Yesterday, your beloved baby was cheerful and lively, sucked milk with pleasure, played, smiled. And today he is naughty, refuses to take a breast or a bottle, cries. Look crumbs in your mouth. Did you see a strange whitish coating on the tongue? This is a sign of a fairly common disease in newborns - thrush. It is not worth it to be very scared, with timely treatment, plaque passes quickly.
About white plaque in the tongue of a newborn we wrote earlier (see article), this is a normal natural phenomenon, but if white “plaques” similar to cottage cheese appear in your mouth, you need to respond in time, and now we will show in detail how to identify the thrush and talk about how to treat it.
What is thrush
From Wikipedia: Candidiasis (thrush) is one of the varieties of fungal infection caused by microscopic yeast-like fungi of the genus Candida (Candida albicans)
Symptoms of a baby thrush
The main symptom is that the child has a white coating in the mouth. Spots or “plaques” appear on the mucous membranes of the mouth: on the tongue, palate, gums, and inside of the cheeks, around which a slight inflammation often forms. When removing the plaque, redness will appear beneath it (unlike ordinary milk plaque in the tongue).
The baby can be restless, capricious, throwing breasts during breastfeeding or even refuse to breast (bottles), as sucking can hurt him. After some time, small spots grow to form large light films or a curd-like coating.
Scrape a white coating with a teaspoon. Did you manage to remove the curled pieces? Are there red sore spots in their place? Your child has candidal stomatitis, or thrush.
Thrush is a fairly common disease that is caused by special fungi - candida. These fungi are present in every person without harming him. However, with weakened immunity in the baby, non-observance of hygiene rules by the mother, the fungi begin to multiply rapidly. As already written, in the mouth of the newborn, in the tongue, on the mucous membrane, on the surface of the cheeks, a white coating appears, similar to curdled milk (hence the name of the disease). But, unlike the remnants of milk, it is quite difficult to remove with a napkin or cotton swab.
The main difference between thrush and traces of milk in the infant's mouth is that milk residues themselves disappear some time after feeding. White spots of thrush more and more “creep” over the oral cavity and tongue of the crumbs, causing painful sensations.
(See photo: this is how thrush looks in the mouth and tongue of newborn children)
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Causes of occurrence
- Fungus Candida albicans each person has an adult and a newborn.In teething babies (by the way, here's another main problemsthat can occur when teething), with colds, dysbiosis, the immune system weakens, conditions for active growth of the fungus appear (you might be interested in reading about ways to support immunity in children up to a year);
- If the mother does not comply with hygiene standards (keeping the mammary glands clean, boiling bottles and nipples, as well as baby toys), prerequisites for the development of the disease are created;
- Candida fungi love sweets, so sweetened water or a mixture contributes to their rapid reproduction;
- If the mother of the child is sick with thrush, there is a great risk of contracting the baby;
- Taking antibiotics can also trigger the development of thrush.
If a disease occurs, find out the cause of the infection so that after treatment the baby does not get infected with thrush again.
What is the danger of the disease
In case of a yeast infection, a coarse greasy coating appears in the child's mouth, under which inflamed spots are found. With severe damage, the spots can even bleed. The likelihood of penetration through them into the body of the baby is more serious infection.
When thrush is started, plaque spots form a dense film that tightens the entire oral cavity and passes to the inner surface of the throat of the baby. Gums and lips are covered with cracks, begin to bleed. Sucking and swallowing movements give the baby severe pain. The child is worried, screaming, refuses to take a breast or a pacifier, his temperature may rise.
(see how plaque can spread)
How to treat thrush
If you find curd patches in the mouth of a baby, do not panic. Thrush in newborns responds well to treatment. The main thing is to regularly carry out the necessary procedures until complete recovery.
It is necessary to show the sick child to a pediatric therapist. Depending on the degree of development of the disease, he will prescribe treatment. Usually these are medications based on nystatin.
But it happens that visiting a doctor is not immediately possible. After all, a child can get sick on weekends, when clinics do not work. It is permissible to begin treatment and ease the condition of the baby on their own.
Soda treatment
- To treat the oral cavity of the baby, you will need a soda solution. Pour 1 teaspoon into a glass of warm boiled water. drinking soda, dissolve well.
Prepare a cloth from a wide bandage or gauze, wrap it around your finger, soak it in solution and gently wipe the inside of the mouth and tongue of the newborn. Just wipe or moisten, not trying to remove the white coating. After all, beneath it are inflamed spots - plaques, sometimes even bleeding. Do not give the chance to pathogenic microbes to get through them into the body of the child.- Do such procedures 4 to 5 times a day every 2-3 hours for several days. If the baby does not open its mouth, press the chin with your thumb and hold it until you finish wetting.
Honey treatment
A more pleasant taste for an infant is to lubricate the oral cavity with a honey solution (1 teaspoon of honey - 2 teaspoons of boiled water). Of course, if this sweet medicine is not contraindicated in the child and the child is not allergic to honey. Honey has antimicrobial properties; it quickly and painlessly removes harmful fungi. The processing frequency is the same as soda, up to five times a day.
A few tips:
After feeding, rinse the baby's dummy in any of the mentioned solutions before giving it to the crumb.
It is advisable to boil all the toys that the child can pull in his mouth. (Nipples and bottles need to be boiled constantly)
Together with the baby, the mother must undergo the course of treatment. Before each feeding and after it, be sure to rinse your breasts with soda or honey solution.
With proper care and timely treatment, after 3 to 4 days, the symptoms of thrush disappear. But the course of treatment prescribed by the doctor must be brought to an end so as not to provoke a return of the disease.
Prevention
The greatest risk of developing thrush in newborns remains until six months. After all, the child’s body is actively growing and developing, and immature immunity still weakly resists diseases. Therefore, it is so important to observe simple rules to avoid this unpleasant disease.
- Rinse the chest thoroughly before placing the baby on it;
- Having finished feeding the baby, let him drink warm boiled water. She will wash away the remaining milk in the oral cavity. If the baby burps, invite him to drink some water;
- Follow personal hygiene, wash your hands more often;
- Try to prevent re-infection of the child with thrush. Regularly boil bottles, nipples, dummies, toys, that is, all objects surrounding the baby. If sterilization is not possible, treat items with soda.
We treat mouth thrush in Komarovsky
As you can see, curing thrush is not so difficult. Although it is much easier to prevent its development. Compliance with simple preventive measures, careful monitoring of the condition of the child will help to avoid many problems, maintain and strengthen the health of the baby.
Genital thrush in children
Although we are talking about thrush, which develops in the child’s mouth, it is necessary to know that there is another form of thrush in children (found in girls) - vulvitis. Most often, this disease manifests itself after swimming in contaminated water. A sign of the disease is redness in the genital area of the girl. Be sure to show the child to a therapist or pediatric gynecologist, in this case you can not deal with independent treatment. The consequence of this dangerous disease can be the union of the labia. (we will write a separate article for you about this)
Read the article on the right intimate hygiene of a newborn baby girl
- Do not forget about the boys - intimate hygiene of newborn boys
- And here about hygiene for newborn babies in general (hygiene products, tips)
Our doctor scared me so much that I just shook with fear. Soap a hundred times a day. Then another pediatrician said that this was unnecessary and vice versa, before feeding, you should wipe the nipples with your milk for disinfection.
We bought Candide medicine for our children.They took cotton buds or cotton swabs and smeared the kids in their mouths. The effect was visible after a couple of days. I don’t know where it comes from, but with the personal hygiene in our family everything is in order, it is clear that this disease happens in all babies and it is better to treat it right away without delay, otherwise the child feels discomfort and cries.
God saved from vulvitis, but I managed to get to know what candidiasis stomatitis is. It’s good that at the very beginning of the disease, my mother was nearby and suggested what to do. She advised more often to drink the baby with ordinary boiled water between feedings and always immediately after feeding. Everything went quickly and it didn’t reach a more serious treatment. On the advice of my mother, I washed the rattles and nipples in a soda solution. There were no more such problems.
Poor kids, have not yet really met with this world, but are already sick. I know that many mothers refuse water for children, I do not know the reasons. But it turns out that the water is healthy. We had stomatitis, it doesn’t look like a thrush, and you won’t rub it, the pain is very severe.
as far as I remember, candida mushrooms “eat” sugars. I imagine that it will grow in the baby’s mouth if it is lubricated with honey ..
In most cases, thrush in newborns and infants makes itself felt in the first month of life - there is a persistent white coating in the child’s mouth, the baby loses its appetite and behaves uneasily.
In most cases, thrush in newborns and infants makes itself felt in the first month of life - there is a persistent white coating in the child’s mouth, the baby loses its appetite and behaves uneasily.
Our baby is 5 months old. Gave him a cookie bite, and thrush appeared from sugar. I will smear with soda solution. Thank you for the article. Honestly, it seems to me that hygiene has nothing to do with it. If mom eats a lot of sweets, then the child will be passed.
In the 3rd trimester I was prescribed metrogyl plus, in order to be treated from thrush and not to infect the child. And I did not have time to heal. the birth was premature. Could it therefore be a thrush in his mouth now?
I don’t understand why there are no normal medicines for young children. if something happens to me or to my husband, like an intestinal or thrush disorder, we take ecofemin. but he is not advised to children, it seems, as soon as hilak forte or lineks. and I don’t see any sense from them, at least kill me. What is the use of treating the mouth if it is throughout the body?
Lisa, ecofemin contains bacteria that are mostly found in adults, not in children. It is logical that children are not assigned to it.
I myself got rid of thrush only with the help of ecofemin. Are there any similar medicines for children?