Hygiene for children's mouth to avoid thrush, curdled milk

In the first 6 months of life, more or less children vomit. The baby may spit up milk that has just been fed or it may also have clotted milk. So what is the phenomenon of curdled milk in the baby's mouth? When encountering this phenomenon, how to handle? How to properly clean a baby's mouth?

1.1 What is curdled milk? Clumped milk is milk that has been partially digested in the stomach. Due to some reason, after feeding, the baby vomits curdled milk with viscous fluid. This viscous fluid is the digestive juices of the stomach.
If this phenomenon occurs with a low frequency (usually 3 times a day at most), does not affect breathing, does not cause discomfort to the child, it is only counted as physiological vomiting and does not need to be treated. .
On the contrary, if this condition occurs frequently, causing prolonged coughing, wheezing along with weight changes, the child should be taken to the doctor because it is possible that the child is suffering from gastroesophageal reflux disease.
1.2 Causes of baby spitting up clotted milk The digestive system of children is still weak, the stomach of young children is higher than that of adults, so it is easy to vomit. Cardiac activity is weak, so if you eat too much or change your position suddenly, it will lead to vomiting and regurgitation of milk while nursing. The baby suckles too quickly or eats too much. Due to formula feeding: Formula milk usually takes longer to digest than breast milk, so it is often vomited out before being digested. Often at this time, the child will see the child vomit curdled milk with gastric juice. Vomiting of clotted milk due to gastroesophageal reflux is also a common problem in infants and young children. Normally, food passes through the mouth, esophagus, down to the stomach, is digested in the stomach and then brought little by little to the small intestine for reabsorption and elimination. However, in infants and young children, the contractions of the digestive tract muscles sometimes are not synchronized, causing disturbances in intestinal motility, so the child vomits and has the phenomenon of milk clots in the baby's mouth.

1.3 How to handle when the baby vomits curdled milk? When a child vomits and spits up curdled milk, parents should stay calm so that they can best handle the situation. Do not hold the baby in a standing position, let the child lie on his or her side to let the milk out through the corner of the mouth without entering the child's nose or ear canal. Gently lift the baby up, wipe the baby's mouth with a towel. If the child spits up milk through the nose and mouth, use a nasal aspirator and rinse the child's nose and mouth with physiological saline. After 30 minutes, the child can eat again. Do not feed the baby immediately because it may spit up again.

In the oral cavity as well as on the surface of the child's tongue, there are many bacteria and microorganisms that cause unpleasant odors. Therefore, if the child does not have proper oral hygiene, thrush will appear, causing a decrease or even loss of taste, causing the child to feel anorexia, vomiting, fussiness, and breastfeeding.
Keeping oral hygiene is not only important in adults but also extremely necessary in children, especially in infants. In infants, young children, children often cannot clean their own teeth, so parents must know how to properly clean to ensure oral health for their children.
There are 2 ways to clean the baby's mouth that mothers need to pay attention to: daily hygiene and hygiene when children have thrush.
2.1 Clean mouth daily to remove milk residue, handle curdled milk Cleaning time: The time is usually after the baby has finished eating milk. Need to clean the mouth to remove milk residues on the surface. Milk residues are small white dots that appear on the lining of the tongue after the baby has finished feeding, do not cause pain, are easy to peel and drift when the child swallows saliva. Milk residue is often caused by babies sleeping with milk or formula-fed babies.
Hygiene steps Mother washes her hands thoroughly with an antiseptic solution. Lay the baby on the bed or hold the baby on your lap. Wrap gauze around mom's index finger or wear tubular thrush gauze. Dip a gauze finger in 0.9% NaCl solution or cooled boiled water and then gently touch the lower lip to open the mouth. Then gently move your hand to each area in the child's oral cavity from the tongue to the roof of the mouth, gums, throat... to clean the child's mouth. (Note not to put your hand too deep, it may cause vomiting in the baby.) Place your finger on the base of the tongue and then pull it out to completely remove the milk residue underneath. 2.2 Oral hygiene for children to fight thrush Different from milk residue or curdled milk, thrush is a white pseudomembranous membrane in the oral mucosa that adheres tightly to the surface of the tongue, difficult to peel, causes burning pain, and may bleed blood when rubbed or tried to pry. Thrush is caused by candida albicans - a type of yeast found in the oral cavity of children.
Thrush when cleaning for children with oral thrush is similar to daily oral hygiene for children, but different in that it needs to be combined with the use of antifungal drugs for hygiene.
Steps to brush your tongue:
Wash your hands with a sterile solution before cleaning your child's mouth. Lay the baby on the bed or hold the baby on your lap. Wrap gauze around mom's index finger or wear tubular thrush gauze. Dip a gauze finger in the Nystatin solution 500,000 units and then gently touch the lower lip to open the child's mouth, and then gently move the hand to the positions of the tongue to wipe the surface of the tongue. Be careful not to put your hand too deep, it will cause vomiting in the baby. Use another gauze pad to wipe the inside of the cheeks, palate and gums. Place your finger on the base of the tongue and then pull it out to completely remove the milk residue underneath. Repeat the same operation a second time if the child has a lot of thrush. Note: Thrush for children should be brushed 4 times a day with antifungal active ingredients specified by the doctor and after the child has finished thrush, it is still recommended to continue cleaning the child like this for 2 days afterwards to be more thorough.

Breastfeed your baby properly, don't overfeed, but just eat enough and eat in small meals. It is best to breastfeed the baby directly, not through a bottle, especially when the baby is young. This will help the baby's stomach expand properly enough to accommodate the amount of milk the baby sucks in, reducing the risk of vomiting due to stomach contractions Note the baby's position when feeding: Place the pillow about 1 brick high to Baby lies in shoulder position with head tilted at least 30 degrees. The half-lying and half-sitting position will help the baby reduce spitting up milk or spitting up. After feeding, hold the baby in a standing position for at least 30 minutes. If the baby is bottle-fed: ask to choose a standard bottle, mix the milk properly, and do not let the bottle lie horizontally because then the amount of milk flooded the nipple will easily cause choking for the baby. Feed the child when he is awake, comfortable, not tired, not sleepy. Do not force your child to eat more than he or she can normally eat. In the period of 0-6 months, children regurgitate after feeding, spit up curdled milk or children with thrush, ...... are quite common phenomena in infants. Mothers should learn about child care skills in these cases so as not to be passive in handling. The pediatric department at Vinmec International General Hospital is the address for receiving and examining diseases that infants and young children are susceptible to: viral fever, bacterial fever, otitis media, pneumonia in children ,....With modern equipment, sterile space, minimizing the impact as well as the risk of disease spread. Along with that is the dedication from the doctors with professional experience with pediatric patients, making the examination no longer a concern of the parents.