I have a Question

Oh Lindsey- Sorry to hear that. Poor both of you! People need to get with the program! Here is info from the AAP if you need to show it to someone in writing-
http://www.cirp.org/library/normal/aap/

and for later:
http://www.cirp.org/library/hygiene/

http://www.nocirc.org/publish/ Pamphlet 6 covers some of the issues. If a medical person told you to do this- they should be sued AND re-educated. If family or friends did- they ALSO need to be set straight.

There is a chance that the prolonged retraction- expecially if it was hurting him, may result in some longer term problems of early forced retraction. I am speaking mainly of phimosis, which may result from the forming of scar tissue when his foreskin opening was forced open before it was ready. There are many CONSERVATIVE treatments for phimosis and you can find the medical articles listed at http://www.cirp.org

http://www.cirp.org/library/treatment/phimosis/

Just because you have found out that he should have been the first person to do the retracting... don't just abandon him to himself now. Be sure that he knows penile anatomy and understands the inside/outside/retraction concept and that he should was when he is retractable, and that it's OK to pull his foreskin back- but that he should always replace it forward again after washing. When he is a pre-teen you should be sure that he knows how a normal penis functions so that he can be aware if he has any problems from the premature retraction of his early childhood. And make sure he knows that any problem that he has can be dealt with in very conservative ways without circumcision and likely without even any surgery and that if he does have any questions that he needs to tell you or his dad so that you guys can get him some answers.

Love Sarah

Oh, Linsey! I know this is a distressing thing to hear at this late stage of the game but I wouldn't worry about it too much I suspect that he hasn't suffered any infections as a result of this or you would have said something. If that's the case, that's good. The other thing that could happen is acquired phimosis but that probably isn't anything to worry about either. Does he retract his foreskin himself? If he does, that's a good indicator that there was no harm done. If he doesn't, don't encourage it and let him discover it on his own. There is absolutely no reason to worry about hygiene until puberty anyway just as there is no need to worry about a girl's vaginal hygiene. Mother Nature was very wise in providing for adequate hygiene in children.

When your son reaches puberty, you can mention what you have learned and ask him if he can comfortably retract. If he can, then there was no harm done. If he can't, then there are gentle stretching exercises he can perform that will resolve the problem in a short time. It is covered in one of the links above.

What ever happens, do not listen to a doctor who says he has acquired phimosis or "tight foreskin" and needs to be circumcised until he is in his teens and all other more conservative treatments have been ruled out. the stretching exercises are successful 99%+ of the time and it would be very unusual if they were not successful for your son as well. The times they are not successful is when there have been repeated infections that have not been adequately treated and that is also very rare.

Frank

Thank-you all SO much for your replys. I honestly did not know we had done something wrong until I visited this board this afternoon. ugh... I guess I can't roll back the clock. I think he was 3 or 4 when we began retracting it (he's 5.5 now). Tonight I asked him if his penis hurt and he said only if he pulls the skin back. I told him he did not need to pull it back ever(until it feels natural to him obviously)! Now that I know that

I took him to his pedi once because his penis was red it didn't need medication or anything. His ped. said that it just need to soak in the bath to get clean and didn't need retracting, but he never said anything bad about it being retracted in the past. I'm glad he gave us the information he did, I just wish I had thought to ask for proper care info. from the beginning. btw it was my mom, sister, and friend/roomate who told me to retract and clean as well as a general "society says foreskin is dirty" message

So, since his penis was red a few times from our mistaken care is that going to likely have repercussions? The redness went away on its own once we let his penis be.

I will definately book mark those links for current and future reference.

Thanks again, and I must say, for the zillionth time - I am so happy that I found MDC

Lindsay:

Please bear with me while I give you a long winded explanation (aren't all of my explanations long winded? :LOL) of the anatomy and what happens.

There is a ring of tissue around the tip of the foreskin called various names including the preputial sphincter, the frenar band, the ridged band and Taylor's band. In an infant and toddler, the purpose of this band is to keep contaminants out of the preputial sac. In young children, this band is not elastic. As the child's body prepares for retraction of the foreskin, the tissue in the band is replaced with elastic tissue and the opening of the foreskin becomes stretchy. At the same time, the epithelium layer that bonds the foreskin to the glans breaks down and is not replaced. When this process is complete, the foreskin will become easily retractile.

When the preputial sphincter is forced to stretch by premature retraction, this non-elastic tussue will get microscopic tears in it and these repairs are replaced by scar tissue. This scar tissue will remain and will not be replaced by the elastic tissue and scar tissue is not very elastic. When there has been considerable trauma such as this, the preputial sphincter will remain non-elastic to some extent depending on the amount of damage done. I suspect that the redness you report is the symptomatic indication of that damage.

From your description, it doesn't sound like you did this a long time and it also doesn't sound like there was substantial damage done compared to other cases I have heard of. There is a chance that your son's foreskin may have lost some of it's elasticity but I doubt it is substantial. There is no reason to approach this issue now. Just wait and see if he becomes naturally retractile as he gets older. When he is around 12 or 14 years old, just ask if he has any problem retracting and if he does, he can use the stretching exercises and all will be well.

Frank

Quote:
An understatement, Frank! As a person who has much scar tissue in various locations on my body, it doesn't stretch at all! In fact, my scarring is all quite "hypertrophic". I don't know that you'd get that type from retracting a foreskin- seems to be a surgically-related thing and definitely a strange healing issue. Scar tissue itself happens when the body tries to heal too quickly, I think I've heard. In addition to not stretching, scar tissue has no sensation to the touch either. There is some pressure sensation- most of which is pain. But maybe I'm just thinking of my recent scarring.

I was just chatting a couple days ago with a friend of mine who is very much like you- same age, same mindset re: circ. The two of you aught to go out to coffee one day - you'd have a grand old time! Anyway, he was telling me about a show he saw about sex-change operations and how they do them. From both sexes to the other. What gets me is, if someone cut those bits on me and attempted to rearrange them in such a heinous manner, I'd for sure have scar tissue and then quite possibly have large sections of numbness! Of course, I'd never do that; works just great, thanks.