the day? If not try and give him as much time without a nappy as you can.

If he is very distressed then get him seen.

agree with memoo, my ds also gets this as he has extra foreskin.
may gone down by morning but would still take him to walk in as can come and go quickly.

hope ds gets better quickly

Is he able to wee ok? If not I'd see a doc asap.

His nappy was wet so I assume he can wee OK. He does have extra foreskin, but it's not the end that's swollen, he had ballinitis about a year ago and that was cleared up with antibiotics. This time the whole willy is swollen. I'll check on him later (he's gone to sleep no trouble) and take him to the walk in tomorrow

awwah bless him. hope it clears quickly. x

BooBoo- he has ballinitis again. DS2 used to get it and had those symptoms repeatedly. Am afraid that it sounds like he may have a recurring problem. DS2 had a circumcision in the end.

You need to get him to a doctor pronto in the morning for antibiotics.

Bum. Will take him first thing. He's been sleeping soundly since I put him to bed which I was takign as a good sign, but I suppose it's only been about three hours.
If it;s anything like the trouble I had getting my Dr to agree to take my tonsils out, he will need to have this many times before they agree to do anyhting like circumcision though :(

this is balanitis.

get antibiotics for it.

then make absolutely sure that every night in the bath you pull his foreskin back VERY GENTLY (you are NOT trying to get it to move further than it already does, merely get the water to where it already goes back to) and swish it around in the water. This will stop it recurring. if you don't do this, it will come back again and again and you may end up with a circumcision.

ds had this, and this was the BEST advice I got...really easy and stops it from happening.

I must repeat though, you need to do it very gently, and you're not trying to move the foreskin back, just get the water to clean the end of the penis that isn't exposed.

O god, I've realised wher ehe's probably picked it up in that case. He managed to pour a whole bottle of Matey into the bath last night whereas he usually has it just water as he has very dry skin. I bet that's irritated it.

that might do it

do the swishy thing...ds was getting a swollen tip of penis for ages, then it became full blown balanitis and i know if i hadn't started doing this it would have come back but once i started it never did.

he'll be fine the antibiotics work very quickly...

I find adding salt to the bath helps as it's anti-bacterial

sea salt in bath water is fabulous...fantastic for eczema too...but get wholesale sack from proper healthfood shop otherwise you pay a fortune

I have just had the very same thing with my DS who is also 2yrs. He has had the runs and on saturday morning he was walking very strangely and crying every so often. I though it was tummy trouble but when I changed his nappy in the evening I noticed his whole penis was a bit swollen and the end very red. he was also reluctant to let me near it so I phoned the out of hours and they told me to bring him in.

The doctor who examined him said that he had an infection probably caused by a bug from his diarheoa getting in his penis. She tried to squeeze some pus out and then she gave us some antibiotics to take home for him.

She also mentioned that his foreskin was a little tight and it might cause problems for him in the future but circumcision being the last straw and to see how it goes. She also asked if his penis 'ballooned' when he urinated but I said not, which could be indicative of a narrow opening in the foreskin.

Don't try to retract the foreskin yourself, you could be doing more damage, but do get him to a doctor as he could need antibiotics to clear up the infection.

My son had it on saturday and it's pretty much cleared up now even though it's been a nightmare getting the medicine into him. I took him back to the GP today to switch to a cream as it's going to be better for him.

He has had to take paracetamol also as he's been in some much discomfort with it and he still has the runs and is getting gripes but as for the willy infection, it's a lot better and it doesn't mean that you DS will need circumcision. It might just be one of those things. See how it goes.

We managed to avoid a circumcision for our ds, despite about eight really nasty infections with a hugely swollen willy oozing pus from behind the foreskin - instead, he had a little operation to retract the foreskin fully so that we could safely pull it back in future in order to keep it clean and stop the constant infections. Worked a treat! Still needed a general anaesthetic, though, as, obviously, sticking a blunt scalpel up behind an adhered foreskin and then scraping it about is absolute agony, otherwise!!!! Far less traumatic than a circumcision, though, as nothing actually gets chopped off...

no one (esp me) suggesting retracting the foreskin. however there is some give in it and it is important to let water get under there...pull back gently without retracting it. this really works and avoids all future need for antibiotics.

Well we finally saw a nurse today (we walked to the walk in centre yesterday to find it shut due to staff shortages). His willy is all better, no medicine needed. In all likelihood, it was ballinitis, and we have been advised to retract gently and wash in the bath. It seems an odd thing, but I do wish there was a more consistent line of advice on this. When ds was still seeing health visitors as a baby I was told to leave everyhtng in that area well alone. Not beign in posession of a penis myself and with no partner on the scene, tbh I haven't the foggiest what is best when it comes to keeping a willy clean . I am reassured that it seems to have cleared up by itself though :)

i am SO GLAD to hear that he is better and that they are starting to give the right advice...he'll never have a problem with it again if you do this.

ds now does his own aged 6

Sorry, sophable, whilst I agree with you that gently retracting the foreskin as far as it will naturally go and bathing with salty warm water will help hugely and in most children work all the time, it doesn't always prevent the problem, as that is what we always did - and it did help us avoid the need for antibiotics 7 out of the 8 times he had quite severe balanitis, too (the 7th time he got balanitis, his foreskin and penis were so swollen it was too painful for him when I tried to ease the foreskin back sufficiently to drain the pus). However, if your ds is developing little tiny pockets in his otherwise unretracted foreskin (possibly unretracted partly as a result of adhesions following previous infections) where infection can develop but where it is very difficult to get access, plus he has extremely sensitive skin and at that age frequently has damp pants (as a result of one or two drips prior to or subsequent to peeing in the toilet), which probably irritate his skin still further, then unless you are gently retracting your ds's foreskin four or five times a day and bathing it in soothing salty water (a bit tricky when they are at school...), it will not always ensure the problem goes away altogether...

I have to admit I am very dubious about the wisdom of attempting to retract the foreskin of very young children. If it is 'tight' with a very small opening it will not retract anyway and will just hurt him. If the skin is fused to the underlying glans (as it naturally is in babies) it will also hurt.

The key question to ask is whether the foreskin balloons on urination because the opening is too small. If it does, then urine will get trapped and ballinitis is almost inevitably going to happen over and over. The trapped urine contains sugar that feeds bacteria.

Circumcision is not always necessary. A semi circular slit called preputioplasty can be attempted in less severe cases. I would have it done before he starts going to school rather than later though if ballinitis keeps recurring.

DS2 had it done age 6 and it was quite diruptive for a few weeks of schooling. Boys who have it done as teenagers or as men it is a far worse operation to get over. Delaying the operation too long can cause sexual disfunction if the glans becomes scarred through repeated infections.

Ballooning on urination is not necessarily a sign of a too-tight foreskin - it can happen in children with a completely normal, healthy foreskin, too.

I don't know how many times i have to repeat myself but i'll do so one last time: it's not about retracting the foreskin any further than it will already go. Simply about letting water get to the place that bacteria are collecting because there is already a gap.

clearly there will be exceptions, there always are, but for the most part this will prevent balantis developing.

I agree, the message about never touching your ds's foreskin when they are little has just gone far too far. Self evidently, since so many little boys develop infections underneath their foreskins, they are not entirely self-cleaning (and if they were, then why on earth is it suddenly necessary to clean underneath your foreskin when you are an adult???????). Of course, once your ds's foreskin has started pulling away from the glans, it is going to be a good idea to ensure that the unadhered part is kept clean underneath where it would otherwise be damp, dark and warm, the perfect breeding ground for bacteria. Just so long as you don't irritate it further by washing with harsh soaps, or try to pull it all the way back when it isn't ready to do that. And newborns have totally adhered foreskins, so at that age they should be left well alone. Balanitis is a warning your ds's foreskin is no longer likely to be totally adhered, so at that point, gentle cleaning with warm, salty water is not going to do harm if you are not forcing the foreskin back painfully to do it.