[birthdancedoula]

My 14 m/o's foreskin is really red, very inflamed, and has spots of peeling skin. There is also a small, very raw looking wound just below the tip of the foreskin where it meets to cover the glans. My poor guy wakes up very uncomfortable, moving his legs and squirming until I change his diaper. I have put diaper cream on and around the area but that doesn't seem to be cutting it. What is going on here? My other two DS's never had this type of problem. What can I do for him?
TIA!

 

[feebeeglee]

I'm gonna guess yeast. Try a bath with tea tree oil and then some 7 day vaginal yeast infection cream applied like diaper cream. Even if it doesn't improve and you end up going to a doctor, it's something to try that won't hurt. But man does that ever sound like a yeast rash.

Oh and probiotics if you don't already are great too.

 

[2tadpoles]

Yeah, what she said.

Yeast was the first thing that I thought of, too.

 

[Frankly Speaking]

I'm going with Feebee and tadpoles. It sounds like yeast to me too. If it doesn't respond to Feebee's suggestion, take him to a doctor and if there is any question as to whether it is yeast or bacterial, ask for a culture to positively identify it. Either way, you will be prescribed an ointment that will clear up the symptoms within 36 hours. It really is as easy as that!

Also, warn the doctor before he/she even gets started that there is to be absolutely no retraction. Not even just a little bit for a peek! Not for any reason!

Frank

 

[birthdancedoula]

Thanks guys! That was my initial thought, too. We let him sleep w/o a dipe last night and that seemed to help him a lot. It is really chapped and crusty this morning. I put some Vaseline on it so it won't hurt him when he pees so much. I'm also going to do one more rinse of his dipes just to r/o a detergent irritation. Fortunately, if we have to resort to going to the doc, we have a very foreskin-friendly ped who has intact sons of his own. He is very well versed in common foreskin problems and is even familiar w. Dr. Fleiss' work.

With yeast though, is it normal for there to be hard crusting on the skin? Regardless, I'm breaking out the probiotics now!
Thanks again. I'll let yk what happens.

 

[birthdancedoula]

I just wanted to report back...Sebastian's foreskin looks sooo much better! You guys were right...I dunked him in a TTO bath, put on some Monistat and gave him lots of acidophilous and voila! he's healed! What an amazing organ the foreskin is!! I can only imagine, sadly, how some would see an inflamed foreskin like my ds had and think that was reason to circ. I wonder what a doc would have said??? I'm thrilled that my son had whatever it was on his foreskin and not on his glans.

Thank you so much for your advice...

Blessings,

 

[feebeeglee]

yay for lil Bas

glad it resolved so well

 

[kavamamakava]

I almost posted that it was yeast and then read the whole thread and see that you solved it. Yay

I've battled yeast a lot and one thing I've learned is that it's best to let it breathe. If it happens again, you might want to skip on the vaseline and just use monistat or something like that. Also, if his foreskin gets red and you suspect yeast but it's not bad and you're not sure, you can add a few drops of lavender oil to his diaper cream when you apply it since lavender is anti-fungal.

 

[Frankly Speaking]

I think the foreskin is much like the canaries miners used to take into the mines.

Some of the deadly gasses found in mines are clear and odorless and in the early years, miners died after being exposed to these gasses. They learned that canaries were extremely sensitive to these gasses and started taking them down into the mines as their early warning devices. If the canary died, the got the heck outta there!

The foreskin is extremely sensitive, much like the lips and as such, will be the first area to show when something is not quite right. It's kind of an early warning system for that whole area. It's interesting that even though the foreskin looks terrible when it is performing this function, the boys usually don't show much or any discomfort. Without the foreskin, the entire area could become affected before the problem was noticed.

Frank