Thrush

Your child has been diagnosed with thrush. This a fungal infection which is common in babies and which causes white spots on your child’s tongue or the inside of his or her cheeks. Sometimes thrush happens after your child has taken antibiotics. It may hurt your child to suck on the bottle or the breast because of the irritation in the mouth that goes along with thrush.

What You Need To Know:

• Nystatin suspension is the prescription medicine that is used to treat thrush. This needs a prescription. Be sure to follow your doctor’s or nurse’s instructions closely on how to use the nystatin. Nystatin should be applied four times a day to the white areas where the thrush is; this is usually the inside of each cheek and/or on the tongue. Apply the nystatin after feeding your baby so that it is not washed away when you feed the baby. Rub the medicine in gently with a gauze wrapped around your finger. It doesn’t do any good for your child to swallow the medicine. Continue the nystatin for 48 hours after all of the white spots have gone away in your child’s mouth.
• You may also treat the thrush with Gention Violet that you can get from the drug store without a Rx. You paint the mouth purple and after it wears off after a day or so, the thrush will be nearly gone. This can be repeated once avery week for 2 or 3 times.
• The fungus that causes thrush is on all things and in everyones' mouth. So you do not have to sterilize all of the pacifiers and nipples for bottles. It is an overgrowth of the normal inhabitant and you do not catch it from things or people.

Call Your Doctor if:

• Your child is not taking liquids well.
• The thrush is not better after 10 days or it is getting worse with treatment.