Dr. Komarovsky on the treatment of thrush in the mouth in children

With such an unpleasant phenomenon, as thrush in the mouth of a child, at least once in the life of every parent. Most often, white spots and plaque on the tongue appear for no apparent reason. The kid starts to worry, it is unpleasant for him to eat, swallow. Where does thrush come from and how to treat it, says Yevgeny Komarovsky, a well-known children's doctor and author of books and articles on children's health for adults.

The diagnosis of "thrush" as such in medicine does not exist. There is a certain type of stomatitis, which is caused by yeast-like fungi of the genus Candida. At least a dozen candidates are known that can cause inflammation of the oral mucosa. They live everywhere - in the environment, in the mouth, in the intestines, in the vagina in girls.

Candida are permanent inhabitants of the human body, but they only go into “conflict” when something changes in their habitat conditions - humidity, body temperature. Thus, while the child is healthy, the fungi behave quite peacefully, but if he gets sick, the immunity begins to weaken, Candida becomes more active, becomes aggressive. So begins the disease, popularly called thrush. The name is very accurate, because the white sores visually resemble curdled milk particles.

In the mouth, thrush develops when saliva loses its bactericidal properties.

It is no secret, Komarovsky says, that saliva is quite active against a wide variety of microorganisms, and if its biochemical parameters are normal, it can easily cope with candida. But if saliva becomes thicker, or it is not produced enough, then stomatitis will not have to wait long.

In newborns, thrush in the mouth is often a consequence of passing through the birth canal of the mother. There, colonies of candidates of different types are quite normal, but the child does not have saliva immediately after birth having strong bactericidal properties, and the immune defense is still imperfect, the local immunity is not sufficiently developed. As a result, the baby's mouth is covered with white specks, it hurts to suck, he is worried.

Usually stomatitis caused by candida does not pose any particular danger.

Saliva, according to Evgeny Komarovsky, begins to lose its bactericidal protective properties when it dries out. This can happen for a number of reasons:

• The baby is in a room where it is too hot and dry.
• Mom and dad rarely endure the baby walk.
• The crumb often cries out for a long time, while he breathes mostly with his mouth, which is why saliva dries out.
• The child has a runny nose, nasal breathing is difficult, he has to breathe

Monthly baby can "catch" the infection with nipples or dishes held by a person suffering from thrush. This man can even be a mom. It can also be caused by being in close proximity with a young cat or puppy (parents like to photograph babies in this way). Even often regurgitation can lead to stomatitis if parents do not remove milk mass from their mouths.

Children under one year often begin to get sick with thrush of the mouth, when they understand how to drag one or another object into the mouth, and they actively practice it.And kids older than a year can get sick from eating unwashed vegetables and fruits, or improperly cooked meat.

Special attention requires such a thrush, in which ulcerative lesions are observed not only in the language of the child, but also on the inner surface of the cheeks. The first case in general cannot be considered a disease, says Yevgeny Komarovsky, since for a child who is breastfed or who feeds on adapted milk formulas, this is a normal variant, and nothing needs to be done with this bloom.

First of all, Yevgeny Komarovsky offers to return the necessary protective properties to saliva so that she can cope with the raging fungus Candida. To do this, buy a room thermometer, hang it in the nursery and make sure that, at any time of the year and day, the air temperature does not exceed 18-20 degrees Celsius.

The second necessary purchase is humidifier with hygrometer. With the help of a humidifier, it is necessary to increase the relative humidity of the air in a child’s room. A hygrometer will monitor its level. Humidity at which saliva does not dry out and does not lose its bactericidal properties - 50-70%.

A child must walk a lot in the fresh air.

And while he is on the street, the room must be ventilated and do wet cleaning at least once a day. You do not need to add detergent containing chlorine to the water. Dust in the necessary order should be cleaned in the nursery daily, and all the "dust collectors", which are large soft toys, books, it is better to remove from the room where the little child is sleeping and spending a lot of time.

The child must be fed in sufficient quantity, because lack of fluid in the body also causes saliva to dry. If the crumb drank milk, you should give him a few sips of water so that there is no milk left in the mouth and a favorable environment for the reproduction of yeast-like fungi.

The white sores on the gums and cheeks in the infant themselves should be treated with a 2% soda solution. Prepare it simply at home: for 98 ml of boiled water take 2 grams of baking soda.

Kitchen electronic scales today are in almost every home, and it’s not enough to calculate the required amount of matter. If there is no scale, then soda is taken at the tip of a knife, in water - a little less than half a glass.

With a soda solution, the mother wets her own finger, previously wrapped with clean gauze or a bandage, and gently handles sores in the mouth with this finger. An older child who already understands how to rinse his mouth and spit out a liquid can simply be given such a solution for rinsing the mouth.

Do not cauterize the white dots in the mouth with iodine or brilliant green, as well as with alcohol and alcohol solutions.

You can not give the child with thrush in the mouth antibiotics, as well as smear antibiotics directly sores in the mouth.

You can not remove plaque from the cheeks and tongue mechanically, manually.

You can not take a child to kindergarten with signs of stomatitis, because in one day in the group he will infect up to 70-80% of his peers with Candida.

Since the time of treatment, it is not necessary to give the child sweet food, Candida love sweets. Nursing mothers should eliminate sweet from their own diet.

You will learn more about fungal infections in the mouth in children in the following video.