My baby has patches
My six-month-old child has white patches on her tongue.
What you need to know:
- Worse still Candida may strike if a child has compromised immunity due to HIV infection or malnutrition. You need to avoid self-prescription of antibiotics and also improve the baby’s nutrition.
Dear doctor:My six-month-old child has white patches on her tongue. These patches keep occurring when she has cough. When I try to remove them, the baby bleeds. What is the remedy?
Claire
Dear Claire: Candida Albicans is a fungus that normally lives on our skins, in the mouth, penis, vagina and intestines without posing health concerns.
Under certain circumstances, including reduced resistance to fight infections, Candida may flourish and in the mouth it may cause a white coating with reddened areas (oral thrush).
Since a baby’s ability to fight germs is little, Candida may easily strike especially due to use of broad spectrum antibiotics to treat what you call cough which could be viral infection or an allergy hence not requiring antibiotics. Candida can also strike due to the use of steroids for allergic cough. The steroids are some of the most self-prescribed drugs for cough in Uganda.
Worse still Candida may strike if a child has compromised immunity due to HIV infection or malnutrition. You need to avoid self-prescription of antibiotics and also improve the baby’s nutrition.
