The Reasons For The Development Of Balanoposthitis In Children. Signs And Rules Of Treatment

2024 Author: Josephine Shorter | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 21:43

Balanoposthitis in children

Sooner or later, every mom has to deal with the "male" problems of her baby. And one of them may be such a serious disease as balanoposthitis. It means inflammation of the glans penis and its foreskin, which, if untreated, leads to undesirable consequences.

Acute balanoposthitis in children can develop as a result of a complication of an infectious disease, but most often the cause of its occurrence is the lack of proper hygienic care. The disease can also manifest itself when rubbing the glans penis with tight underwear.

It is also known that physiological phimosis is often observed in preschool children, when the head of the penis is barely bare or does not bare at all. But this is a natural process. All babies have physiological phimosis, but everything is resolved naturally. Already by five, and by a maximum of eleven years, the foreskin is separated from the glans penis, and it easily comes out of the preputial sac - a kind of skin fold of the foreskin, which creates a kind of space between its leaf and the head of the penis.

However, it is at preschool age, due to physiological phimosis, the personal hygiene of the child becomes more difficult, and the dirt accumulating in the folds of the skin can lead to inflammation. Acute and purulent balanoposthitis occurs.

In the early stages of the disease, acute balanoposthitis is characterized by such characteristic symptoms as:

• Redness of the mucous membrane of the glans penis,
• Difficulty urinating
• The appearance of a whitish or yellow purulent discharge
• Well-pronounced swelling and hyperemia of the foreskin,
• Anxiety in a child, an increase in body temperature to 37.1-37.6 ° C.

But at this stage, the treatment is not difficult at all - it is enough for the baby to do warm baths with furacilin or chamomile infusion for 2-3 days every 2 hours. Medicinal infusion is prepared in the following proportion: 1 tablespoon of chamomile flowers in a glass of boiling water, after which it is filtered. The herb can be steamed in a thermos for the whole day. Furacilin is diluted at the rate of 2 tablets per glass of warm water, the temperature of which is 37-37.5 ° C.

The procedure is very simple and does not require any trays or basins. It is enough to pour the ready-made solution into a small rounded container and lower the child's diseased organ into it. You don't need to do anything with the head of the penis and the foreskin, the medicine will get into the preputial sac anyway. It is undesirable to use the potassium permanganate solution recommended by some doctors, since it has drying properties, which is not necessary in this case.

After water procedures, it is recommended to treat the head of the penis with an ordinary baby cream. At night, you can make a gauze bandage with antibacterial ointment, for example, with levomekol. However, self-medication is strictly contraindicated, the baby must be shown to the doctor. Based on the test results, the doctor will prescribe the most effective treatment.

There can be several reasons for inflammation of the foreskin:

• Hygiene violations. Parents should know that it will be possible to fully bare the head of the penis in a child only by 3-5 years. This is an absolutely normal physiological phenomenon. In an effort to carry out hygienic measures as efficiently as possible, adults can overdo it and injure the foreskin, pulling it off. This leads to the appearance of small cracks, into which bacteria penetrate and provoke the development of an inflammatory reaction.
• If hygiene is inadequate, it can provoke itching of the penis. The child will comb it, inflict injuries on himself, where pathogenic microorganisms can penetrate. There may also be other causes of injury in early childhood.
• Overheat. If the baby is dressed too warmly or is kept in a diaper all the time, bacteria can multiply. They grow in numbers very quickly in conditions of high temperature and humidity.
• Candidiasis. Thrush can be the result of taking antibacterial drugs. Fungi are capable of multiplying in the oral cavity in the genital area.
• Inflammation of the urinary tract. Children are more susceptible to various urinary infections due to imperfect immune systems.

• Allergy. The reaction can be triggered by wearing diapers, baby skin care products, taking medications, washing powder, food.

Chronic balanoposthitis in children is manifested by painful sensations in the foreskin and frequent itching. On examination, the doctor may reveal slight hyperemia and swelling of the glans penis, whitish discharge. The disease lasts for months, with periodic improvements during treatment, and subsequent relapses after its termination.

Chronic balanoposthitis in children is practically not amenable to treatment, and after several relapses of the disease, parents are usually offered to circumcise the foreskin. After the operation, all manifestations of the disease disappear. Most often, parents cannot name the cause of the disease, however, when collecting an anamnesis, the doctor finds out that they have repeatedly tried to open the foreskin, which is not necessary at all. Forcible opening of the foreskin is unacceptable. In order to prevent balanoposthitis, it is enough to wash a child once a day without soap, as well as after each chair.

In the case of the development of acute and purulent balanoposthitis in a child, it is necessary to take all measures to prevent its transition to a chronic form, since prolonged inflammation can lead to various complications. Most often, when the infection spreads, there is a deterioration in the sensitivity of the glans penis, which in the future will not have the best effect on a man's sex life.

In addition, inflammation can spread to the urethra and then this will lead to the development of urethritis, manifested by disorders of the urinary process and narrowing of the urethra. However, the most unpleasant consequences of infectious inflammation - balanoposthitis, include such pathological processes as the development of phimosis, paraphimosis, malignant tumor of the penis.

In any case, the child needs to be shown to the doctor. If you do not get rid of balanoposthitis in time, then it can lead to the development of phimosis. In the future, an operation is required.

In order to prevent inflammation from forming, you need to wash the child's genitals every day with warm water using baby soap. When there are no signs of inflammation, the foreskin should not be removed.

The author of the article: Sokolova Praskovya Fedorovna | Pediatrician

Education: Diploma in the specialty "General Medicine" received at the Volgograd State Medical University. A specialist certificate was immediately received in 2014.