Babies Health & Safety Do's and Don'ts for Uncircumcised Babies How to Care for Your Child's Uncircumcised Penis By Stephanie Brown Stephanie Brown is a parenting writer with experience in the Head Start program and in NAEYC accredited child care centers. Learn about our editorial process Stephanie Brown Medically reviewed by Medically reviewed by Anita Sadaty, MD on September 11, 2019 facebook linkedin Anita Sadaty, MD, is a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist, resident instructor at Northwell Health, and founder of Redefining Health Medical. Learn about our Review Board Anita Sadaty, MD on September 11, 2019 Print Westend61 / Getty Images Caring for uncircumcised babies is the same as caring for infants who have been circumcised. Gentle, external cleaning during diaper changes and external washing with soap and water during bath time are all that's necessary. Still, there's a lot of confusing, conflicting, or just plain wrong information about how to care for uncircumcised babies, and improper care can lead to a child needing a circumcision later in life. This often happens if a parent is instructed to retract a child's foreskin before it is ready to be retracted. Overview Here's how to keep your child clean and healthy. Do the following to care for your infant's uncircumcised penis: Leave the foreskin alone until it begins to retract on its own. Let nature take its course. Change diapers frequently and wipe clean externally. Bathe gently with mild soap and water. Call your pediatrician if the foreskin becomes red, painful, and/or itchy, or if you can see urine accumulating under the foreskin. These could be signs of infection or balanoposthitis (inflammation of the foreskin and tip of the penis), which can be caused by not cleaning the uncircumcised penis properly. Clean your baby's uncircumcised penis as you would a finger (i.e., only "clean what is seen"). In other words, don't try to retract the foreskin to clean underneath. Avoid doing any of the following: Pull hard on the foreskin to separate it. Forcing back the foreskin, which is almost always attached to the glans in infants, toddlers, and young children, can cause pain, bleeding, or permanent damage to the penis. The natural separation of the foreskin from the glans may take many years. Clean underneath the foreskin with Q-tips, irrigation, antiseptics, or special ointments or creams. Normal soap and water, applied externally, will work just fine. Be alarmed by whitish discharge coming from underneath the foreskin. This is called infant smegma and is completely normal. Skin cells shed naturally and gather underneath and are pushed out from under the foreskin all the time. Just gently wipe these "white pearls" away during a bath or diaper change. When to Call Your Pediatrician You notice that urine is coming out in only a trickle Your baby seems to have discomfort while urinating The foreskin becomes red, itchy, or swollen The foreskin gets stuck in the retracted position Foreskin Retraction At birth, the penis has an extra layer of skin protection over the head (glans). This layer is called the "foreskin" or "prepuce." Most of the time, the foreskin is still attached to the head of the penis in babies. As the child gets older, the foreskin begins to separate naturally from the head of the penis. In some children, it may happen before they are even born, though this is rare. Most parents can expect this natural separation to happen within a few months or even years. Each child is different, and this is perfectly normal. While most children will experience separation by age five, know that for others it may not occur until adolescence. Your child will be the best judge of when this has happened. All children discover their genitals and so it should be your child that first discovers that they can retract their own foreskin. Once the foreskin can retract easily on its own, you can teach your son to clean the area. They can gently pull back the foreskin, clean underneath it with soap and water, rinse and dry the area, then put the foreskin back in place (don't leave it retracted). Caring for Yourself and Your Newborn Postpartum Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Track your baby’s most exciting moments with our milestone checklist. Get it free when you sign up for our newsletter. Sign Up You're in! Thank you, {{form.email}}, for signing up. There was an error. Please try again. What are your concerns? Other Inaccurate Hard to Understand Submit Article Sources Verywell Family uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy. Cooblal AS, Rampersad B. About the Foreskin: Parents' Perceptions and Misconceptions. West Indian Med J. 2014;63(5):484-9. doi: 10.7727/wimj.2012.251 American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Newborn Male Circumcision. June 2017. Lawless MR. The foreskin. Pediatr Rev. 2006;27(12):477-8. doi:10.1542/pir.27-12-477