Is it true that the foreskin of a male baby is "fused" until they're about 10 years old, and doesn't retract until then?

Nop, not so.

I clearly remember pulling back my foreskin in the bath tub age 4–5 and sticking a big wad of chewing gum on the end of it and laughing my ass off.

I was a strange kid.

Jesus @poisonedantidote! You owe me a beer cuz I just spit all mine on the key board!!! ROFL!!!!

Still laughing!!

When in doubt, I always go with the sophisticated and informed experts on fb.

Retracts on its own? Yeah, if you don’t play with it I guess it would. Eventually.
But who doesn’t play with it?
If it were fused wouldn’t it make it a little uncomfortable to pee?

My son is nearly five and still fused. Only intact penis I know, so there you go.

When my elder brother was around 10, he somehow fused his dick to the zipper on his jeans, had to have part of his foreskin removed…I winced for months afterwards & made sure I opened the stud on my jeans as well as the zip whenever I took a piss, move aside, big rig coming through!

I wish a DOCTOR would respond!

What does your pediatrician say about your son @Seek_Kolinahr? I mean, does he/she say that’s the way it’s supposed to be? What happens when he gets an erection? Does his penis have any place to go?

When my son was born we opted not to circumcise him. The pediatrician told me I needed to retract the foreskin when I gave him a bath, and make sure it stayed clean. She said if I didn’t it would form adhesion that would be painful to break. So, I did, and as he got old enough to clean himself I made sure he knew to do that. He never had any problems.

On the other hand, when I had a day care I had an uncircumcised toddler, about 18 months old. The parents were uber religious and I’m thinking they were squeamish about retracting the foreskin to clean. Well, in the first week the toddler started picking and picking at the front of his diaper and kind of whimpering. He picked a hole clean through it, so I checked him. Apparently the parents never cleaned under his foreskin. It was was nasty, maybe even infected, and when I tried to retract it, it stuck to the head and it bled. I got a tiny bit free, being very gentle and using Vaseline, then decided I needed to turn it over to the parents because it was a medical issue. The baby was hurting. I told the mom when she picked her boys up and she got all red in the face and started stammering, seemed REALLY embarrassed. I got the impression she couldn’t believe I was “messing” with “that area.”

When I checked the next day, the foreskin retracted nicely….although Mom had put an extra layer of clothes on him, which was weird, since it was summertime!

(Did I mention uber-religious? Bleh.)

From the American Academy of Pediatrics:

Foreskin retraction occurs when the foreskin can be pulled back away from the glans toward the abdomen. This process happens on its own. When it happens is different for every child. It may take a few days, weeks, months, or even years. This is normal. Most boys will be able to retract their foreskins by the time they are 18 years old. Some foreskins retract soon after birth. Separation can even occur before birth, but it is rare. As a boy becomes more aware of his body, he will most likely discover how to retract his own foreskin. Sometimes the foreskin will puff out, like a balloon, while a boy urinates. This is normal and is a sign that the foreskin and the glans have begun to separate from each other. **** Foreskin retraction should never be forced ****. While the foreskin is still attached to the glans of the penis, do not try to pull it back, especially in an infant. Forcing the foreskin to retract before it is ready may harm the penis and cause pain, bleeding, and tears in the skin.

Caring for your son’s uncircumcised penis requires no special action. Remember, foreskin retraction will occur naturally and should never be forced. Once boys begin to bathe themselves, they will need to wash their penis just as they do any other body part.

I just edited in a part of the paragraph I left out. Please refresh.

Refreshing….. I got that the first time around, @Seek_Kolinahr!

I didn’t have to “force” anything. It retracted easily and smoothly since was born…well, as of his first check up when he was a week or so old, and Dr. Patsy retracted it and told me how to care for it. She told me that if you didn’t do that it would form adhesion that would be painful to break. Adhesions are ”...A fibrous band or structure by which parts abnormally adhere…”

And the only other experience I had was with the toddler in my daycare who was bleeding around the edges of his foreskin—and in pain.

I don’t know. Maybe he was one of those “days” type and the doctor didn’t fill me in on the details.

At any rate, it was bucking the norm back then, but I’m glad I didn’t have him circed. I hope he’s glad too.

I’m still curious as to what happens when the kid gets an erection, and the penis has no place to go….? Is that what forces it to begin retracting, and does it hurt?

DR RAREBEAR! HELP! I DON’T CARE IF YOU ARE JEWISH! JUST HELP!

Well, my son has only complained once in his life about pain in his penis, and that’s when he dropped the toilet lid on it. I’m nearly 100% sure that was not at all foreskin related.

The foreskin is very stretchy.

BURST OUT LAUGHIN’! OWWWWW! Ooops! I’m sorry. Poor kid!

My grandson had a pain in his penis when he was a new born. He had the grasping thing down…but not the release, and somebody was yanking and yanking on his penis and it HURT!

I gotta go! But if you post “Have you ever had a pain in your penis?” please PM me! ROFLLL!!

Oh gosh, if we’re going back that far, I thought E was going to use it as a jump rope.

Loll! When my son was about 3 he got ahold of one of those looong balloons. It was inflated and practically as tall as he was. He came running in the living room with it, held it up to his groin area and said, in astonishment, “Look! This is bigger than my penis!” It was like he couldn’t believe ANYTHING could be bigger than his penis! :) We’ve told funny family stories over and over through the years, but apparently the first time I’d re-told this on to my family was at the Thanksgiving table a few years ago. I happened to have my camera right there and caught the explosion of hilarity! It only shows my son and his girlfriend but the whole table was rolling…wait, you can just see my daughter’s reaction at far left.

Hey @Seek_Kolinahr….what do you think of that idea that newborns can’t feel pain? I think it’s bullshit. I was trying to have this circumcision discussion with my husband (who got defensive for some reason.) He brought that up. I said, “So, if you cut a newborn’s finger off he wouldn’t even notice?!” (Then he got mad for some reason, and that was the end of that discussion!)

I think it’s absurd, of course. The usual justification is that they “won’t remember it anyway”. Which is, of course, a perfectly valid reason for removing a nonconsenting person’s body parts.

It does bring up an interesting thought, though. I had a procedure done once, and rather than put me under general anesthesia they gave me some drug that wasn’t a pain killer, but rather caused me to not remember it. I kind of came to in the middle of it, and said, “I wanna watch!” and then I went blank again.

Maybe if THE DOCTOR shows up he can ‘splain that to us.

Well, we’ll just ask anyone who survived a kidney heist how they feel about it. I mean, you wake up in a bathtub and it’s all over, and you remember nothing about what happened. Sure you have to live one organ down, but if you don’t remember the procedure, what harm’s done, really?

A kidney heist? What you talking about, Willis?

I’m talking about someone waking up with missing body parts and having no memory of their having been removed.

Or theres the ‘alternative method.

No idea. Jew here.

Benny…. >_<

The “wake up in a bathtub and it’s all over” threw me. The word “heist” threw me too. I guess I don’t understand the point.