Fiddling with the foreskin

The foreskin of the penis or prepuce in the male child has caused a lot of concern to child care medical personnel and parents the world over. While it is somewhat controversial as to whether the foreskin predisposes to increased incidence of urinary tract infection 1 , it appears that most medical personnel are so worried about the consequences of a non retractile prepuce in the infant, that they think it necessary to do some intervention to make the foreskin retractile in order to prevent various "ill effects". These interventions vary from forceful dilatation to neonatal circumcision, although the latter is mainly done for religious reasons. It appears that a lot of unnecessary interventions are being done due to misunderstanding of the natural development of the foreskin.