Monday, February 25, 2008

Thrush - A Painful Infection

Thrush of the mouth is known medically as oral pseudo membranous candidiacis. It is a yeast infection. The organism lives on the skin in the bowel. It causes soreness and white patches in the mouth. If your baby is breast fed, it is less likely to develop thrush as compared to a baby who is bottle-fed. A healthy baby can also develop thrush. This is caused when the baby passes through the mother’s birth canal.

You can make out if your baby has thrush, by checking out for sores and white patches in your baby’s cheeks, palette, lips, and tongue. Thrush patches are curd like and stick to the tissue beneath the tongue, unlike milk residues. If you try to use a swab to take of this patch, it will not come off easily, and even if it does, there will be a red sore area beneath it, that will bleed. These sores are painful.

Why the Baby Develops Thrush

A baby may develop thrush because of stress, antibiotics, unhealthy pacifiers, being bottle fed too long, which causes the lining of the baby’s mouth to get scraped; and if the mother’s nipples are in an unhygienic condition.

Treating Thrush

Remember; do not let your child use a pacifier for too long. Also, do not let it sleep with a pacifier in its mouth. Sterilize the pacifier and keep your nipples clean at all times.

Nystatin is a medicine used to treat thrush of the mouth. It is an anti fungal medication. It can either be applied on the white patches or given to the baby in the oral form.

It is advisable that you read all about thrush of the mouth, so that if your baby is ever infected, you will be alert to any discomfort and come to know at once about the infection. For more information visit pregnancy period.

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