(Most small boys' aim is erratic at the best of times, anyway.) However if a foreskin becomes distended - 'balloons out' - when a boy urinates this is a serious cause for concern since it shows that the opening of the foreskin is too small to be adequate for the passage of urine. This is normal and nothing to worry about, though it will not improve his aim. This is the normal range of variation and there is nothing out of the ordinary about any of these types.Ī long, pendulous foreskin will 'flip up' when a boy urinates, and for this reason is often jokingly called a 'fire-hose'.
Others, though, only have just enough skin to cover the knob and a few, from their earliest years, have so little skin that part or most of the knob is uncovered. Some boys have even more skin to spare, so that it actually hangs drooping down in front of the penis. You will see it in many paintings of the infant Jesus (often with the young Saint John) even though in real life both were, of course, circumcised. This is the typical 'rosebud' foreskin immortalised in art from ancient Greece through Renaissance times up until the present day. Anne, by CaravaggioĪ young boy often (but not always) has so much loose skin that it covers the glans completely and wrinkles up into a bunch up in front of it. The natural development of a penis and its foreskinĪ boy's foreskin Retraction The teen yearsĭetail from Madonna and Child with St.
