[Festivus]

Both of my sons are uncircumcised and this is a first for us. My 2 year old began saying yesterday that his penis hurts. This phrase has never come out of either boys' mouths before, so I know something is wrong.

At a doctor's appt some time ago the doc said it looked like maybe he had a tiny bit of yeast, but nothing alarming, no treatment. Now, Matthew is on an antibiotic for an ear infection and I am wondering if it has "super upset" the balance of yeast.

The end of his penis is really inflamed. I am thinking it must not be bacterial b/c he is on an antibiotic and has been for 5 days.

Thoughts?????

I had some ketaconazole from when he had thrush and diaper rash as an infant and have put some on. I do not want to take him to any kind of urgent care over the weekend b/c God knows who we'd see and what process they would use to diagnose...

I have also thrown him in some undies (we had tried potty training a couple of months ago but backed off when he lost interest) in order to keep the area drier. I am going to go get some probiotics for children, also.

So, any ideas would be really helpful...

 

[Frankly Speaking]

If it's yeast, an over the counter preparation such as gynelotrimin should help. If it doesn't, the problem could be a viral infection such as staph that an antibiotic would not resolve. If you do decide to go to a doctor, I would request a culture so that the problem can be identified for proper treatment.

Frank

 

[Sarah]

Kim- Sorry to not really have any advice for you, it sounds like your own sleuthing (because he was on antibiotics) is probably on the money. Treating the yeast is the direction I would go with it, and if it does not seem to be responding, I would take him in to the Dr to get a culture, I am sure it would just require a swab, nothing invasive.

I'm not sure if by inflamed you mean swollen or just red...

Just to remember that because of the double layer of the foreskin and because it is an extremity, inflammations of the foreskin tend to look a lot worse (extreme change) than they truly are . Like a fat lip, it's a part of the body that can really swell up fast and go back down just as fast. I'm not saying to not be concerned, but I'm just reminding you that because of how , I don't know... "malable?" the foreskin is, it will accomidate a lot of swelling where a tighter zone of skin will make it's own pressure wrap.

Of course, don't retract him... there was a mom who posted once on another board, her son had what she thought was yeast and she thought she'd retract him (she had been wrongly instructed to retract from day one) to let it "air out" she left him sleeping overnight with it retracted in his diaper and he wound up with a very serious case of paraphimosis... I don't know if the story was true of not- but I still get nervous just thinking about that sort of thing.

A Dr. might diagnosis this "Balanitis" or "Balanopostitis" this is not a diagnosis of a problem, it is just a fancy way of saying "inflamed penis head" or "inflamed penis head and foreskin" There is some stuff on this at CIRP, and I think even regular old yeast infections get labeled balanitis... they say most boys who have this happen will only ever have it happen once.

I hope he gets well soon... his penis and his ears!

Love Sarah

 

[Gitti]

Common reasons for a reddened foreskin are:

 Too much exposure to soiled diapers
 An inbalance of skin bacteria caused by:
 -too many bubble baths
 -swimming in highly clorinated water
 -soap on the genitals
 -laundry soap or detergent on clothing
 -antibiotic therapy (microbial flora can be restored by eating yogurt with live culture.)
 Concentrated urine because the boy is not drinking enough water.
Drinking water, soaking in warm baths, and letting children run around with bare bottoms to air their genitals helps healing.

 

[Festivus]

Thank you so much for ALL of your replies. I really, really appreciate the feedback. It looks better already today. I don't know if that means:

a) it wasn't yeast (I would have a hard time believing that - it looked awful and my older boy's has NEVER looked like that

OR

b) it was yeast and a couple of slathers with the antifungal and keeping the area dry in undies helped.

The good news is that he has been staying dry in the undies!!! We had stopped potty training after about one day a few months ago b/c he couldn't even make it 20 min in between potty visits. I could just tell he wasn't ready. Apparently he is ready now b/c he has been staying dry for the most part in between trips. Still a long road ahead, of course, but we are on it now.

Thanks SO much for your replies. I knew somebody here would know what to do!!!!

 

[Xenogenesis]

Some Mothers have reportedly used the acidopholous directly on the inflamed tissue with success.