A mother in the background said that her son, Xiaohu, has been unhappy recently and rarely plays with other children. After asking for a long time, my son told him that some children said he had bad breath and did not want to play with him.
This mother is very puzzled. The child has been eating lightly, how can he have bad breath?
One, the cause of bad breath
Halitosis is the odor that comes out of our mouth, nose, and throat. Most of the time, you can’t smell it yourself, and you can only know it through feedback from people close to you.
Halitosis really troubles many people, whether adults or children, once they have bad breath, it is an embarrassing thing.
So what causes bad breath?
1. Poor oral hygiene. The plaque on the tooth surface and the tongue coating on the tongue surface are often attached to bacteria. The daily food residues and proteins such as saliva are decomposed by bacteria, and substances such as hydrogen sulfide are produced and emitted.
2. When the teeth have periodontitis, dental caries, pericoronitis of wisdom teeth, oral mucosal diseases and other oral diseases, bad breath will also be caused.
3. The baby’s gastrointestinal dysfunction, indigestion, and the milk that he drinks stays in the stomach for a long time to ferment. If the baby burps at this time, the taste will be more obvious.
4. Children sometimes have bad breath when they eat garlic, onion, lamb, leeks and other foods. The smell is related to the specific food they eat, and children with weakened gastrointestinal function will suffer from bad breath due to Food stays in the gastrointestinal tract for too long, resulting in a sour taste.
5. There are pharyngitis, rhinitis, sinusitis, tonsillitis and other diseases near the oral cavity, especially the bad breath caused by tonsil stones, which is even more impressive.
6. Some other chronic diseases of the body, such as stomach problems, pneumonia, diabetes, etc., can also cause bad breath.
7. If a child is infected with Helicobacter pylori, Helicobacter pylori can cause chronic gastritis, peptic ulcer and other diseases, and the mouth often has a sour odor.
Second, a simple way to judge a child’s bad breath
Observe children more often, and you can preliminarily judge where the child’s problems are through different tastes:
If there is a sour or rancid smell, more consideration should be given to the child’s oral problems and gastrointestinal function and digestion problems.
The smell of pus is mostly caused by infection of a certain part of the respiratory system.
The smell of rotten apples is more common in diabetic children with ketoacidosis.
Blood smell, commonly caused by bleeding gums, nosebleeds, gastrointestinal bleeding and other bleeding disorders.
Three, scientific adjustment to solve bad breath
If we find bad breath, we can make adjustments from the following aspects:
1. Develop the habit of oral hygiene, brush your teeth at least once in the morning and evening, and pay attention to cleaning the tongue coating when brushing your teeth. The tongue coating is a place where bad breath bacteria tend to gather. You can use a toothbrush or a tongue scraper to lightly brush the tongue coating.
If your baby does not cooperate with brushing teeth, you can use a clean gauze wrap around your fingers every morning and evening, or use a silicone finger-tipped toothbrush dipped in cool white to gently scrub the teeth and mouth for oral cleaning.
Regular cleanings or checkups to thoroughly remove plaque and stones. Make it a habit to rinse your mouth after meals to keep your mouth fresh.
2. Use mouthwashes and toothpastes containing antibacterial ingredients to reduce the number of pathogenic bacteria in the mouth. By combining mouthwashes with mouth washing movements, the bacteria in the mouth can also be effectively cleaned.
A dry oral environment will reduce saliva secretion and reduce the ability to wash out oral plaque. Usually, drink more warm water to keep the oral cavity moist and the environment clean.
3. Reduce the amount of food. The sour taste of the child’s mouth is mostly caused by indigestion. You can try to eat less or stop eating to facilitate the recovery of gastrointestinal function.
4. Develop good eating habits and wash hands before eating. Parents should avoid chewing food and feed them to their children, and do not directly kiss their children’s mouths, use public chopsticks or bring their own tableware when eating out, so as to avoid Helicobacter pylori infection as much as possible.
Eating utensils and milk utensils should be cleaned and disinfected frequently, and adults and children should be separated; if breastfeeding, mothers should pay more attention to the cleanliness of nipples.
5. Make up, wash, change, and extract teeth in time. Tooth decay should be filled, calculus should be cleaned, dentures that should be replaced should be replaced as soon as possible, and wisdom teeth that have been repeatedly inflamed should be removed in time.
6. Bad breath caused by problems in other parts of the body, such as some chronic systemic diseases, needs to be referred to the corresponding department for examination and treatment.
The problem of bad breath is not too big, not too small. If you find that your child has bad breath, you should treat it in time, otherwise it will hinder your child’s social journey, and seriously affect your child’s mental health. Let us pay attention to the problem of bad breath, so that children can socialize normally, restore their smiles, and give them a sunny day.