Good personal hygiene should be a daily ritual because any part of the body that is not cleaned properly can smell. If you do not wash your butt or armpits they will smell bad. Your penis will smell too if you do not wash it. Circumcised penises are easier to clean but that should not be a reason for you to get your son circumcised. More parents have come to realize that circumcision is not medically necessary. The sad part is that many do not know what to do about their son’s uncircumcised or intact penis. Improper care of the intact penis is one of the reasons that children need circumcision later in life. Another reason is trying to retract the foreskin of the penis before it is ready to be retracted is another reason.
The best thing is for parents to let it alone and let the child wash his penis on his own. He will get to know when it is ready to be retracted and will do that at the right time. Many problems that occur in an uncircumcised penis are due to forced retraction of the foreskin by parents or health care providers. Initially, a baby’s foreskin is difficult to pull back over the penis. The glans penis or the head of the penis is always hidden that is covered by the foreskin. By the time a boy is about three (a bit longer in some cases) the foreskin is fully retractable. Till this time you need only to wash the outside of the penis with soap and water.
Clean underneath the foreskin when it is easy to retract. Remember to replace the foreskin over the head of the penis after cleaning and rinsing. An intact penis has an increased risk of getting an infection if not cleaned properly. This makes it extremely necessary that proper attention is paid to personal hygiene care.
Smegma is the white secretion of the sebaceous glands of the foreskin. This is what has to be cleaned. However, this is not produced during childhood and the secretion tends to increase only during puberty. Teaching personal hygiene to your son should start as soon as he starts understanding the meaning of cleanliness and starts having his bath on his.
The important thing to know in personal hygiene is to clean the smegma. At the same time it should be understood that this secretion is the body’s natural way of providing lubrication for protection as well facilitating the foreskin to slide easily over the head of the penis. Once it is removed it will appear again.
Make sure that your son’s medical attendants know that his foreskin is not to be forcibly retracted. As the child grows let him retract the foreskin on his own. By the time your son is fifteen cleaning the penis comes easy as the foreskin is fully retractable. Teach him that personal hygiene will protect him against penile infections.