It should be borne in mind that nearly every child who is sucking has his or her tongue white or "frosted" as it is sometimes called. The thrush may be mild or very severe.
Now with regard to What to do.—As the thrush is generally owing to improper and to artificial feeding, if the child be at the breast, keep him, for a time entirely to it. Do not let him be always sucking, as that will not only fret his mouth, but will likewise irritate and make sore the mother's nipple.
If he be not at the breast, but has been weaned, then keep him for a few days entirely to a milk diet—to the milk of ONE cow—either boiled, if it be hot weather, to keep it sweet; or unboiled, in cool weather—fresh as it comes from the cow.
The best medicine is the old-fashioned one of borax, a combination of powdered lump-sugar and borax being a good one for the purpose: the powdered lump-sugar increases the efficacy and the cleansing properties of the borax; it tends, moreover, to make it more palatable:
Take of—Biborate of Soda, half a drachm;
Lump-sugar, two scruples:
To be well mixed together, and made into twelve powders. One of the powders to be put dry on the tongue every four hours.
The best local remedy is honey of borax, which ought
to be smeared frequently, by means of the finger, on the
parts affected.
Thorough ventilation of the apartment must be observed; and great cleanliness of the vessels containing the milk should be insisted upon.
In a bad case of thrush, change of air to the country is most desirable; the effect is sometimes, in such cases, truly magical.
If the thrush be brought on either by too much or by
