prolonged erections during puberty

Hi,

These are normal. His body basically needs to learn to control them and it just takes time. Any stimulation, such as from clothing or anything can cause this to happen.

Tapping on it? I don't know about that. Tapping on it in class could bring attention to his erection. Usually you try to think about something like cleaning the garage or anything to distract your focus.

Welcome to puberty! Boys his age can get erections (often) for many, many - or even no - reason. It is a part of being his age. He will, most likely, discover masturbation soon - if he hasn't already - and this could actually help control them a little more, and at least make them occur less frequently.

Until then, it's important for him to know that everything happening to his body right now is completely normal - and, for the most part, completely out of his control. Tell him this though - chances are very good that no one else notices when he gets an erection. If he just ignores it, and lets it go away on his own, no one will know. If he tries to readjust it, or hide it the only thing that does is draw attention to it...then people are more likely to notice. I had that little talk with my step-son (who ALWAYS put his hands over it, or otherwise tried to hide it all the time around that age) and after than I NEVER again noticed that he had an erection because he didn't draw attention to it anymore.

Good luck - and let us know if you - or your son - has anymore questions!

Welcome to the human race! 50% of the population need not be so self-conscious over being a healthy human male. Every boy/man has external genitalia. Our Creator placed our equipment on the outside of our bodies to be seen, held, fondled, noticed, and enjoyed. Erect or not, the outline of our male genitalia is always evident. Have you ever noticed a boy/man who has NO shape in the front of his pants? It is rare. However, when this occurs, it looks strange/odd like something is missing. There should always be some shape in between a boy's thighs. Tapping on his penis in class will only make him pay more attention to his erection and cause him to remain erect even longer. I have been this way since I was 12 years old. I never changed since onset of puberty. I am erect most of my waking hours. Some boys are just more highly sexed than others. I am in my 50s now and I still have near constant daily erections. If I am awake, I am hard. No, I am not thinking about sex or obsessed by it. It is just the way I am built. I finally learned to not be so darn self-conscious about being a normal man/boy since I was 14. I know that I have the same anatomy as 50% of the population -- 100% of the male population. In the locker room as a boy, I was initially very self-conscious over my constant erections. However, I just learned to smile and sheepishly explain, "I can't help it. I am young, healthy, and a normal turned on red-blooded American boy/man."

Control, however, is a different issue. Since I was 12 years old, I have worn good tight supportive underwear or an athletic supporter. This gives nice control. My package will be slightly more pronounced -- even when flaccid, although I am rarely flaccid anyway. Good tight briefs or a jock help to center a boy's package nicely. What I do find ugly/disgusting is the image of one's penis trailing down along the side of a boy's thigh, be it in dress pants or jeans. We have all seen this. One obtains a nice male shape with tight controlling underwear that lifts, centers, and shapes one's package into a nicely shaped and centered modest bulge. Again, it may end up being slightly more prominent when flaccid. However, if he is like me, he will be erect most of the time anyway and the control will be welcome. Under these circumstances, he will want the control and shaping which will be slightly blunted by the zipper of his pants -- well controlled so that it is not trailing down the side of his thigh. I had lots of friends growing up who only experienced spontaneous erections several times during the day lasting for minutes at a time. Such friends did not feel compelled to dress this way. Other friends who were as highly sexed as I, dressed this way and through experimentation would end up with a similar approach...I am straight, married with children. I have a son who is just like me, a chip off the old block.

You have an exceptional relationship with your erections. Most guys stated having frequent erections when they were too young to be all that aware of them. Since they were only 2 inches long, nobody else noticed either. What awareness they did have made great giggle material among friends. By their early teens, the 2 inch erections became 6-8 inch erections and wearing underware that kept our pants from looking like tents became highly advisable. By our late teens, the, "There it goes again." erections became less common for most of us. That's where your relationship with your erections became exceptional. Having erections during almost all your waking hours all the way into your 50s would have most of us asking, "Is that more of a blessing or a curse?" Sounds like your answer is, "CURSE?! Hell, this is great." I'm a decade or so older than you, in my late 60s, and have a 2 part reaction. I wouldn't want an erection as steadily as you describe, but I would like to have 1-2% of that erection time. I miss the, "There it goes again." moments.

It's been quite some time since I was that age, so I can't remember how long spontaneous erections usually lasted for me, but an hour seems long. He's in class, so there's no graceful way out of it. He'll just have to tough it out, and think of it as one of those initiations into manhood.
I remember erections when I couldn't liberate my penis (by getting my pants out of the way) an being uncomfortable but not painful.
About his being embarrassed' I'm wondering what he is wearing. I would suggest tight underware and loose outer pants, the first to keep his penis from becoming a 6-8" tent pole, the second, to make any bulge that is down there from becoming too obvious to the casual or interested observer.
We all wish the person who suggested "tapping" would have elaborated. I don't think I am alone in thinking that reaching between my legs with one finger extended and going "tap, tap, tap, tap" on my erect penis will not make an erection go away. What are we missing here?