Symptoms of thrush

Thrush is a common disease in infants and young children. Some people who regularly take hormones may also suffer from thrush. Many people may not know about thrush. In fact, this disease can be found anywhere in the mouth. Generally, infants and young children suffer from thrush on the tongue. However, many parents do not know what symptoms will appear.

Although thrush is not very common in life, there are many children suffering from this disease. Many children cry incessantly after suffering from thrush. Parents who do not understand thrush may not know why their children are crying, so they cannot make the correct decision.

Main symptoms

1. A milky white, slightly raised plaque appears on the oral mucosa with no surrounding inflammatory reaction. It is shaped like a milk lump and is painless. After wiping off the plaque, a non-bleeding red wound can be seen underneath. The plaque varies in size and may appear on the tongue, cheeks, palate, or inner lip mucosa.

2. It is common in the mucous membranes of the cheeks, tongue, soft palate and lips. The white patches are not easy to wipe off with cotton swabs or wet gauze;

3. When the infection is mild, it is difficult to detect unless the mouth is carefully examined. There is no obvious pain or the patient only feels painful when eating. In severe cases, the baby will be irritable and restless due to the pain, have a poor appetite and cry, have difficulty breastfeeding, and sometimes have a mild fever;

4. If the damaged mucosa is not treated in time, it can continue to expand and spread to the pharynx, tonsils, gums, etc. In more serious cases, the lesions can spread to the esophagus and bronchi, causing candidal esophagitis or pulmonary candidiasis, resulting in breathing and swallowing difficulties. A few may develop chronic mucocutaneous candidiasis, which can affect lifelong immune function. It may even lead to other bacterial infections and cause sepsis.

In mild cases, the surface of the oral mucosa is covered with white curd-like dots or flakes, which may gradually merge into large pieces and are not easy to wipe off. After forced peeling, the local mucosa becomes flushed and rough, and may bleed, but it is painless and does not drool. It generally does not affect feeding and there are no systemic symptoms. In severe cases, the entire oral cavity is covered with white patches, which may even spread to the pharynx, larynx, esophagus, trachea, lungs, etc., and may be accompanied by low fever, refusal to eat, and difficulty swallowing. Take a small amount of the white film, place it on a glass slide, add a drop of 10% sodium hydroxide, and the hyphae and spores of the fungus can be seen under a microscope.

The symptoms of thrush are introduced in detail above for readers. Parents who have just had children should pay more attention to the symptoms of thrush. Because children cannot diagnose thrush themselves, only parents can discover that their children have the disease. Once it is discovered that a child has thrush, it is imperative to treat it as soon as possible.