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Oral Thrush
Preventing and Treating This Common Condition
By Cynthia A. McMahon
Scan the newspaper, listen to the radio or tune into a television program. If you pay attention long enough, you hear about the lack of flu vaccines, the renewed threat of whooping cough and the biohazards lurking on the surface of our fruits and vegetables.
For concerned parents, there tends to be a heightened sensitivity to the potential for hazards and threats to the health and well-being of our children. Even the simple act of baby dropping a pacifier or bottle causes concern.
Did you know, however, that we also have a common presence in and on our bodies that can pose a hazard to our infants? It is a yeast called Candida albicans, and it can cause a condition known as oral thrush.
Oral thrush is a yeast infection that commonly occurs in the mouth, throat and on the tongue in infants and toddlers, though it can occur at any age. Thrush can appear as white patches or spots. Similar in appearance to cottage cheese or milk curds, it can easily be mistaken for formula in a baby's mouth.
Oral thrush is common in newborns and infants whose immune systems are not fully developed. Dr. Jill Miller, a pediatrician with the Corvallis Clinic in Corvallis, Ore., estimates that 2 to 5 percent of her newborn patients contract thrush. It usually causes only mild discomfort for the infant but can occasionally interfere with the baby's eating behavior due to discomfort.
Tammi Smith*, a 30-year-old mother of one from Vancouver, Wash., first noticed a problem with her 2-week-old daughter, Alyssa, when Alyssa started moving her tongue in and out of her mouth more than usual, crying a lot more and losing interest in her bottle. After detecting large and small white spots on Alyssa's tongue, Smith and her husband took their daughter to the weekend emergency clinic. There, Alyssa was diagnosed with oral thrush.
"I was almost sick to my stomach because I could tell that my little baby was very sore and in pain, and there was nothing I could do immediately to stop her pain, and I did not like that," says Smith.
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Thank you! by studentwrittingahardessay on 05/04/2009 12:43AM
I'm writing a very difficult report on this infection and this article helped my research so much. Thanks a ton!