Kinda weird question about diapers and intact babies

[shaylahc]

My only DS is intact. He is 5 mos old. I have noticed from the time he was a tiny newborn baby that urine seems to collect under his foreskin. His foreskin "balloons" when he pees, and sometimes because of the pressure of the diaper some of it gets stuck inside until I take his diaper off. Then as he squirms around and the penis changes position some of the urine will dribble out. Sometimes it is quite a bit of urine---maybe a half a teaspoon or so? DS has had 2 UTIs so far and I am wondering if this "stagnant urine" (for lack of a better term) could be contributing to this? The foreskin opening seems fine so I don't think that's the problem....

Is this normal for diapered intact boys? I asked both a pediatrician and a friend who has an intact DS and she had never heard of urine collecting under the foreskin like that.

TIA

[calngavinsmom]

Hi there. My ds is five months old too and his foreskin behaves exactly like you describe. I first noticed the urine "pooling" the day after he was born. Our doc told us it was just a variation of normal and not to be concerned, urine is sterile.

Our older ds's foreskin was totally fused at birth. He is three now and he uses the toilet and I have noticed that his balloons all the way around(or so it seems), whereas my younger guy only has ballooning in patches.

Neither of mine have had a UTI though, so maybe it doesn't have anything to do with the ballooning or urine pooling up at all? I'm not sure but, that is my experience.

Take care,
Tara

[Nathan1097]

This is normal and part of the separation process. There's a blurb about it in one of NOCIRC's pamphlet's in fact. http://www.nocirc.org/publish/4pam.pdf

Hope that helps!

[Frankly Speaking]

The ballooning phenomena you are seeing is very common. It simply shows that the separation process is taking place.

There is no worry about urine remaining inside the foreskin because all of the skin in there is mucosal skin that is designed to stay constantly wet without any problem. This is the same kind of skin that lines the eyelids, the nose, the mouth, the vulva and the anal cleft. There is normally no problem with those areas and you should expect no problems with your son's foreskin as well.

Your son's urinary tract infections have nothing to do with his foreskin. In the first year of life, it is not unusual to have UTIs, especially for girls. They have UTIs at about 4.5 times the rate of boys. If the UTIs continue after the first year, you may want to have him checked for structural abnormalitites. This would most likely be a defective valve between the bladder and the kidneys causing reflux or the urine backing up from the bladder back into the kidney. Even if this is the case, it is most likely that he will outgrow it, just at a later age.




Frank

[Nathan1097]

To add to what Frank said, I had urinary reflux as a kid- until about age 11. So did my (circumcised, much younger) cousin.

[shaylahc]

Thanks everyone for the advice. I feel reassured now

[gethane]

Although you are already reassured, I thought I'd chime in too. My son's penis ballooned like that up until he was almost a year. He also had one UTI. He's now 15 months, it no longer balloons and he hasn't had a UTI since his first, at 6 months. He also seems quite pleased by his penis when the chance occurs to get to know it better .