How to clean baby boy private parts

How to Care for Your Baby's Penis

Ages & Stages

The Circumcised Penis

If you chose to have your son circumcised, the procedure likley performed in the hospital before discharge, but is sometimes done afterward. Ritual circumcisions for religious reasons are usually performed in the second week after birth.

After the procedure, a light dressing with petroleum jelly will have been placed over the head of the penis. The next time the baby urinates, this dressing usually will come off. Some pediatricians recommend keeping a clean dressing over the area until the penis is fully healed, while others advise leaving it off. The important thing is to keep the area as clean. If stool get on the penis, wipe it gently.

What to expect

The tip of the penis may look red for the first few days, and you may notice a yellow secretion. Both mean that the area is healing normally. The redness and secretion disappear gradually within a week.

When to call the pediatrician

If the redness persists or there is swelling or crusted yellow sores, there may be an infection. This does not happen often, but if you suspect an infection, consult your pediatrician.

After the circumcision has healed:

Usually, after the circumcision has healed, the penis requires no additional care. Occasionally a small piece of the foreskin remains. You should pull back this skin gently each time the child is bathed. Examine the groove around the head of the penis and make sure it's clean.

Note: If circumcision is desired but is not performed within the baby's first two weeks (perhaps for medical reasons), it is usually put off for several weeks or months. The follow- up care is the same whenever it is done. Should circumcision become necessary after the newborn period, general anesthesia is often used and requires a more formal surgical procedure with control of bleeding and suturing of skin edges.

The Uncircumcised Penis

In the first few months, you should simply clean and bathe your baby's uncircumcised penis, like the rest of the diaper area. Initially, the foreskin is connected by tissue to the glans, or head, of the penis, so you shouldn't try to retract it. No cleansing of the penis with cotton swabs or antiseptics is necessary.

The doctor will tell you when the foreskin has separated and can be retracted safely. This will not be for several months or years, and should never be forced; if you force the foreskin to retract before it is ready, you could cause painful bleeding and tears in the skin. After this separation occurs, retract the foreskin occasionally to gently cleanse the end of the penis.

What to do as your son gets older:

As your son gets older, you'll need to teach him what he must do in order to urinate and wash his penis. Teach him to clean his foreskin by:

Gently pulling it back away from the head of the penis.
Rinsing the head of the penis and inside fold of the foreskin.
Pulling the foreskin back over the head of the penis.

Last Updated: 8/2/2021

Source: Adapted from Caring for Your Baby and Young Child: Birth to Age Five 7th edition (Copyright © 2019 American Academy of Pediatrics)

The information contained on this Web site should not be used as a substitute for the medical care and advice of your pediatrician. There may be variations in treatment that your pediatrician may recommend based on individual facts and circumstances.

Penis care: A guide to cleaning your baby boy's business

Photo: iStockphoto

Sure, Jacob’s* penis looked a bit inflamed, but for Maura*, that didn’t set off any red flags. The Toronto mom figured it was probably a diaper-related irritation. The next day, though, things looked much worse. “It was very red and swollen,” Maura says. “It almost looked as though something was tied around it.” Now concerned, she reached out to friends on a local parenting message board for advice. Her toddler was uncircumcised—perhaps his foreskin was just starting to retract? Maybe he’d been a little too rigorous while exploring his body?

The next day, Maura took Jacob to see his paediatrician, who diagnosed the toddler with an infection. He prescribed a topical cream and some antibiotics. “And then he said, ‘But if this doesn’t work, we may need to do an emergency circumcision,’” Maura recalls. “That felt really weird, and it totally freaked me out.”

Happily, the raw, red bits cleared up, but Maura is still worried. She and her husband were secure in their decision not to circumcise, and the prospect of subjecting their toddler to a sudden surgical intervention was unnerving. That anxiety is common, says Karen Psooy, a paediatric urologist based in Winnipeg. “Parents are often unclear as to what justifies a circumcision,” she explains. The most common medical reasons are foreskin issues (one that’s too tight, one that’s unusually scarred or causes problems with urination) and a series of ongoing infections. “In the majority of these cases, a trial of topical steroids, prior to considering surgery, is worthwhile,” says Psooy.

If your son is uncircumcised In most instances, though—especially with boys who are uncircumcised—the best approach to care is to be proactive, says Aubie Diamond, a Toronto-area doctor who specializes in circumcisions. For your son’s first year, take care to wash his penis gently with mild soap and water, and dry it thoroughly. Keeping the area clean will help ward off fungal infections, which can be nasty and lead to the kind of swelling Jacob experienced. But “never, ever try to forcibly push back the foreskin on a baby,” Diamond says. “If it hasn’t naturally separated, it’s very sensitive. It could tear or scar, and that’s going to lead to complications.”

Eventually, the foreskin will retract on its own. According to the Canadian Paediatric Society, by age six, about half of boys can retract their foreskins, though the separation may not be complete until puberty, and 95 percent of boys have retractile foreskin by age 17. Once the foreskin has retracted on its own, Diamond recommends rolling it back every time you give your son a bath. Using a soft washcloth, gently wash away any residue, then thoroughly dry the area before bringing the foreskin back into place.

“It’s a moist, dark, warm region,” says Diamond, “and if you don’t dry it properly, that can lead to yeast infections. You need to keep this up until your child develops the maturity and level of independence to do it himself.”

Typically, says Diamond, a mild infection can simply be a signal to a parent that a child’s penis requires a little extra care—additional baths, more methodical drying—but recurrent or severe irritations, especially those that cause clear discomfort, may require a trip to a urologist.

If your son is circumcised Similar to their intact counterparts, circumcised penises should be gently washed with mild soap during bath time. Post-procedure complications might include bleeding and can be controlled in most cases. “In experienced hands, complications are uncommon and, in most cases, are easy to deal with,” Diamond says. “More serious complications are extremely rare.” One of these rare complications is called urethral meatal stenosis. “Basically, it’s when the pee-hole narrows,” Psooy says. “This can occur in up to 10 percent of cases.” One sign might be a urine stream that seems to veer skyward. “If you have a kid who always wins the peeing-over-the-fence contest, Dad may be proud, but it can be a sign that you should consult a urologist,” she says.

Psooy says she often encounters parents who are overly concerned about adhesions—or foreskin areas that attach to the glans in both circumcised and uncircumcised boys. In cases thought to be causing symptoms, revision can be necessary to separate the skin from the glans manually. But these cases are the outliers, says Psooy. “People worry that the adhesions need to be dealt with now to prevent complications later in life, but they’re almost never a problem.”

* Names have been changed

This article was originally published on Jan 24, 2017

Boys' hygiene

In the article we will raise such a delicate and at the same time simple topic - “hygiene of the genital organs in boys”. Why is this question sensitive? In our society, unfortunately, it is not customary to call the genitals by their proper names. It may be easier for adults to call the penis "faucet" or "cockerel", considering the concepts of "foreskin", "scrotum" and other names of parts of the genital organs to horror indecent words. But "nose" or "ear" is not considered a curse, is it? We propose to call all things by their proper names. nine0003

Why is the question simple? Because if you have a normal healthy boy, you don’t need to invent anything. The genitals of boys are cleaned in the same way as other parts of the body - with water and neutral soap.

In most newborn boys, the foreskin is tightly attached to the glans penis. This is not a pathology and is due only to the peculiarities of intrauterine development. The foreskin plays an important role in protecting the urinary tract and the glans penis and is not a useless piece of skin. nine0003

A condition in which the foreskin cannot be moved to expose the glans penis is called phimosis. In most cases, phimosis is physiological. The condition resolves as the penis grows, spontaneous erections and desquamation (flaking) of the epithelium between the inner layer of the foreskin and the head.

At what age should the glans penis fully open?

There is no specific time period. This can happen weeks, months or years later. The timing of opening the head does not affect anything at all. For boys, this option is necessary only at the beginning of sexual activity. nine0003

As a rule, physiological phimosis resolves on its own by the age of 5-6 years. And only in 1% of boys the condition persists by the age of 17. As you can see, the range is huge!

How to wash boys after foreskin removal?

After the physiological phimosis has resolved, it is necessary to teach the boy proper hygiene. To wash, gently pull back the foreskin, exposing the head of the penis, rinse with warm water and neutral soap, and pull the foreskin back. nine0003

What to do with the whitish balls under the skin of the foreskin?

These balls are nothing more than smegma - an accumulation of the secretion of the sebaceous glands and desquamated epithelial cells. You don't need to do anything with them. Smegma may remain under the foreskin, or may partially stand out. Both in the first and in the second case, this is absolutely normal. Nothing to pick out, squeeze out here is not necessary.

Symptoms requiring a medical examination:

1. The occurrence of inflammation of the genital organs - edema, redness of the foreskin, pain during urination. nine0003

2. Various violations of the outflow of urine during the act of urination - an intermittent stream, the release of urine in a thin stream or drops.

3. Loss of the ability to open the foreskin (if it was previously possible).

4. Paraphimosis - the impossibility of returning the foreskin to its place after its removal, the occurrence of edema and redness of the glans penis.

Attention!

Do not forcefully try to move the foreskin to expose the glans penis! In addition to skin ruptures, unbearable pain and bleeding, nothing can be achieved by this. In the future, this can cause pathological cicatricial phimosis, which will definitely require surgical intervention. nine0003

In some cases, a pediatric urologist may recommend conservative therapy in the form of a hormonal cream (for example, 0.05% Betamethasone). If there are no changes after 8 weeks, the doctor decides on further management tactics.

And finally…

Thus, to summarize: in the absence of pathological processes, the hygiene of the external genitalia in boys is no different from the hygiene of the hands or feet. Washed, dried and calmly went about their business. nine0003

Hygiene for boys

The problem of genital hygiene in boys from newborn to 5 years should be given special attention.

Our urologist Nomokonov Andrey Vvanovich prepared several recommendations on how to properly care for the boys.

In the first months of life, it is recommended to wash the baby daily and treat the genitals with warm boiled water using a cotton pad. Then, at the age of 2 months, you can wash with warm, not boiled water. nine0003

Hygienic procedures should not be carried out using decoctions of any herbs (to avoid unwanted allergic reactions), as well as antiseptic solutions (chlorhexidine, miromistin) and alcohol solutions (this can lead to chemical burns).

It is not enough to bathe the baby once a day, washing should be done at least 2-3 times a day, after every 3-4 urination. If the boy is often in disposable diapers, it is difficult to track the amount of urination, so hygiene procedures should be carried out at each diaper change. nine0003

Important! With all the convenience of using a diaper, you should not abuse wearing them. When worn, their own microclimate is created, which leads to a local increase in body temperature, including the genitals, in particular the testicles of a small man. This can lead to problems with childbearing in the future.

The washing procedure itself is no different from the hygiene of older children and adults, after rinsing in warm water, rinse the genitals well with soapy water (in no case with soap, because there is a risk of soap getting on the mucous membranes, which can cause a chemical burn ), then rinse thoroughly with running warm water. It is necessary to slightly move the foreskin without aggression, then rinse it with water. nine0003

To disclose or not to disclose? In this case, a more accurate wording would be to expose the head or not. The foreskin is the movable part of the skin of the penis, which closes the head, thereby protecting it from the ingress of contaminants, microorganisms, and foreign particles. At the same time, under the foreskin, a secret of the glands of the head is formed - smegma, consisting of fatty secretions and desquamated cells. This secret, in some cases, can serve as a favorable environment for the reproduction of pathogenic organisms, which can lead to inflammation of the foreskin - balanoposthitis. nine0003

As a rule, the external opening of the preputial sac (the cavity formed by the foreskin) in newborn boys is narrowed. This is called physiological phimosis. This condition is completely leveled by the age of 5-6, and in no case should you try to expose the head of the penis on your own before this age.

Firstly, without tears and hysteria, you and your baby will not succeed. Secondly, it can lead to trauma to the foreskin, which will lead to its scarring and narrowing, which will further aggravate the situation. nine0003

Phimosis is also called a condition in which the head is not independently removed from the foreskin, as a result of narrowing of the external opening of the preputial sac.