The foreskin of 511 nursery school children was examined. Among the 500 unoperated children, 69.4% had a freely retractable foreskin. Adhesions were found in 28% of children and phimosis in 2.6% (total proportion of children with phimosis including the operated cases was 4.5%). A negative history for forcible retraction was found in 63.6% of children; among these subjects, 64% had a freely retractile foreskin and 31.1% had adhesions, which were usually extensive. Among children who had undergone forcible retraction, 77.5% had a freely retractile foreskin and 22% had adhesions, which were minor in most instances (p less than 0.001). The person who performed forcible retraction (the family physician in 54% of cases) and the age of the child at the time of forcible retraction were recorded. This retrospective study in a pediatric population of mean age 3 years 7 months provides data on the outcome after forcible retraction. Mean age at forcible retraction was 13 months in 36.4% of patients. Among the 500 unoperated children, 204 (40.8%) were spontaneously free of foreskin adhesions.