Help- looks like a blister on his forerskin!

[Peppermint]

OK, I read the sticky above, but it didn't mention blister-like look.

Right at the tip of his foreskin, it looks like he has a blister, I am trying not to panic and the only reason I have yet to call the pediatrician is I am afraid of them making matters worse, or even wanting to circ.

Any ideas? I am off to give him a bath (just water, no soap) and hopefully someone will reply in the meantime and keep my from calling the Dr.

FTR_ my son is almost 11 months and seems perfectly happy at the moment, and had a normal very wet diaper this morning- no one has ever retracted him.

TIA!

[karlin]

It could be retracting slightly on it's own. My son's did that at about 11 months, and it looked a bit like a blister. We gave him frequent baths with baking soda, and lots of diaper free time. It got better in a few days.

I'm not an expert though, and Frank and some experieinced mamas will probably be here shortly to give you more info.

[Peppermint]

Thanks Karlin, I have noticed more erections lately during diaper changes, hopefully that's all it is. I guess we'll go diaper-free until I hear more thoughts.

[Frankly Speaking]

Bare butt time sounds like a good idea for this one. I'm not up much on the homeopathic remedies but I know there will be Moms along with some good suggestions. This doesn't sound like anything serious at all and I suspect with a little help, it will clear up quickly.

The good thing is that the foreskin is very sensitive and the bad thing is that the foreskin is very sensitive. It will serve him well as an adult but it also seems it's sensitive nature is a barometer of anything that is a little out of kilter down there like staying in a wet diaper a little too long or a little detergent residue in the diapers. Maybe part of it's function is to give a heads-up when something is not exactly right.




Frank

[Peppermint]

I am thinking maybe it is diaper-related, he has been nursing sooo much at night and wakes up soaked! I guess it's time for me to cut some fleece liners.

I just hate that feeling of possibly having to go to the pediatrician- between my slow to vax schedule, the no-circ. and the cloth diapers- I am considered a freak mama, yk? (who clearly caused whatever the problem is, by either not circ.ing, not vaxing, or those darn cloth diapers)

I am wondering if a little breastmilk on there would do anything, I know it "cures" a number of other things, like eye gunk and ear aches, etc. Couldn't hurt, right?

OK, my thought now is to give it at least a day (as Frank said in the sticky), give him lots of diaper-free time, another bath or 2 later, and get those fleece liners cut up for nighttime diapers.

I know this sounds terrible, but I am going to have to make sure I get a diaper on him before dh gets home, and make sure I do all of the changes this evening. He would probably think, "see, this is why we should've circ.ed him"

Any thoughts on other home remedies would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[karlin]

Oh yeah, how could I forget the breastmilk!?!?! :LOL

I squirted some on my DS several times a day, and it really seemed to help.

[Nathan1097]

I'd say try the breastmilk too! I"ve BTDT.

[calngavinsmom]

Is the blister on the "overhang" part of the foreskin(if he has one) or on the part that is covering the glans? My two month old was born with a partially detatched foreskin. We noticed this because it balloons in spots when he pees. In the spots where the urine gets trapped under the foreskin, it looks like(and I first thought it was) a blister. I think this would only happen anywhere urine could get trapped though, like over the glans. The urine eventually drains on its own but sometimes it takes a while. Just a thought.

Tara

[mommymarliah]

I have had this same issue with my 3 year old. I think its where the diaper rubs and he gets irriated when he has a wet one. I have been using aquaphor on him for overnights (just a small amount on the end of his forskin so the moisture won't irritate his skin and I haven't had any breakouts since).

[Peppermint]

Thank you everybody- After a couple of baths yesterday, lots of diaper-free time, some breastmilk and a fuzzi bunz for bed (instead of the plain prefold I usually use) he is all clear today, thank goodness. I just freak when something is wrong with the penises!

It was on the end of the foreskin for the mama who asked about that. I think in the end it was just a diaper rash type of thing.

[Frankly Speaking]

I've noticed something that puzzled me for quite a while. It seems that mothers of intact sons are far, far more concerned about any irritation of their son's penis than mothers of circumcised boys and I've wondered why that is.

At first, I thought it was because they are just better, more concerned mothers. After all, they did take the time to become educated to make the decision not to circumcise in the first place and it would only follow that they would show the same concern in all aspects of parenting and any little anomaly would logically send them into conniption fits to resolve any little problem.

I've rethought that though. I now believe that even though we clearly know that a foreskin is not a naturally problematic structure, we are still enslaved to the urban myths and are always fearful that our son is going to be the exception and that he will have one of those horrible infections and will end up being the one in 18,000 that will have to have the "necessary" circumcision. That being the case, we are perpetually "Nervous Nellys" and are far more vigilant for any indication of anything amiss. Something that the mother of a circumcised boy would assume is a diaper rash or something similar sends us off on nightmare scenarios of infections and such. On the other hand, mothers of circumcised boys are so confident that nothing is substantially wrong that when there is a problem, they don't even recognize it or worry about it until it is clearly out of hand and medical intervention is necessary.

However, that is also changing. As the complications of circumcision are becoming more common knowledge, the mothers of circumcised boys are becoming far more concerned when there is any anomaly. When the circumcision doesn't look exactly like they think it should, they are going off to the doctor's office to see what can be done.

I envision a day when boys will not be circumcised and little irritations of the penis or foreskin will be treated like a diaper rash and no one will have much concern about them except to get them cleared up for the comfort of the child. It's going to take a complete re-education of every country that has previously circumcised boys to finally get past it.



Frank

[Peppermint]

Frank- interesting.

I have to say that I am just a Nervous Nelly about their penises in general. You see, my first son is circ.ed. One morning I changed his diaper and his penis was all red and bloody looking- I FREAKED! I called the pediatrician and insisted that I needed an appt. right away. It was foreskin adhesion, as a matter of fact, it was something that pediatrician said that helped me decide never to circ. again. He told me that the froeskin adhesion was painful for my son, and that if I had left him intact that wouldn't happen (I was puzzled thinking "umm- didn't they remove his foreskin?" and wouldn't this be more of a problem if he had a full foreskin?").

I admit that my fear yesterday was in part that if I took him to the Dr. they might want to circ. him, that's what made me post here and hold off on calling the Dr.. I can't say I assume the foreskin to be problematic, just that I assume Dr.s to be problematic wrt foreskins (we have a diff. pediatrician now).

But- having had both a circ.ed son with a "penis problem" and an intact son with a "penis problem"--- I can say that penis problems just scare me. :LOL

Actually- my dd once had a pink-ness in her diaper and I freaked then too, I thought something was wrong there (uric acid it was I think). I think most mamas just get particularly scared when something is wrong in their child's genital region. Sore throats- fevers, sickness rashes- I am cool with all of that- but genital stuff scares me- if I overlook something- they could end up scarred down there, yk? My first ds is already scarred, I plan to be very careful with this little guy.

It's funny- I have often thought this forum was too over-run with posts like this- that it would scare people who are on the fence about circ..

You are right though- if the blister was on his little baby cheeks, I would've thought "diaper-rash", but b/c it was on his penis- I freaked---guilty as charged

Thank you all again for your help.