Should you uncap your little boy and at what age? By gradually taking off the foreskin from the glans of the penis, some experts see it as a way of avoiding adhesions, while others are more cautious, especially with regard to the age of the child. The opinions of Dr Anne Boutemy and Eric Saban, pediatricians.
Parents with a boy all ask themselves the question of the cap. To limit the adherences, certain doctors recommend to retract the small boys, progressively, as of childhood. Other pediatricians are against the capping, a gesture that they often consider to be traumatic for the child. They also believe that the preputial adhesions will gradually be released, in a natural way, through small erections. Should we recap the baby or not? At what age and how to do it, in the bath? We take stock, with the opinions of pediatricians Anne Boutemy and Eric Saban.
What is stripping?
The scalping consists of sliding the foreskin over the glans of the penis. When the child is not circumcised, the foreskin tends to cover the glans, which can cause small white pasty secretions that coagulate. This is called the smegma. This substance acts as a kind of glue, which keeps the foreskin glued to the glans. “These small adhesions are not serious, we pull a little on them every day in the bath and this glue will eventually go away“reassures Dr. Anne Boutemy.
No to forced stripping
Dr Anne Boutemy is completely opposed to the idea of forcibly retracting little boys. “Beyond the fact that this can be traumatic, it creates fibrosis in the skin which will then tighten more strongly, requiring surgery.“, she notes.
Why uncap baby?
The opinion of Dr. Eric Saban who prefers to continue to retract the boys.“Little by little, these adhesions are likely to progress towards the tip of the zizi“, believes the pediatrician. “Sometimes the foreskin is completely closed and children can no longer urinate“, he adds. In this very rare case, surgery is necessary. Moreover, “experience shows that when you don’t remove them, adhesions form and this prevents erections at some point”, he adds. During adolescence, for example,young people can have painful erections due to these preputial adhesions that have never been released“, specifies the specialist. And this can have psychological consequences.
At what age can a baby be uncapped?
- “During the first months, babies are still too small. They may have small erections, but these are not enough to lift the foreskin away from the glans“, specifies Dr. Eric Saban. Indeed, it is necessary to know thatthere is no medical consensus on the subject of the cappingthe recommendations vary from one pediatrician to another depending on each person’s experience”, explains Dr Anne Boutemy.
- For her part, she asks parents to do not touch the foreskin before the age of 24 months because the rod is too small. “At the 24-month visit, I look at the condition of the foreskin: either it slides normally over the glans and does not show any shrinkage, in which case it is normal, or there are adhesions, i.e. that the foreskin is glued in places. I then advise parents to start pulling gently on the skin of the foreskin without forcing to clean the glans, the adhesions will gradually lift until puberty“, she adds.
- Moreover, “this hygiene gesture is done naturally in the bath around the age of 3/4 years, when little boys play with their zizi” recalls Dr. Eric Saban.
Above all, you must not be “traumatizing”, and do a gentle decap. The ideal is to uncap the child after the bath, because the skin is softened. It is advisable to proceed little by little, to gain 1 mm as the baths progress (on average once or twice a week), so that the child can be completely screwed up.
“From the age of 24 months, I advise parents to tighten the foreskin firmly and delicately at the same time, after bath, once the skin is wet. The goal ? Soften the skin of the glans. By doing this every day for 2/3 years, you end up getting a good result”, says the specialist. If the result is still not conclusive after some time, Dr. Anne Boutemy prescribes a cortisone-based cream to apply between the glans and the foreskin once a day for a month, while taking the cap off her child when bathing. “Generally, the treatment is satisfactory after one month. If despite this, we still can’t get the cap off, I refer my patients to the urologist who will look at the penis and operate if necessary to remove the adhesions.“, she continues.
“From the age of 24 months, I advise parents to tighten the foreskin firmly and delicately at the same time, after bathonce the skin is wet”.
Circumcision in case of impossible cap removal?
Sometimes the foreskin is too narrow and impossible to retract, even when you force a little. We then speak of phimosis and this is the only medical indication for performing a circumcision. “We arrive at situations where parents have allowed adhesions to settle for months or even years. Result: the foreskin has become so narrow that the only alternative becomes circumcision“, says Dr. Eric Saban. But this case is again quite rare. “And it is precisely to avoid arriving at that, that it is necessary to retract them“says the specialist.