Questions . . .

[GAmomto5]

First off, please excuse my ignorance :)

I have 6 children, 3 sons and only my last little one is intact so I am new to this. He is 16 months old and I have noticed that his meatal opening seems to be a little right of the tip, and when he pees, it pretty much all goes out to the right. I haven't tried to manipulate the foreskin at all, so I don't know if maybe it just LOOKS like its not centered because of the foreskin or what. I have to admit that I have never even seen an uncircumcised penis in real life, so I don't know what "normal" looks like. I have read a little about epispadius, but his doesn't seem to be as severe as that. It not really on the side of the penis, just not centered. Does that make sense? I wouldn't think it would be anything to worry about, until we get ready to use the potty anyway. He may just have to position himself a little different when standing :)

I guess I just wanted to know if this is "normal" or a variant of normal. I also read that you should gently try to retract and loosen up the skin so that when they are toddlers, they will be fully retractable. My mommy instinct tells me to just leave it be, but I wanted to confirm that.

Thanks!

[momval]

Hi Kelly,

You should not retract or manipulate the foreskin.  It will separate and loosen all on its own.  Trying to get it to do this by a certain age is recommended by doctors or others who are truly ignorant of the normal development of the normal penis.  There is no need for retraction by an arbitrary age.  I  recommend reading on the cirp.org and doctorsopposingcircumcision websites if you'd like to learn more about normal development. 

Best Wishes,

Val

[MCatLvrMom2A&X]

Like pp said retracting can cause damage to your ds and only he is allowed to mess with it that way.

About the angle to the right, as he ages his foreskin will start to separate and when it does the opening of the foreskin will shift. My ds's opening actually was pointed up so when he would urinate the urine would ark up then go down. As he has aged and started to become retractable it now is perfectly straight unless he decides to play and make it go in different directions :eyeroll it isnt anything to worry about and time will make it right.

The age for retraction is different for every boy some are younger some are well into puberty before it retracts any time in between birth and adulthood is normal.