The Alternative Health Gazette

Herbal and Alternative Remedies for Oral Thrush

Oral thrush is a common problem which occurs most often in babies and small children. It can develop in adults too, because it is simply another form of a yeast infection.

Yeast infections are caused by a bacteria that lives in our bodies known as candida albicans. Millions of this bacteria are present in our systems at all times, and they proliferate in the mouth. Thankfully our bodies have built in methods of keeping this bacteria from causing ongoing problems though. We have “good” or “friendly” bacteria that also lives within us, and this bacteria does many things for us including helping with digestion, and helping to suppress problem causing bacteria.

Small children get sick though, and one of the most common things they get sick with is an ear infection. And for many years now, the standard treatment for ear infections has been the use of broad spectrum antibiotics. And this causes a problem, because those antibiotics kill all the good and bad bacteria in our bodies. And without the good bacteria in place, the yeast causing bacteria are able to quickly grow and thrive once the antibiotic is done, because they’ve developed a resistance to those medications.

So it’s quite common to see a baby or small child develop an oral yeast infection, or thrush, after having taken an antibiotic for some other health problem. Yeast infections are also contagious though, so some children have chronic recurring problems with oral thrush because they’re constantly putting things in their mouth that have not been sterilized since the last thrush outbreak. Or they find something that was put into the mouth of another child who had thrush, thus they pick it up themselves.

Now, curing an oral thrush infection is fairly easy to do in a healthy person. Whether child or adult, as long as the body’s immune system is not compromised or weakened by something such as a disease or other prescription medications, simple herbs and home remedies can usually take care of oral thrush break outs easily.

The first thing to try is yogurt. Plain old fashioned, unsweetened and un-pasteurized yogurt which has live acidophilus in it will almost always do the trick. If you’re treating a thrush infection in a child who is old enough to eat the yogurt, feed it to them. If the thrush is around the outside of their mouth, you can also smear the yogurt around the infected area. For small babies you’ll want to gently and lightly smear the infected areas with yogurt, trying to get some coated around inside their mouths without putting so much in that they choke.

The second way to cure an oral thrush yeast infection is to use plain old garlic. Garlic is the number one herbal choice for treating any kind of fungus problem. Simply slice a clove of raw garlic in half, then rub the juicy side around the affected areas of the mouth. If the thrush is inside an adult or child old enough not to choke, remove the skin from the garlic and slice a small piece of it off, then have the affected person swab the piece of garlic around inside their mouth for a few minutes.

If treating a baby or smaller child, garlic oil gel capsules can be used instead. Simply pierce the end of the capsule with a pin, then rub the oil around inside and outside the mouth. Note: Garlic an sting a little if there are open sores or abrasions.

Use either of these methods twice a day and the thrush infection will often be cleared up within one to three days. Be sure to sterilize toys, bottle nipples, or anything else children or babies may have had in their mouths when the thrush was active.

Statements made in this article may not be approved by the FDA, and should not be taken as professional medical advice.

Tags: Candida, Fungus, Yeast