Cures for Infant Thrush

Infants often fall prey to a variety of ailments, one of which is thrush. Affecting the baby's mouth, making it painful and uncomfortable to feed, this infection caused by the Candida albicans yeast can spread to the tongue, the cheeks and the roof of the mouth. Caused by yeast during the birthing process, a nipple yeast contamination, or other source of yeast, oral thrush usually clears on its own. There are, however, a few methods of treatment as well.

Treatment for Babies

• When an infant's inner mouth has lesions and leaves milky residue because of the yeast infection or thrush, the pediatrician will put the baby on antifungal drugs to destroy the yeast. The baby will be prescribed nystatin suspension, which is to be squirted into the baby's mouth four times every day. If the thrush infection is serious, doctors will prescribe rubbing the nystatin directly on the inner cheeks and tongue of the baby with a drug-dabbed piece of cotton swab. Sometimes the doctor might recommend the use of the antifungal drug miconazole in the form of a gel. This has to be rubbed gently onto the baby's mouth, in small amounts, to avoid choking or irritating the infant. The back of the mouth near the throat area should be avoided. It is not harmful if the baby swallows a bit of it during application. This gel helps cure thrush by killing the yeast.

Treatment for Mothers

• Even before a baby is born, an expectant mother who shows symptoms of yeast infection, with thick creamy discharge from the vagina, should see her physician. A physician may prescribe a cream, but some home remedies can be helpful as well, such as applying an ice pack to the burning outer region of the vagina, wearing cotton underpants and eating yogurt.

  Later, if the baby suffers from thrush while the mother is still breastfeeding, there could be a chance that her nipple has the same infection. Whether the mother has the infection or not, doctors will advise her to take the antifungal drug to contain the infection faster. She will normally be put on a topical ointment or cream containing nystatin to be applied to her nipple to kill the infection. This will prevent the infection from being passed back and forth between mother and child. This treatment, along with the baby's oral application for a few weeks, usually cures the oral thrush completely.

Prevention

• The caregiver should give the baby a drink of sterilized water after every feed to wash away any milk residue within the mouth. All bottles, artificial nipples and pacifiers should be cleaned, sterilized and dried before being given to the baby. Visitors and family members should not insert fingers inside the baby's mouth. If the baby is being breastfeed, the nipples should be air-dried between feedings. All of these steps will help prevent thrush.