what age should you pull back a boys foreskin to clean it?

[Nointhemood]

thats it really....

You don't. When it's ready to retract on its own they're old enough to clean it themselves.

You don't, as far as I know.
My DS is 4 and I just clean the outside of his willy and don't mess with his foreskin at all.

Ah good ds is 5 and it only just occured to me. But thankgod he will be able to do it himself

You don't, just wash round it.

I had loads of old women telling me to do this when ds was a baby so I asked my hv and she said no that will let the dirt get in and that it is sealed.

So you don't need to touch their foreskin AT ALL???

(SK new mum of boy after 3 girls)

A friend told me you have to pull it back and clean under it, I freaked at this it's weird enough doing his nappies.

No definately don't do it!

30 years ago the advice was to pull it back and clean it, but times have changed sk

sk no, you don't need to touch it, in fact afaik the foreskin shouldn't pull back when they are little anyway
i have 3 boys and haver never cleaned under their foreskins

are you sure she wasn't talking about the penis itself? cos obviously you do need to lift that up and clean under it

??

You don't! I should think it could be quite dangerous to do that.

I've never done it and my ds's are 5 and 7. They do it themselves quite a bit now, but that's probably another thread

Dont! It really really hurts if you try to pull it back before it is good and ready.

By the time it is good and ready boys can do it for themselves.

I have never done that with my boys (oldest are 7) and they have had no probs.

ARGH I wish this thread had been going about a month ago.

DS2 has an epithelial pearl under his foreskin and the GP said that he was shocked that we hadn't been pulling it back to clean it - he said it was vital that we do it and vital that we do it with DS1 (6) to avoid circumcision.

so when we got to the hospital about his willy the urology consultant said what all the ladies above have said Don't do anything with it but once they do come back make sure your child knows how to make sure it is really cleean.

Update apointment with different GP who said to remember how vital it was to pull the foreskin back to clean it.!!
I told him what the hospital had said and he admitted that it is totally dependant upon the culture you were bought up in and there isn't a medical right time for the foreskin to retract.

never

Never done this. surely a bath would clean it though?! It's not for me to be pulling at somebody else's foreskin. that is my gut feeling.

Both my sons have had tight foreskin.
Some cream worked to retract foreskin with older son, when he was 5yrs old, but the cream didnt really work that well on my younger son.
He is now 9yrs and his foreskin doesnt go back , so we have been referred to the Urologist .
By now the skin should be retracting . . .I just hope my Ds doesnt need a circumcision.
I tell him (as advised ) to pull it back everynight in the shower. . .he tries but it only goes a tiny way.

Once it does go back though, i think it is important that boys do pull it back to wash .

I have always been under the impression that you should never touch it. However was interested to read in the NHS "birth to five" book that I was given after having DS in January, to gently retract the foreskin and clean under it - goes against everything I have ever read/heard elsehwhere!

Ds was pulling it back and forth at 2 yo with 4 yo dd inspecting the 'two willies' that he had . I was always told not to retract it but to leave it.

ive never even thought of doing it.eldest son is now 9 and im only sometimes allowed in the bathroom at all!

Is there a video on how to do it?

A video on how to do the thing you aren't meant to do? Sure, you go...