Please Vote.

[tutucrazy]

Please Vote:

A--if your intact son(s) HAS experienced any of these symptoms at some point in his infancy/childhood.

Minor/Moderate redness
Minor/Moderate swelling
Itching
Stinging during urination
Minor Pain
Smegma discharge (any color)
Smelly discharge
Ballooning during urination
Smegma Pearls
Perpetual Cysts
Uneven retraction
Retracting but then not-retracting
Spraying while urinating

PLEASE REMEMBER NOT TO REFER TO THESE SYMPTOMS AS "PROBLEMS" THESE ARE ALL NORMAL.

B--If your son(s) has NOT experienced any of these symptoms and is over 2 years of age.

C--If your son(s) has NOT experienced any of these symptoms but he is under 2 years of age.

D--Other (Don't have sons yet, nothing applies, etc.)

The goal of this poll is to get a percentage of how many boys experience 1 or more of these normal separation symptoms. My hope is that this will aid other parents in understanding that these symptoms happen as a very normal part of the development of the intact boy and resolve by themselves. These are NOT problems, rather just normal phases in development of the intact boy.

If you have a moment to list the specific symptoms and age(s) in which you noticed them on your child(ren) that would be very helpful too!

THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP!

Separation Sticky:
http://www.mothering.com/discussions....php?t=764732?

[tutucrazy]

My son has had these at 10 months:
-Moderate Swelling
-Moderate Redness
-Smegma Discharge
-Sting during urination

My son has had this since age 10 months:
-Ballooning

[perspective]

Just a young guy popping by to discuss this important issue.

[Fellow Traveler]

Voted D, no sons though I am intact and have never had a problem in conscious memory.

[momasana]

My DS is 21 months and has only experienced mild redness.

[Drummer's Wife]

I have 3 intact boys (+ DH) and don't believe they've ever had any of these issues.

They are ages 2, 4, and 6. (and 28 )

[SeekingSerenity]

I have 3 intact boys.

#1 had:
Minor/Moderate redness
Itching
*Stinging during urination
*Minor Pain

*he had a UTI when he was 2.5-yo. Only one, so far as I know.

#2 is always a little red at the tip. He's 6 and hasn't retracted yet. Always messing with it, which accounts for the redness, I think. He's said it's been itching lately.

#3 is 9 months old and hasn't had ANY of the symptoms at all.

[Sharlla]

Originally Posted by Drummer's Wife

I have 3 intact boys (+ DH) and don't believe they've ever had any of these issues.

Same here. ages 10 and 3. DP did have a problem when he was 24, his foreskin was retracted too long and wouldn't go back and it freaked him out and he went to urgent care and the DR actually suggested that he be circed He was like NO WAY! LOL

[RJones1204]

My DS is 19mths and has experienced minor redness and smegma. His foreskin seems to be loosing on the inside but the outside (sorry I am still learning technical names of his parts) around the pee hole is very tightly fused. If that makes any sense. None of his glans show but his foreskin is loose on the shaft. I am not worried about anything. I know it could take years before he is retractable. He is a perfectly normal, healthy intact little guy.

[Llyra]

DS is 26 months old. He's never had any of those problems, unless you count some irritation at the base of his penis where it meets his scrotum that we determined was due to feces that wasn't properly cleaned away, so totally unrelated to his foreskin. One time I did find that he'd partially retracted himself; he didn't seem bothered by it, and there was no redness or irritation or anything at all. I just gently replaced the foreskin.

[MaryLang]

My son had this a bit over the age of 2.

Minor/Moderate Redness
Stinging during urination
Don't know where he is as far as retraction, cause I don't see him doing anything with it.

[eepster]

DS who is 3 yo, ballooned when he was a bady, and one day I found what was either smegma discharge or melted icecream in his underwear.

[tutucrazy]

This is wonderful. It really is proof that every boy develops uniquely, even boys within the same family. I hope we can get a bunch more votes so we can see a good cross-section. I forgot to say that if you have more than one intact son, answer 'A' if any of your sons experienced any of these symptoms. Then you can explain the breakdown in your post as Seeking Serenity did.

Lets try to stay away from calling these "problems". These are merely symptoms of a process that happens for all intact boys. The goal here is to show how these symptoms are not medical problems or even problems at all and that they resolve themselves throughout childhood and puberty. Sometimes kids get growing pains when they grow rapidly. We don't call these pains "problems" and rush our kids to the doctor (at least most of us don't). We find a way to soothe the symptom until it passes. This is how we should learn to view separation symptoms. In our society it is so easy to associate foreskin with "problem". The last thing we want to do is perpetuate these myths, right.

[MCatLvrMom2A&X]

Ds has had none of the things related to seperation but he did have a major bacterial infectionthat cleared up easy enough but it was horrible looking. He wasnt really in pain past the first few hours of swelling. Thank goodness.

So I am thinking other is the place for me since it is about natural retraction and not infections.

[Claire and Boys]

Two intact boys. Not a single problem with either of them.

[CorasMama]

Originally Posted by eepster

DS who is 3 yo, ballooned when he was a bady, and one day I found what was either smegma discharge or melted icecream in his underwear.

: : :

I don't have a son yet, but my intact dh never had a problem, that he knows of.

[rachelsmama]

DS does the ballooning and the spraying. We do some EC so I can say with reasonable certainty that he has always done both. It makes it easier to tell when he's peeing, so that's nice. He might get itchy sometimes, but since he always wants to play with his genitals it's hard to tell.

[tutucrazy]

Originally Posted by Claire and Boys

Two intact boys. Not a single problem with either of them.

These would not be problems. Have they ever had any symptoms of separation or did it happen without symptom?

[rabbitmum]

Two sons, 20 years and three years old (intact of course), no symptoms that I have noticed.

(I assume that by "redness" you mean redness out of the ordinary - it is of course normal that the tip of the foreskin is sometimes a bit reddish but I don't count that as a "symptom", as it doesn't necessarily have anything to do with separation or anything else.)

[tutucrazy]

Originally Posted by rabbitmum

Two sons, 20 years and three years old (intact of course), no symptoms that I have noticed.

(I assume that by "redness" you mean redness out of the ordinary - it is of course normal that the tip of the foreskin is sometimes a bit reddish but I don't count that as a "symptom", as it doesn't necessarily have anything to do with separation or anything else.)

Wow that is quite an age difference! I bet your older son is very happy you kept him whole!

Yes, by redness I'm referring to increased redness due to separation trauma, not normal foreskin redness.