I'm freaking a little bit.. son retracted his foreskin

[Heathermhill]

OK.. I knew this day would come. But not sure I'm prepared!

I guess it's a "coming of age" moment...but my daughter just came to me and said "look what Andrew is doing with his penis, he's been doing since the movie started" He's 3 and a half.. isn't that a little early?

Then he showed me how he had retracted it! It looked painful! I stayed calm and asked him if it hurt and he said no, but looked a little unsure. :

I've read all about caring for the intact penis, but this is my first experience. Should I just let him deal with it for now since it's so new? Should I show him how to clean it now? Not sure I know! I thought I'd be more prepared!


I'm a little nauseous, not of the site, but that it might hurt him. I can watch autopsies during medical training, but the site of any of my family in pain makes me squeemish. Maybe I'm a little excited too that he did it on his own!

My husband is out of the country so I needed to share this with someone!

I'm not worried? I guess I'm just ? uhhh? Will this be what I feel like when my daughter starts her period?!

Welcome to motherhood eh?

[MCatLvrMom2A&X]

No reason to worry. He is actually a very common age when they learn they came make it do that trick Just make sure to remind him to wash his hands both before and after messing with it and be sure to cover the glans back up when he is done.

Now is a great time to start talking to him in the bath and having him to pull it back and rinse with clean water and put it back. Not something he needs to do but it is good practice for later

If he dosnt want to then no worries odds are though when he gets in the bath he will start messing with it anyway.

[beckyand3littlemonsters]

my ds cameron did this at about the same age absolutely freaked me out, he pulled the skin right back, i took him to the dr. cos i didn't know what to do.

[Storm Bride]

Nothing to worry about. DS2 was about the same age, and loved showing us his "cool trick". DH handles most baths, but we haven't really talked a lot about keeping it clean. DS1 manages just fine, and I never gave him any special instruction (didn't know there was a potential issue of any kind).

Nothing to worry about. Your son proably just looks a bit unsure, because it feels unusual.

[Fellow Traveler]

I am always amused when I read a post like this, in a good way. Don't worry your son will be just fine. He just learned what will be his favorite new trick; he'll be having lots of fun with this.

As far as bathing, you can start teaching the three Rs but it's not absolutely necessary. As was mentioned earlier, he'll probably be playing with it in the bath anyway.

[eclipse]

Both of my boys retracted well before 3, on their own. My 4.5 year old is still fond of showing me that trick as frequently as possible - we're still working on the fact that mommy thinks it's cool, but doesn't really want to see it . Anyhow, some boys won't retract until puberty or even later, but some retract at a very young age. He wouldn't do it if it hurt. Early retraction is only a problem when someone else is doing it - boys will only pull it back as far as it is comfortable to.