Doctor suggested steroid cream for six-year-old's foreskin after routine check

[Sally21222]

I took my son for his 6 year health check (we live in Europe so this is a required check) and all fine except the doctor recommended we use a cream called diproderm on his foreskin. She couldn’t pull it back and said that the cream will help widen it and avoid any issues in the future. Has anyone else experienced this with their son? He was six in April and hasn’t had any issues in the past, she said we need to put the cream just on the tip for 6-8 weeks and then go back. I’d appreciate any advice as my husband was circumcised as a baby so doesn’t have a clue either! I didn’t think it should move back until his older but she seemed to think this cream was necessary!

Yup, also in Europe, 4 sons, 2 of them needed this, 2 didn't. Apparently the foreskin should roll back easily by about age 5? I didn't know either.
We used the cream as directed (can't remember what brand it was) and everything worked out fine. With the first son I was concerned because my brother had something similar around that age, in the UK in the early 1980s, and ended up getting circumsized.

Thank you! Helpful sounds like it’s standard advice then.

This is not standard practice in the UK - it’s common for the foreskin to be non retractile until much later in childhood. Unless there are issues with urinating, pain, or infection then nothing would be done at all.

I think, the thinking here is that if the steroid cream doesn't work and circumcision turns out to be medically necessary, it's better to find that out and do it as young as possible, because it's a lot more complicated /traumatic as they approach puberty. But I'm not a doctor! And I guess it's one of many things that are done differently in different countries.