What to do if the foreskin is too long in children

Children are the hope of a family and the apple of their parents' eyes. Children's health is the top priority for parents. Although phimosis in children is not a disease, it still needs to be discovered and treated in time. Delaying the treatment of the child will cause certain harm to him. When children are young, they do not understand what foreskin is, so parents need to take responsibility for their children and carefully observe whether their children have the phenomenon of foreskin being too long.

When parents find that their child has foreskin that is too long, they should seek medical attention in time. Generally, it is best to treat the child when he is 6 or 7 years old. The child will recover quickly and the impact on the body is not significant. Let’s take a look at the methods and precautions of circumcision surgery.

In the past, the only way to treat phimosis was circumcision, which required hospitalization and was painful. In recent years, with the development of medicine, balloon dilatation is being widely used to treat phimosis. It does not require hospitalization, is simple and convenient, and does not affect children's life and study. The treatment mechanism is mainly based on the characteristics of children's foreskin, which is thin and soft, does not contain fat tissue and is highly elastic. The use of tracheal dilatation can save most children with phimosis from the pain of surgical treatment.

Before the dilation operation, anesthetic is dripped into the outer opening of the foreskin. After 2-3 minutes, a disposable balloon catheter is used to separate the adhesion between the foreskin and the glans penis. The foreskin is then turned up, the smegma is removed, a small amount of ointment is applied, and finally the foreskin is restored to its original position to cover the glans penis. The whole operation only takes a dozen minutes. There is only a slight feeling of distension when the balloon is inflated and slight discomfort when separating adhesions. A check-up and medication application will be done once two days after the operation. After that, as long as the local area is kept clean and regular cleaning is done, re-adhesion can be prevented.

Balloon catheter dilatation is a non-invasive treatment that does not cause bleeding and is minimally painful. Children generally cooperate and accept it.

In addition, you should pay attention to local cleaning on a daily basis and keep your underwear soft. Children with phimosis should be treated as early as possible, preferably before school age. What kind of phimosis needs treatment? If the physiological phimosis of infants and young children is not infected by the glans penis or foreskin and there is no difficulty in urination , they can be observed. Preschool children and children with infections or dysuria who have phimosis can first try foreskin dilation in the outpatient clinic to expose the glans penis and clean out the smegma to avoid recurrence of foreskin adhesion. At the same time, parents must be advised to restore the foreskin immediately after dilation of the foreskin , otherwise it will cause incarcerated phimosis. In the past, phimosis in children generally required surgical treatment, but now many children can be cured through conservative treatment. Only a very small number of cases of phimosis require circumcision.

There are different opinions about the circumcision surgery. We believe that circumcision should be strictly controlled and the number of operations should be reduced as much as possible. Surgery can only be considered for those who meet the following conditions: 1. Pathological phimosis with a fibrous narrow ring at the foreskin opening; 2. Recurrent balanoposthitis; 3. Severe narrowing of the foreskin opening after school age, inability to retract the foreskin to expose the glans penis, and ineffective conservative treatment.

In fact, a child’s foreskin being too long is not a serious disease. Parents should comfort their children so as not to cause any mental harm to them. During the child's treatment, it is important to maintain an optimistic attitude towards the child and respect the child's privacy. If the child does not want others to know that he has had surgery, adults should keep it confidential. A child's mental health is as important as his or her physical health.