Lots of advice for the 15-year-old son of a reader, who has been advised by a consultant to use hydrocortisone, a steroidal cream, to treat a tight foreskin. It seems extreme, our reader thought, as does the idea of circumcision. Did our readers have other suggestions? First response from Dr Peter Ball, vice chairman of NORM-UK, a charity that opposes circumcision and offers help to circumcised men. If a steroid cream is used, try DiproSone, he recommends, which should be applied twice a day to the 'floppy end' of the foreskin and to the tight ring of the penis itself, visible when the foreskin is retracted. There are plenty of exercises to stretch the foreskin which are explained on NORM's website, www.norm-uk.org. Another idea is to hold the end of the foreskin while urinating, so that a gentle back pressure begins to 'balloon' and stretch the foreskin. If adhesions are the problem, try serrapeptase, a protease enzyme, which is good for breaking down scar tissue of adhesions. One reader's doctor told her son to play with himself every night, and this helped to naturally stretch the foreskin. Presumably he didn't go blind. Calendula cream applied to the penis might do the trick, says one reader. Homeopathically, try Silica if the boy is generally sensitive to cold, or mercury if the patient is sensitive to heat and cold, or Hepar sulph or mercury if the problem occurred after amalgam dental fillings were recently fitted, or Nit ac if the foreskin has 'stitching' pains.