Child Foreskin Retraction

I have a 1 year old who I chose to not have circumsized. Seeing as I am, I do not know what to expect.

When does his foreskin retract? Is this something that needs to be forced along, or when he turns 2 - teach him to do?

I assume that it wont get infected as long as he continues to urinate with it attached, is that a safe assumption?

Thank You

It may not have occurred to you, but there are better places to find the information you seek:

NOCIRC Pamphlets

Basically, you leave it alone. The first one to retract it should be him. His foreskin will be attached to his glans by a membrane called a synechia until he is 3-5 years old, sometimes until much later. Some boys don't see their glans until puberty when they begin playing with themselves. The reason? Sexual functions are not needed. The penis develops with the boy.

^^^^^^^
What he said,don't touch it!!!!!

Ed gets a little carried away. You just wash the outside and let him grow. Soaps and bubble baths can dry out the mucosal tissue inside and cause problems, much like getting soap inside baby girls' vaginas. Fiddling with it can cause problems because it can tear and bleed. That causes scar tissue and scar tissue is inelastic. Many child and adolescent circs are the result of too much "care."

I know you are probably curious about it since you don't have one. You can find info, pictures, just about any type of info you want online. Of course it's a loaded topic right now and some of it is disinformation. You'll be able to figure that out though. It's good you are looking for info.

Thanks for the pamphlet page and info. I knew you all would know about penii best. I searched google but found lots of varried answers. A friend of mine was kind enough to show me how his uncut one worked before I made the decision, so the curiousness isn't really there - I just don't want to screw it up :)

You need to take the "anti-circ" stuff with a grain of salt. Some of their "do not touch" recommendations were in response to pro-circ arguments that it was simpler for parents to care for circumcised babies, so the anti-circ just countered that you shouldn't try to retract the skin at all , ever, making it simpler to care for the ucnut penis than for a cut one.

The answer lies in the middle.

You must NEVER try to forcibly retract the foreskin.
But you can gently try to pull it back at regular intervals to monitor its progress. GENTLY is the word here. Once you feel it no longer easily/freely moves back, you stop there. In time, you will notice more and more of the glans that can easily be exposed. Always bring the skin back over the full head afterwards.

Once the foreksin does become partially retractable, you probably wnat to rinse under it in the bath. (retract foreksin as far as it can easily go and just wipe the gunk out gently with water (no soap).

as long as the foreskin is fully adhered to the glans (and thus fully unretractable), gunk won't accumulate between foreksin and glans, so infections won't happen much. But as the foreskin starts to separate, the process of keratinisation of glans/foreksin begins and both layers start to shed dead skin cells, and urine will become ttrapped under foreksin.

The process of the ofreksin separating from glans and becoming loose enough to retract varies from child to child. Hence some people outside the USA recommending common sense verification of the progress of the foreksin's retractibility.

Keyword here is to check for foreksin retractibility, NOT to make foreksin retract.

See why I think circ advocates are basically fetishists? Why would you want to masturbate your infant son at "regular intervals"?

There is no gunk and quite likely infections will not happen at all. With a modicum of care the body's orifices are self-maintaining. SirConcis would you recommend similar "care" for baby girls?

Smegma is dead skin cells and body moisture like what collects in the corners of our eyes while sleeping. There are no sebaceous glands or glands of any kind in the inner foreskin, just proteinaceous exudate that leaks between the cell junctions - mucosal tissue like the eye orbit - but I suppose sexual maturity increases smegma - precum, cum - and then it's a simple rinse in the shower. If a kid can be taught to wipe his ass, he can be taught to rinse his foreskin when he's old enough to have a reason to clean it. This idea that somehow a body part can be a pestilence is old school and disturbing because messing with an infant's penis may possibly lead to exactly what you don't want.

Stick with the pamphlets Permio and you're welcome. Sounds like your friend is a friend indeed.

Agreed.

Whoever is bathing the boy should definitely show him how to pull his foreskin back (gently of course) once he's a little older.

Letting your son figure it out on his own when he's in his teens (as someone suggested) is the worst thing you can do because he'll develop all kinds of things due to having an unclean foreskin before then.

When his foreskin is able to be retracted comfortably, he should be taught to keep it clean (no need for soap really as water from the shower is likely enough to wash away smega etc) so that when he's older and nobody's bathing him anymore, he knows how to to it.

My parents divorced when I was two and my father was out of the picture and then my mother died when i was five and I went to live with my grandparents and nobody ever taught me how to clean under my foreskin as a child and I had many problems because of that and ended up having to get circumcised.

So if you don't want your son to need a circumcision, show him how to keep it clean. Earlier the better.

But the key word is to be gentle and not to force the foreskin to retract.

Now that's just outrageous!

How in God's name is showing your uncircumcised son how to keep his penis clean "masturbating your infant son"?

Would you also say that a mother advising her daughter how to insert a tampon was pedophilia too?

At a certain age you tell the kid what to do, and why. Most kids get a morning wood, and it can be cleaned there.

Still society is very touchy about things, so steer clear of the topic with weird people.

This question is more appropriate to ask of your pediatrician. They have a lot more experience with infant penises than any of us here.

With that said, I have a three year old whose foreskin I don't retract and he's never had any sort of problem. There is a chance of some irritation of the mucosa from urine (same thing happens with little girls' mucosa) but changing diapers regularly, regular bathing, and general hygiene help prevent that. If you notice his foreskin is irritated, let him "air out" without a diaper for a bit (yes he will urinate on your carpet, but this is a good time to introduce him to the potty anyway) and use some zinc oxide or petroleum jelly when you re-diaper him. If this doesn't go away, call your doctor.

Advice from the National Institutes of Health, who I regard as anti-foreskin, pro-cut:

An uncircumcised penis is one with its foreskin intact. An infant boy with an uncircumcised penis requires no special care. Normal bathing is enough to keep it clean. It is NOT recommended to retract (pull back) the foreskin for cleaning during infancy and childhood. This may injure the foreskin and cause scarring that could make retraction painful and difficult later in life.

Teenage boys should be taught to gently retract the foreskin during bathing and clean the penis thoroughly. After cleaning the penis, dry the area completely. Then, it is very important to pull the foreskin back over the head of the penis. Otherwise, the foreskin would slightly constrict the head of the penis, causing swelling and pain. This would require medical treatment.

[Source]

I read the first paragraph as: leave it alone and don't touch it!

i can tell you what i did with my son...

just left it.
little boys and their willies, y'know? they do it all by themselves.
at three or four i got him into the habit of rolling it back in the bath.

never did anything to it myself. just allowed nature and curiosity to do the work.

Precisely. 90% of the world manages to raise intact boys to adolescence without any problems. There's no intervention required on the part of the parents. Dr. Spock's original book was wrong about forcible retraction. Just leave it alone and let nature do its thing.

as soon as they're old enough to wash and they're retracting by themselves, get them to roll it back in the bath for a rinse.

that's pretty much all there is to it.

but telling them the right way to wash is important...not at that age but it's good to get them used to it. i don't fancy asking my son at 11 if he has smegma yet and if he knows how to wash, lol.