I'm at a loss, my doctor can't see us until Wednesday and we have the dreaded "swollen red foreskin". It it twice its size, we called the pediatrician last night and we took him to nighttime pediatrics. Big waste of time and money, they said that basically he needed to be circed (well, the Dr. said he must have dirt under there and it is infected, we needed to retract and if that didn't work.... to circ!...).... (^%$@).

I'm thinking it is a yeast, there is a small amount of white stuff around the tip (sorta like when I have a yeast infection... tmi!). Is there something over the counter I can try? I've tried a baking soda bath, and an epsom salt bath.

I just hate seeing it that swollen. :gloomy:

Sorry, I don't have any advice, but I know some of the girls in here will have great advice for you. Fortunately, Nathan's not had any problems, so I don't know, but I'm sure you're probably right. Our mommy instinct is usually right-on, and we shouldn't let doctors' ignorant assumptions lead us away from what we know is right. Good luck! :)

If you think it's yeast, try lots of probiotics orally and topically and see if that helps. Also, keep it dry as much as possible, maybe use a hair dryer on cool (TMI that's what I do when I get one). There probably are creams if you want to go that route, but I like to try and treat mine naturally first. Search the health and healing boards (or you can look under my name, there are a few recent yeast posts). GL!

We have had good success with lots of diaper free time, and pure, alcohol free aloe vera. But my son's is not yeast.

Regular old 7 day vaginal yeast infection cream (any kind) is what my ped told me to use on my ds when he had yeasties in his foreskin. HTH!

I use lotrim cream when my little guy got his last one the ped told me to try it first I also have an anti yeast wipe I use that helps out tons I have posted it here before I need to look up the recipe again but as soon as I find it i will post it for you. Does it look like he has little raised bumps around the area? That is usually one of the first signs my little guy has yeast.

I have a "friend" with a 2 year old son who is circed. When he got a yeast infection on his penis the glans did exactly as I have heard foreskin doing with yeast infections. Really red, inflamed and looks bigger and cultured growing candida (yeast).

When she took him they suggested like the pp, the monistat cream or other otc yeast med. Ya know why, cause he was already circed and they couldnt suggest that now could they?

Wonder why they cant just suggest the same things to intact babies with yeast infections as they do for circed ones.

so sad.

hope your little guy gets to feeling better and i am sorry you had your time wasted with talk of "dirt" and retraction.

Good news....Dr said we can come in today! Thanks for all the advice, this is the only place I feel I can turn to with problems like this...

Make sure they do a swab WITHOUT RETRACTION.

Oh yes, no retraction! That is why I just can't seem to go to any other doctor, the doctor I see is very good with intact boys (and homeopathic stuff). Actually she suggested vinegar and epsom salt soaks with collodial silver dabbed on afterwards. I'm supposed to eat garlic too. Hopefully that will help...

This doctor is very good, as DW Woodsygirl says. When we went to nighttime pediatrics, the Dr told us that if it didn't clear up the next day, the cure is circumcision. He also wrote on the form "Parents requested 'no retraction'" like it was something odd. He specifically told us we had to retract it and clean it out (we know better). I said "are you sure it isn't a yeast infection or bacterial infection", he said "yep" and was out the door. I think he spent more time writing up the paper than seeing us.

That place scares me. First time we went there, we thought DS had an ear infection. The doctor immediately went to tug on his penis. I told him not to, and he said he wanted to "make sure there is a hole there" (DS is a chubby baby, so it looks like a little accordian down there <g>). I had to slap his hand away to get him away from that area after telling him to leave it alone a couple times. I hate having to stress out about going to the dr and having to hover over DS watching for what they do, and trying to decide if he/she will stop when it gets taught, or will try yanking further (when they have a legit reason to look at it, like this time). We only went there because poor DS looked like a cherry tomato down there and was obviously not happy. (ok, I exaggerate, not quite a tomato, but it was red and swollen)

Anyway, this new doctor did well. I really like her (woodsy picked her out) After a few soakings yesterday in epsom salts and vinegar (she said we could go 1:1 with water if we wanted, but that might be a bit strong, so we went less than that) and the collodal silver (DW's recommendation, seconded by the Dr), it seems to have cleared up. She also wrote us a prescription for Keflex, but said to wait a couple days and call her before using it. It was nice she did that, though.

DS smells like a potato chip, but is obviously doing much better now :thumb


I read a bunch of other threads here and decided to join. Nice place. I'm not sure I'll post much, but there's lots of great information and great folks here.

For the record, I'm circ'd, and was pretty bummed out about it when woodsy started educating me about it before DS was born, and before we made any official no-circ decision. Before that, I didn't even know it was a choice. You have to hate looking at photos and going "OH, *that's* why that looks that way" and "oh, that's not natural?" :)

Thanks everyone for your help

Pete