Worried about accidentally retracting the foreskin

[lovelymama2]

My son is due in a couple of weeks. He'll be the only intact baby boy in the entire family! So I have no experience with intact boys. I'm worried that while I'm cleaning him off during diaper changes, that I'll accidentally pull too hard, and it'll retract and be painful. Is it very difficult to retract, as in you have to be very intentional about doing it? Or do you have to be very careful NOT to retract?

We just had my cousin give us a lecture on how much better it is to circumcise, including the arguments that "it's not even supposed to hurt at all!" and "it's so much healthier!" I'm so glad we decided to research for ourselves!

[Crunchiemomma]

It's not something that can happen accidentally. You clean it as you would clean a finer and thats it. You leave it alone.
I would make sure that ANYONE who might every change a diaper is fully "briefed" about foreskin retraction. If they argue that "it needs to be retracted" I would provide printed material from the AAP proving to them that it will cause harm and what it will do to your little man.

[emamum]

what the previous poster said...wipe from the back of it to the front so there is no chance of retraction

I'm in the uk and here boys are only circed for religious reasons... you give it a quick wipe (much easier than cleaning a girl imo) nothing gets stuck under the foreskin because theres no way for it to get in and my ds was breastfed which gives them lovely runny poo

[So-Called]

Yes, you would REALLY have to be exerting some force to make a typical baby's foreskin retract. So much so that it makes me cringe to think about how this used to be standard practice, because I can't imagine pulling on it hard enough to actually do it. The skin is very tightly adhered to the glans, and the hole at the tip of the foreskin is literally almost microscopic - it opens just long enough for DS to pee, then closes up again.

Congrats on your impending arrival! So happy to hear he'll remain intact. : Our son is the only intact boy in our family as well, and I think you'll be surprised how quickly an intact penis becomes normal, not at all scary, and definitely cleaner and easier to deal with in infancy. I can't imagine how dressing an open wound and perpetually cleaning all those little creases of remaining foreskin is "so much cleaner and easier" than a quick wipe from base to tip, which is all I've EVER had to give my exclusively breastfed baby boy's penis.

[Fellow Traveler]

Yep, congrats, what a lucky boy. : I wouldn't worry too much about it for yourself. Just wipe it like a finger you won't accidentally do anything you shouldn't. Keep an eye on Drs and other caregivers though. Don't worry you'll all be fine. Oh and your cousin is defiantly wrong.

[tutucrazy]

You would have to be intentionally pushing his foreskin back between your thumb and first finger to retract. The opening is very narrow and the foreskin is fused. Forcible retraction is not something that happens accidentally. You do, however, need to be very careful about educating anyone who is going to be changing him and you need to specifically tell doctors not to manipulate his foreskin in any way, shape or form.

[eepster]

Very unlikely. If he happens to become retractable early, then maybe, but then he is retractable so you aren't doing any damage. Even if this was to happen, it is less damaging than being circumcised anyway.

You should know about paraphimosis just in case, but that's very rare.

The big thing about not letting Drs touch it without great vigalence isn't that they may accidentally retract, it is that you can't tell if they are actually using any force at all, and that many think that if they don't push it all the way back it doesn't count as retraction.