parents of boys - please advise!

[SoTiredOfTheWheelsOnTheBus]

My 6 month old ds is being a proper little boy. For the last month or so, as soon as his nappy is undone, his hand shoots straight underneath and grabs hold of his willy. He really digs his nails in and pulls and it looks horrendous (dh visibly winces whenever he sees it happening). I'm not really sure what to do about it as I don't want him to hurt himself, but if I tell him no and take his hand away, is he going to grow up and need therapy because 'mummy told him it was wrong'?
Should I just ignore it, on the basis that if ds does it and it hurts him, he won't do it again?
I wasn't really sure which thread to post this in, but it is vaguely nappy related.

Ahh, the start of a life long relationship

My DS does this (and yes, my DH also winces)I just let him, after all, if it hurt so much, he wouldn't do it.

agree with mozzybear - it starts now and only gts worse. I lose count of the number of times I say "leave it alone" to my DSs - especially at bath time

It's strange, isn't it - you'd think it would hurt, but it doesn't seem to hurt DS when he pulls his. I think distract while he's tiny, then once he's old enough to understand (probably about 3?), make it clear that it's not something that should be done in public.

It's very basic behaviour, it's totally normal, I used to work with patients in comas after head injuries and when they went for their willies (the men obviously ) you knew that they were getting better! My ds did this for a while, we ignored it, it stopped!

My ds pulled his practically up to his nose the other day and just giggled.
Dh is still in cold faint on floor

Thanks for the reassurance. I guess it was wishful thinking that this boyish behaviour didn't start until puberty!

My 8mo DS does this - makes changing dirty nappies a race for me to clean his willy before he grabs it!. I think it's normal and I also think I read somewhere that they need to do it for the foreskin to unstick, which happens over the first two or three years. But I may have got hold of the wrong end of the stick there (so to speak!)