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Babies communicate by crying. If your newborn cries for no apparent reason, you need to examine him / her thoroughly. Nappy rash and oral thrush are two major discomforts to any infant. If your baby has white patches on the tongue, it means that she has oral thrush. Other symptoms are restlessness, irritation and loss of appetite.
Oral thrush breaks out when the common Candida overgrows. This fungus prefers warm and moist parts of the body. The tongue is prone to attacks by the Candida fungus.
Oral thrush may be seriously affecting your baby's appetite as the pain prevents her from feeding properly. This is serious enough for concern to seek medical treatment. Your doctor can give an oral medication for the white patches inside your baby's mouth.
It is advisable to clean away the layer of fungus by wiping with a thin wad of cotton wool. As this tongue is sensitive, you don't need to apply pressure or it may bleed and aggravate the pain. Apply the oral medication after cleaning. Avoid giving the baby anything by mouth to retain the medication inside for the drug to work.
Candida can be passed on from baby to mother through nursing. Thus, the mum needs to apply an oral antifungal cream after each breastfeed. Fungal infection takes time to cure so you need time and patience to cope with this.
After diagnosis, you should start to exercise more care by sterilizing all of baby's feeding equipment and mouthing toys. Those that are already used are likely to contain the fungus. You need to sterilize them to prevent re-contamination of your baby with the fungus.
For objects that can't withstand the high temperature of sterilization, it is advisable to discard these.
Oral thrush will disappear with treatment and precaution. The fungus has a limited life-span of about one month. Exercising care in sterilization of baby's equipment and application of medication will prevent Candida or oral thrush from reoccurrence.
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