Tongue Thrush

My pediatrician wants me to use a tongue scraper on my 6 week old infant to help keep thrush away.?

My son had a case of thrush, but it was getting better. The doctor doesn't want to keep him on medicine as it could case liver damage. He did suggest to scrape his tongue every day. Where do you get an infant tongue scraper? I have a medical kit from Safety 1st that comes with this thing that is like a tooth brush, but it has 2 sides. Both are a stiff rubber material, but one has short bristles-almost like a tooth brush but not as big. The other side has these harder rubber spikes on it...is this a tongue scraper or could I use it as a tongue scraper? If not, were on earth do you get an infant tongue scraper??

Public Comments

1. maybe just use a baby wash cloth and your finger.
2. Someone should scrape the Doctor's tongue for even suggesting that. No, don't 'scrape' the baby's tongue! You can gently rub the tongue with a baby toothbrush .. The thing you are describing (the plastic thingy) is a gum massage for using before the baby gets teeth.
3. sounds like dodgy advice to me because thrush is caused by fungus infection not by build up of milk deposits. so scraping his tongue may make it look clean but the infection will still be there. an alternative would be to wipe the inside of his mouth with lemon juice. squeeze a few drops from a fresh lemon onto a clean cloth and run it on he inside of his mouth once a day. lemon disinfects as well as controls thrush. babies have not yet learned to dislike sour tastes so he will not refuse to let u do it. keep all feeding eq. sterilized to avoid reinfection
4. I would get a second opinion from a different ped Dr. That doesnt sound right. I would not want him on any meds that would harm him either. There are better meds that do not harm people.
5. I suppose you could try an adult tongue scraper, or you can try brushing his tongue with a baby toothbrush? Either way, you should get some probiotics for your baby. You can find these at the health food store, talk to the owner/manager to find something age appropriate, you are looking for acidophilus in particular, but the health food store person should be able to help you. You can give baby a tiny bit on your finger (he just sucks it off). This should help. If you are breastfeeding see the link below. http://www.askdrsears.com/html/2/T028100.asp If you are absolutely desperate to make this go away, you can talk to a lactation consultant about gentian violet (there is some info on this in the above link). Never administer it straight at full-strength to baby's mouth. I can't remember the exact dilution. You can find gentian violet behind the counter at most pharmacies (no prescription needed, you just have to ask for it). I used gentian violet on my breasts and in my son's mouth and we've never had problems thus far (he is now three). Good luck, thrush can be really, really tough to deal with!