6 yr old ds may have to be circumcised - any experience please?

[Tippytoes]

Purely for hygene reasons, he keeps getting infections and the skin does not go back at all. Obviously I am very worried about it and just wanted some reassureance.

Thanks

Sorry .. no experience here but will watch with interest as I suspect may have to do same for my 5yr old. Skin doesn't go back enough ... persevering with encouraging it at the moment but I think a trip to the Docs is iminent!

DS isn't one for fiddling either which is probably what the problem is ... most boys (read males ) seem to manage fine!

We haven't got him to go quite that far at the moment but dh tells him to have a go at pushing it back every bathtime. If you've had the same problem we'll carry on with that at the moment as dh thinks it's getting slightly better every time.

Hope you get some reassurance Tippytoes!

My DS had it done last year and he was 9 at the time!! He had it done for similar reasons, we kept putting it off hoping it would improve but it was getting worse, the surgeon actually said that DS had the foreskin of a 2 yr old!! So glad now that he had it done, 'it' recovered nicely and he hasn't had any problems since..

Best to be careful about pulling it back, as if the foreskin is very tight you could tear it, cause scar tissue and make the problem worse, or worse even than that, you could succeed in pulling it back over the head of the penis and have it get stuck there, cutting off the blood supply to the penis... which would necessitate a trip to casualty. So, only very gentle pulling!!

Has the doctor tried steroid cream on it? This can help thin and stretch the foreskin sufficiently to stretch it back gradually over the head of the penis without tearing. However, if your son has had multiple infections, it's possible that scar tissue has adhered it to his penis so that it will never pull back fully as it is supposed to (which means he'll definitely need a circumcision).

If as a last resort he does need a circumcision, it is in the big scheme of things a fairly minor operation and FAR better done at age 6 than as an adult (when nighttime erections make it an exceptionally painful experience...). It will be bruised and uncomfortable after the operation for a while, but should heal relatively quickly, provided it doesn't get infected. My brothers both had theirs done at about age 6. Husband at age 29...