Hi Everyone,
I have a 21 month old who started with a fever on Friday night and by Sunday I had noticed that she had what looked like an ulcer on her lip by yesterday morning she had another one. I called the dr and took her last night. They told me she had thrush and also did a culture on the ulcers as well, tested her for strep which came back negative. She has more ulcers in the back/roof of her mouth as well. She woke up this morning and has 2 more ulcers on lips. I am not very familiar with thrush, she never had it as an infant and I know its contagious. I also know that I am supposed to wash/sterilize all pacifiers, cups, etc every day. They gave me a Rx for Nystatin and we started that last night. Since I am completely unfamiliar with any of this can anyone give me any advice on a few things. 1. How to make her a little moer comfortable (esp at night) 2. Any home remedies I can give her to maybe help dry out the ulcers on her lips and 3. How long it takes to show signs of improvement 4. Should I buy her new pacifiers once it goes away or will the sterilization work just as well? Any help would be appreciated!!!!!!!
Sterilize evrything but throw out the pacifiers. The trap the yeast and she will continue to get thrush. My infant daughter gets it all the time but mostly in diaper area. She only had it orally once and it was just a white film on ther tongue. To prevent contamination of the medicine, use a q-tip to swab her mouth with the medicine. Good luck.
Hi M.,
I am guessing that whatever caused the fever weakend her immune system, hence the thrush now. The Nystatin should do the trick. Some people swear by it, others hate it. My guys both had thrush as infants and they did fine with the Nystatin. Your daughter is even older, and may be better able to understand the importance of taking / swishing the medicine around in her mouth and keeping things OUT of her mouth so it won't hurt.
Yogurt is good -- yogurt is always good.
And just hot, soapy water should do the trick. My pediatrician always said just normal wash in HOT. Don't worry about replacing something unless it is worn and NEEDS to be replaced anyway.
Hope she feels better soon ~
Are they sure it's not hand foot and mouth virous
My daugther got thrush as a toddler but she didn't have ulcers just white patches. I have also had thrush as an adult (common when you take advair for asthma) and it was not painful unless you scratched or scraped it. Just cleaning things should be fine and make sure she takes all of her med or it will come back even if it appears to be gone.
Laura is right, you have to give the body probiotics to fight yeast anywhere in the body.
I buy the plain kind and add Stevia too it and vanilla or eat it plain. My 3 yr old loves it plain!
Raw milk is a good source of probiotic in it. I can help you find someone that sells it if you'd like.
Simple washing of passys should be sufficent!
Or rinse with alcohol then water.
Stay away from sugar as just 2 tbs suppress the immune system for up to 6 hours.
God Bless
M.,
Thrush is an overgrowth of yeast. The two best things you can do is avoid foods that feed yeast- sugars; and make sure the body is inhospitable to the yeast- give acidolphilus. You can get the latter in powder form and mix it into anything.
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about this.
L. M
Hi M.,
I have not had a chance to read all the responses. I am at work...Anyway, if you hadn't gone to the pediatrician, I would swear it was hand foot and mouth. The fever is what makes me suspicious. I didn't think that thrush came with a fever, but hand foot and mouth disease does. The tx is probably the same though. Steralize everything, and keep away from other children until the sores are gone (just in case since hand foot and mouth is VERY contageous to small children). We didn't have any way to dry out the ulcers (the only way I know hurts too much for a baby). Lots of love and attention, cool foods without a lot of acid (no juice - it burns) and use the medicine while you wait it out. The ones on the outside sould dry up in a few days, the ones inside took my daughter abt a week.
S.
My kids have had thrush but they have never had any ulcers. I know that must be painful. They just had the white coating inside their mouth. I used the oral nystatin and since they were babies the dr also gave me a nystatin cream for their butts to ward off the infection there.
Thrush is nothing but a YEAST infection.
*Just continue w/ the meds and over a couple of days it should start to heal up.
*You can gently wipe off some of the white coating if its thick. But remember the mouth/lips/tongue will be sore.
*Cutting out ALL sugar may be helpful as well. Yeast breeds on sugar. No juice or fruit. Cut back on the milk and try some water as much as the baby will tolerate. If she can drink through a straw that way the milk will go more directly down her throat instead of coating her mouth on the way down.
*If she isnt noticeable better in a week, then see the dr again.
*as for buying new pacifiers I would say YES if she was a baby, but given she is well over 1yrs old and almost 2....time for pacifiers to go and its a perfect opportunity. explain to her they are sick and have to be thrown away.
Sterilize EVERYTHING!!! Toys, pacifiers anything that goes in or near her mouth. Its hard to get rid of. My son (9months) has had it a bunch of times form being on too many antibiotics. If the Nystatin doesnt start clearing it up soon call the Dr, they can call in Diflucan also and that seemed to clear my sons up immediately. The best advice I can tell you is to sterilize like crazy! And I ALWWAYS bought new pacifiers after his thrush was cleared up. Good Luck!
M.,
I agree with the other posters that it sounds more like hand, foot and mouth disease. I've had thrush, its more like white, cottony patches.
Look up hand, foot and mouth disease on WebMD or Google it. I know I've looked it up and I remmeber seeing pictures of the horrible ulcers. I think it is also called slapped face disease, because the child's face becomes red. Look it up and compare it to your daughter's symptoms. I'm surprised her pediatrician didn't think of that. If that is what it is, maybe it's time for a different pediatrician.
I hope she's better soon.
You asked about getting new pacifiers, don't get any new ones, your daughter is old enough to be off of them. Just throw them away, get ear plugs or let her pick out something different like a new teddy bear or something like that.
My DD had thrush when she was about 8 mos, and I found that the Nystatin did nothing. Keep on it for a few days, and if you notice no improvement go back to the pedi and demand an oral medication. Once I gave my DD the oral medication, her thrush cleared up almost overnight! We spent two weeks on the Nystatin, and it was heartbreaking to watch her be so uncomfortable.
I put all our binkies, etc, in the dishwasher and ran it on the sterilization setting, and she was fine. I also used Clorox Anywhere Spray on any of the toys she was chewing on at the time (she was younger, though, and in that "everything in the mouth" stage).
Good luck! I hope she feels better soon!
My son had thrush as an infant - a side effect of the antibiotics for an ear infection. Was on Nystatin; not sure how much it really helped. But the reason for my response is that I read somewhere and then tried soaking my son's nipples and binkys in a solution of vinegar and water overnight. It was a while ago, but I think I used about 1 cup white vinegar and 3 cups water and just let them soak overnight - then washed good in morning. I didn't buy new - but was prepared to if necessary.
M. try to get rid of some of the possible additions to the problem. Get rid of that pacifier!!!!!! Keep up w/ the RX and hopefully you received some home remedies. Just try not to put anything in her mouth that could be an irritant. Godspeed back to good health.
