Strep infection of the mouth - treatment?

[MargoThreadbetter]

Have painful mouth, swollen tongue and a weeping sore on my lip.

Are antibiotics usually necessary? Am breastfeeding, and keen to avoid medication.

DH says resting for a few days might be enough

Antibiotics for strep, asap.

Salt water gargle for now and GP in the morning?

I was doing the salt water gargle for a couple of days as my gum was hurting next to my wisdom tooth. But today I seem to have deteriorated. I don't have a sore throat, but my tongue feels tingly and hurts at the edges when I swallow.

Look, you don't fuck around with strep (if that's what it is). It is not, as your DH might think, a little virus. It's a bacterial infection, one which can also spread throughout the body (blood, tissues) and can be fatal. Can be extremely dangerous for babies. It's contagious. Of course, lots of people have strep throat every year and are ok, so no need to panic, but there is no good reason to leave a strep infection alone and hope it'll go away.

You need to see your GP tomorrow.

And tbh I don't like the sound of the weeping sore. You do realise that strep (I think A, sorry, don't remember which group) is responsible for necrotizing fasciitis?

Not smart to have weeping sores around a baby, anyway.

Good lord I shouldn't google. All kinds of frightening complications if left untreated.

Am definitely going to doctor tomorrow, but as I've had this once before I am at what they'll say. (Was previously told there were risks if I continued breastfeeding with the antibiotics I had to take, as I can't have penicillin).

You're absolutely right winnybella. DS did get sick last time, and ended up on the same medication. Crap.

DD is 8 months and her eyes have been sticky since she woke this morning. Does it sound like it's connected? We've all been sick, and I only started to suspect what was wrong with me this evening... oh god.

Why don't you ask in Breastfeeding? They have the contact info for the Bfing body that actually know their stuff re: meds. GPs often have no clue and forbid bfing even though in most cases it's possible to continue. Worst case, you could try expressing to keep up the supply and feed your baby formula for the duration of treatment.

Yes, strep can cause conjuctivitis, but I'm not sure whether it's the same one that can cause mouth/throat infections, there's few groups.

Oh, she's 8 months, then I guess she doesn't feed that often anymore? Few times a day? And also can have milk, not formula, I guess? DD is 3 and I've already forgotten. Anyway, after 8 months your supply is well establishd so with some expressing it won't dry up.

Thanks so much. Will try to get the same doctor to see us both tomorrow, trouble is I'm in a country where children are seen by paediatricians, so I don't know if I'll be lucky enough to get someone who will consider me and DD as one unit.

I think she'll be a bit distressed with no breastfeeding, as it's still every 3-4 hours during the day, and for bedtime. But physically I think we'd be fine if I kept expressing.

Hmm, hopefully. I'm in France (so also paeds for DCs) and DD's paed prescribd some drops for me when DD had conjuctivitis in case I got it as well. If you call GP first thing in the morning and say you have swollen tongue and weeping sore (and embellish it a bit) I'm sure they'll give you one of the few emergency appointments they always keep.

Yes, she might be. I had to do it for few days when DD was 12 mo and it wasn't too bad, tbh, except her not being happy not being BF to sleep and in the middle of the night, but after a day it was ok (and it stopped the BF to sleep thing, which I was actually grateful for by then, tbh).

Good luck tomorrow and don't panic, I'm sure it'll all clear up in no time, but I always get a bit twitchy when people have raging infections and are v.British and stoical about it