I was actually dressing my son the other day... And I am sure he was trying out for the show Puppetry of the penis!. 

I said "Stop playing with that we want to put your jocks on!"  My brother in-law who has two boys just laughed at me and said try and make him stop...  And then told me that they won't.. They will get more discret as they get older, but it is theirs and will always be a fasination.. :)

Good luck

Hehe .. I think i asked a Q about this a few months back. My 17 month old still does it. He has grown out of pulling his nappy off to get it, but it is mission impossible to get a nappy back on with out his hands in there too.

I dont know if this will help, but we play games with Austin when he is naked, like in the bath or running around under the sprinkler. Sort of like name the pody part.. where are Austins eye's, where are Austin's ears, where is Austins doodle, where is Austin's belly button... etc etc. So he can touch it as much as he like when his clothes are off. (As well as bending himself almost in half to look at it lol)  But when his clothes are on, we only do body part out of the clothes, face features, fingers, toes..

Dont get me wrong, he still goes for it, its his favourite toy, but i have found that teaching him other areas of the body, have kept him a little more occupied with them.

There is a group here called raising boys, feel free to join if you like.

find me a male of any age who doesn't have hands that gravitate to that general area.  My dad's still do and he's in his 50's (it is not that hard to notice when you are face to face talking about his work or something! lol).

It is perfectly normal.  Your son is exploring his body and his penis is a part of his body.  I have 5 daughters, and even my 5 month old has found her bits.  It is just a part of them finding who they are.

Granted, there are times when it is considered inappropriate for a child to éxplore'themselves, but you just set the boundaries and tell him that its ok to at home, but not in the middle of a packed supermarket in front of all the mature ladies! lol.

This can be an early indicator that he is ready for potty training.  Now he has found it, it is just a matter of time before he pees while holding it and then the connection will be made, which will lead to potty training (just hope that doesn't happen on carpet lol).

My husband wrote an article on this, so I'll find the link and put it under your question in the External Links section.

My little boy (13 month) started playing with i 1/2 month back.....he started asking what is it in his own language when he was only 6 month.... I was also worried he will be bsessed with it or by pulling it hurt himself LOL! So I did some reading and found that this is a very normal phase and paying too much attention and making a big fuss just makes them more curious and attracted to it. behave as if it is another natural organ just like hand or nose and soon they will be less and less obsessed with it. When he plays with it don't say anything....just remove his hand from there while keep on talking about something else and try to engage him in something else like throwing a ball, dropping somethin on floor etc. Or just ask him to show you his hair,nose etc.This ploy works for me :).

Hope this helps.

Warm Regards!!!

 I am having the same problem with my 3 year old.  I have asked lots of mums with older boys and they all say the same thing - it never stops! I was worried about my boy - but every mum I have spoken to says it is normal.

For a while I was telling him "what you are doing is ok, but you need to do it in the privacy of your own room".  But he didn't like going to his room.  So I tried reminding him not to do it:- "hands off" or "put your hands on your knees."  But that only works for about 1 second.

Now I basically ignore it at home - he only rarely does it in public.

I think he does it more whilst watching Tv or if he is bored. Distraction sometimes works (eg playing with playdough).

If you are really going crazy - you could put him in an all-in-one suit. But that will make toilet training more difficult.

Try not to worry! Best of luck.

I've never met a little boy who hasn't gone through the stage of bonding with their functions lol so in my opinion it seems to be normal. Then again, just keep an eye on things because you never know. Not to scare you but to obviously be cautious, just in case.

sorry to say but it never stops. my 7 year old still dose it all the time as well.

All we did was to constantly remind him that it is a private thing.

as for the sinister thing i cannot help with but i would look at different behaviours as well.