I'm surprised you didn't check with anyone else after your mum told you to do this. I'm also very surprised that no midwife, nurse, doctor or health care worker in his whole life has told you to leave it alone until he retracts it himself, as that's the current recommendation. The foreskin is attached in most newborns and will separate by itself. From the Royal Children's Hospital of Melbourne in the penis & foreskin care section:
- Do not forcibly retract your child’s foreskin for cleaning. There is no need to clean inside the foreskin in young children. Trying to force the foreskin may cause scarring and problems in the future.
- Once the foreskin is easily retracted, your child should learn to do this as part of normal washing in the bath or shower. The penis should be washed the same way as any other part of the body. Ensure your child rinses off any soap and replaces the foreskin to cover the head of the penis afterwards.
- The foreskin should always be replaced to cover the head of the penis after your child has urinated.
- Do not apply antiseptic creams or lotions to the penis or foreskin (unless prescribed by a doctor).

Was told by my in laws to dip dummy in brandy
I said no

My MIL told me to dip dummy in brandy or sugar or honey to settle my baby
I said no

You need to speak to a Doctor or midwife about this. Don't listen to people who aren't qualified

My understanding (and I’m not a medical professional but this is what I’ve been told) is that pulling it back too early can be painful, cause the skin to rip and in some cases cause infection. If they do it to themselves it’s completely fine because they will stop if it hurts and isn’t ready. For you though I would talk to a child health care nurse or your doctor since you’ve already been doing it for a year. Your mother had good intentions with giving you her advice but things have changed over the years. Please don’t beat yourself up over trying to do the right thing for your son.

My doctor told me I should be doing this from age 3-4 and letting him play with it in the bath, also told me off because he assumed I don’t let him touch it lol it was an interesting doctors appointment and I have never been back to that doctor! I kinda got where he was coming from as he had an infection at the time.
It’s more about keeping it clean once the skin does start coming back.
Definitely talk to your doctor though. I am thinking about getting my 8 year old cut soon as I couldn’t at birth as he was premmie. That’s obviously personal choice though. My son agrees that is will be easier to keep it clean though and has had infections (3-4 in total) from early on even though he washes well. My brother got done at age 25 as he hated having foreskin. The country hospital he was born in told mum that they wouldn’t do it and she had no choice! If my son doesn’t want to do it I won’t be making him, his body his choice.

I was told to leave it, and when he is older make sure he knows to pull it back to clean underneath. But I got that information on here.

No our doctor told us not to touch it

Check with your child health nurse

We were told not to do this..which makes me wonder if once upon a time this was the thing to do and they rewrote the recommendations. It’s probably one of those things where majority can be fine but it causes a higher chance of infection. It’s not a big deal if your child has been ok, but yes get some health advice on this from the doctor they will know more than most of us