# 5 year old with "tight" foreskin



## delphine (Aug 12, 2003)

Hello,
I have 2 sons, both intact. I recently took my 5 year old to the ped. for his kindergarten check up. He said that ds's foreskin is "tight" and that ds should start gently pulling it back while bathing.
He's definitely not fully retracted yet and he says it hurts if he tried to pull it back. Is this normal?

In the past, our theory has always been to just leave it alone and it will be fine.

On the other hand, my younger ds (3) has always played with himself quite a bit more and his foreskin has been fully retracted since he was 2.

Help!


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## glongley (Jun 30, 2004)

Your theory is correct: leave it alone and it will take care of itself in time.

Doctors mistakenly think 1) foreskins should be retractable by age 5 (Gairdner's incorrect data), and 2) something horrible will happen if its not retractable.

The actual average age to full retractability in intact boys is about age 10! (Confirmed by multiple studies in Japan and Scandinavia).

It is totally normal for a 5 year old to have a "tight" foreskin. Do not try to force it back as this can only damage it and introduce bacteria. Just have him wash off the outside, even if its still tight when he's 12!

My older son's foreskin did not retract AT ALL till he was 8. He had only a pin-head sized opening. However, the foreskin apparently had been separating underneath all along, because when he was 8 the opening started getting looser and looser and almost overnight he became completely retractable.

Do not worry about your son, or let your doctor tell you there is anything wrong or that anything meddlesome needs to be done. This will take care of itself with time.

Here are some good references on this. Please pass them along to your doctor so he/she can learn about normal foreskin development and stop giving incorrect advice to his/her patients.

http://www.cirp.org/library/normal/
http://www.doctorsopposingcircumcisi...0-2005-dan.pdf
http://www.mothering.com/articles/ne...uncircson.html

Gillian


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## kldliam (Jan 7, 2006)

You are also correct that the "play" helps to facilitate the retraction process. My ds did alot of tugging and "exploring" early on, so he was fully retractable by 2.5 yrs. I would encourage your son to explore down there on his own terms. Obviously if it hurts he will stop. It's totally normal for there to be some discomfort in the beginning. It will pass. A fair number of boys become retractable at puberty which also coincides with masturbation. Again all of this "play" helps the foreskin separate completely from the glans. It's all good.


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## Yulia_R (Jan 7, 2006)

http://www.mothering.com/discussions...d.php?t=129378


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## MCatLvrMom2A&X (Nov 18, 2004)

The Dr had no right to even touch your ds's foreskin. I swear I dont know what they are looking for. It is a huge mystery around here since it happens so often.

Even if your ds was 100% retractable the Dr. shouldnt touch it. He can ask your ds to show him and if your ds is ok with that then fine but if not then tell the Dr. to keep his hands to himself.

It is 100% normal as well to not be retractable until puberty and sometimes even later.


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## delphine (Aug 12, 2003)

Thanks to everyone for the links and comments. It's nice to know that my instincts were right on this one.

Unfortunately the peds. around here don't seem to know much about caring for uncirc'd boys.







:


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## Tinijocaro (Jan 4, 2003)

My son's ped told us th same thing, and even waved the circumcision word around if he didn't retract soon. This was when he was 6. I ignored him. One day out of the blue, ds comes to me and tells me that his foreskin slipped all the way back in the shower- he was 11. I asked him if it had started going back a bit recently and he said that it hadn't, it was rather sudden.

Don't worry yourself a bit about it. It will do it on it's own- there is no need for it to go back anyways at this point in your son's life.


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## kxsiven (Nov 2, 2004)

Uh huh - another uneducated doctor - just add to the endless list of stupid so called doctors who have feaking no idea how normal penis functions.

If I were you I would either educate him(since obviously he will damage other boys too)or change doctor and let him know why you are doing it.


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## dnr3301 (Jul 4, 2003)

gosh, stories like this make me love our family doc. At ds's last wbc, she said something about wanting to take a look at his bottom (he had pants on), and I said, why, and she said, just checkingif his testicles are ok, and I said, they're fine, and she said, ok, that's good. and kinda laughed. She was totally cool about it. at his first checkup, I wasn't sure exactly how anti circ she was (she won't perform them and less than half of her families do it), so I kind of tentitively said something about reading these horror stories of docs retracting foreskins, and she looked absolutely horrified and said, "why would anyone do that? that hurts!"

yes, leave it alone. Ds is now 3 1/2 and he just showed me the other day that he has "a purple penis too!" (as in, in addition to the normal skin colored one







).


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## MommaLauraRN (May 14, 2007)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *glongley* 
almost overnight he became completely retractable.


The same thing happened with my son just a couple of weeks ago, he just turned 4 in June. His foreskin always had just a small opening, just enough to let urine out. I knew it must have been separated from the glans because it would balloon when he peed. His pedi always suggested we "gently stretch" it...we never did because we knew to leave it alone and even when he would tug at it a lot the end would get red. (More recently found out our pedi circ'd his own kids so what does he know anyway) A couple of weeks ago I went to check on him after he pooped to make sure he wiped well and low and behold there he is playing with it...fully retracted! He seemed very excited "Look, my penis does cool new tricks!" I was completely unprepared since I assumed it would be years before it fully retracted. His foreskin is loose looking now like it never was before.


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## veganf (Dec 12, 2005)

My almost 5yo has just a tiny opening to let urine out; otherwise he does not retract AT ALL. His foreskin started ballooning for a month or so when he was 3, but no longer does. He did finally notice that his younger brother can pull his foreskin back partway and that it is very long and stretchy while his is not, so I tried to reassure him that they were just different.
I just ignore any stupid advice from doctors to stretch it, and I don't let them touch any of my boys penises anyhow.
It's never caused him any discomfort for him. Hopefully as a teenager it will stretch on its own, otherwise we'll look into steroid cream and stretching as a last resort.
But the stories of boys similar to him suddenly retracting are very encouraging.


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