[ ARC forum 2 ]
Written by Will - UK at 29 Jun 2004 16:19:07: Re: my son
As an answer to: my son written by concerned mother at 29 Jun 2004 08:07:52:
>I do wonder if my son does not have phimosis at all but just a badly scarred foreskin. He tells me that it nearly always cracks when he cleans it in the bath but it doesn't hurt so he just keeps pulling it back. I am afraid that the scarring is now too difficult to put right.
What you have told us, that your son's foreskin goes back easily BUT it gets caught behind the helmet whilst he's retracted and that the skin splits as he's skinning himself, but doesn't hurt... Makes me ask the question of whether your son has dry skin?
At 10, there's no need for him to skin himself to clean his willy, nothing terrible will happen, his bits won't fall off if he leaves his foreskin forward and just washes the outside of his willy. Doing this should allow the cuts and tears at the tip of his foreskin to heal completely. There are two types of phimosis, the first which is present in the vast majority of boys, a naturally occuring tightness which keeps the foreskin drawn forward. The other type is a tightness or phimosis which is caused by retraction, sometimes at too early an age when the boy's sheath is forced back by mum in the bath or also by damage caused by other circumstances such as a dry skin condition. I have a cousin in the Netherlands whose foreskin was getting tiny splits and cracks because he had dry skin which didn't want to "give" as he stretched his foreskin opening back over his helmet.
As I said, I would suggest he leave his foreskin forward for the time being and to apply a moisturizing cream to the general external skin on his penis with special attention to the tip of his foreskin. One of the best lotions for this is "Eucerin" which is available in the chemists' and other places all over the world.
Once the current splits heal and the Eucerin has a chance to moisturize his foreskin, he should be able to gently skin himself and then replace his sheath without injuring his foreskin.