infant mouth ulcers

  I am so sorry your daughter has this painful mouth ulceration. If your doctor thinks it is cold sores. Then she has caught it from someone else - possibly an adult or older child with a cold sore on their lips. All of us caches this infection in the first few years of our lives. The first attack usually shows as mouth ulceration - mainly inside the mouth but often on the outside too where it looks like a cold sore on an older person. Once we have had this infection 60% of us have no further problem but the other 40% are unfortunate and have cold sores on the lips whenever stressed either physically or emotionally. The commonest stress that does this is the common cold hence the name cold sores.
It is very important to keep pushing the fluids although they are painful. A small proportion of children who have this initial infection become dehydrated and need hospitalisation.
The fact that the ulcers are near her uvula suggests that they may be due to a less common viral mouth infection, called Coxsackie. The result is much the same with reduced food and fluid intake because of a sore mouth. After this form of mouth ulceration heals we don't suffer the repeated sores as do 40% of the cold sore sufferers.
You are in for a few miserable days whichever virus is responsible. Keep up the fluids.

>
> Hello,
> I just brought my 8 month old daughter to her pedia for her 2nd half
> of her flu shot while the doctor wasdoing some exams we found out
> that the inside of her mouth has cold sores,right next to her
> uvula.I was so afraid and did not realize that causes her so much
> pain when she's eating or drinking her milk from her bottle. I was
> so
> anxious that's why i wanted to ask you if this kind of viral
> infection cangive herproblem in the future or will it happen
> again?What causes this break out?
> And why would appear it by her uvula which is very unusual?Her
> doctor
> gave her a prescription to ease down the pain which is good for 7
> days.I just cant help seeing her like this.
> Please i need your response,my email is mrlflorencio@gmail.com
> again,Thank you very much for reading my letter.

cows milk intolerance

Dear Peter.
                    It sounds as though your granddaughter is having a very rough time.
The fact that she responded to the Dairy-free diet but did not have lactose-intolerance, suggests that she has cow's milk protein intolerance.
Despite your strictness with the diet, the recurrence might be due to inadvertent exposure to cow's milk. It is amazing the solids that have milk protein in them. You need to check whether any product states that it has cow's milk solids or casein in it and avoid these. The only margarine that is safe is Nuttelex.
If all this has been done, and the problem, continues, she may have developed an allergy to some other food. Just about anything can provoke an allergy, but the most likely at her ages would be eggs.
Please let me know what happens and we can pursue some other approaches.
David

>
> I hope you can help us,our 1 year old granddaughter had diahorrea
> and
> vomiting which resulted in a stay in hospital the stool was like
> clear mucus with what appeared to be seeds in it.She had a barrage
> of
> tests these showed nothing conclusive.A dietician was consulted and
> she was put on a dairy free diet.The Vomiting and diahorrea had
> stopped and her appetite seemed to have recovered however she has
> gained no weight.
>  The original problem started at the begining of september but 4
> days ago the diahorrea started again and seems to be getting worse
> our daughter has been very careful to ensure she has had no dairy
> products in either her or the baby's diet and as you can imagine is
> at her wits end.Can you give us any advice?
>  Yours sincerely Peter Morgan.
> P.S.The tests eliminated Lactose intolerance and Celiac disease.

constipated 2-year-old

> Hello,
> I have a 2 year old daughter who suffers very badly from
> constipation
> and has done since she was eight months old.I am at my wits end we
> have been to gp and tried several medication with no luck. She is
> currently on lactulose and senna. It seems to work then just doesn't
> work for while. I was advised to increase dose from 2 5ml of
> lactulose twice day to up to ten a day. This just seems such a lot
> to
> give her but did it sometimes works and other times doesnt. She has
> also had suppository aswell which didn't work well. When she tries to
> go she is in so much pain screaming which can last hours and has
> even
> hurt her back trying to do it. She can go several days trying with
> no
> luck. I dont know what to do have tried obvious diet changes etc
> with
> no luck. What would you suggest? Could she have any other medical
> problems that cause this? Could being on these medications cause
> problems later in life?
>
> please get back to me my email is danagray19@hotmail.com i would
> really appreciate it.
>
> Many thanks
>
>


                   I am sorry your daughter is having so much pain on using her bowels. From your description, she has a fissure-in-ano.
This is a small crack in the anus where the bowel meets the skin. When she uses her bowels the crack is torn open and causes pain. This tends to stop her using her bowels making her more constipated.
She needs a local anaesthetic ointment applied to her anus as a thin smear at night after her bath and again in the morning on waking. You can buy the ointment over the counter at the pharmacy. You can also apply the ointment during the time she is using her bowels if it is hurting.
Lactulose and senna are fine. I recommend giving the senna at night. If she fails to use her bowels in the next 24 hours then double the dose. If this does not produce a result in the next 24 hours give her half glycerin suppository and continue with the higher dose of senna. Failure to use her bowels means redoubling the dose of senna and if this does not work another half suppository. After a week of success of using her bowels the dose of senna can be halved. So 1 day of failure means doubling the dose, a week of success means halving. She may get up to quite a high dose of senna but it will do no harm. Throughout all this you continue with the twice daily local anaesthetic ointment.
These instructions are quite complex, so don't have any hesitation in asking me a question. I will be happy to hear from you.
David