Unpleasant sweetish odor from the child's mouth. Bad breath in a child - why it appears and what to do

Parents pay attention to any change in the behavior and health of their children. Bad breath from a child’s mouth throughout the day also causes confusion. This symptom may indicate health problems, so mom and dad’s concerns are sometimes justified.

Why do children have bad breath?

is the medical name for bad breath. Bacteria are to blame for its appearance, which emit an unpleasant odor during the processing of protein foods. Regardless of age, this process occurs in the oral cavity. The breakdown process produces compounds containing sulfur. They are the ones that give off the stench.

Saliva can neutralize unpleasant odor in the mouth. But sometimes even a one-year-old baby produces a small amount of saliva or too many bacteria that produce a special aroma.

The following causes of bad breath in children are known:

• increased sweating due to the fact that the baby moves a lot: his mouth dries out and an unpleasant “aroma” appears;
• chronic disease of the bronchopulmonary system;
• or gum disease;
• dry air in the room where the child is, that is, the room is ventilated very rarely or not at all.

In most cases, the main cause of bad odor is dental disease. To determine, you just need to carefully examine the baby’s teeth. It is important to pay attention to the presence of flux. The stench disappears after the dental problems are eliminated.

It is important to pay attention to exactly how your child smells bad:

1. Ammonia smell may occur due to metabolic disorders, a large amount of proteins or the presence of gum diseases. Sometimes this aroma appears due to the use of a large number of medications. After completing the course of treatment, the smell disappears on its own.
2. in the morning - a rather dangerous symptom. It may indicate the presence of diabetes or gallbladder disease. Sometimes this symptom occurs with severe liver disease or exhaustion of the body.
3. Acrid smell. The cause may be dysbacteriosis. It often occurs after taking antibiotics. The recovery process is long. It is necessary to take special dietary supplements.
4. Smell of pus. Most often indicates diseases of the nasopharynx. A purulent stench is formed due to the presence of purulent plugs and plaque on the tonsils. Such phenomena are observed with pharyngitis, sore throat, sinusitis, nasal congestion and other conditions.
5. Chemical smell. Often occurs due to the use of medications.
6. Putrid stench. A strong smell of rot appears in diseases of the gastrointestinal tract.
7. Sweet smell. An unpleasant odor often indicates the presence of diabetes. In the case of children, this disease is most likely hereditary. The development of type 1 diabetes is accompanied by impaired glucose concentration in the body. Its synthesis and production are disrupted, which causes a sweet aroma.

Often the reason why a baby's breath stinks may be failure to follow hygiene rules or consumption of certain types of foods. Diseases of the gastrointestinal tract as the root cause occur during the intensive growth of the child. They mostly occur between the ages of 4 and 7 years, but recur in adolescents.

Dental diseases

In young children under 2 years old, the root cause of an unpleasant odor may often be problems with teeth or gums. Children are very fond of sweets and foods that are harmful to the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract and the body as a whole. Moreover, it can be difficult to motivate them. You can accustom your baby to this procedure from the appearance of the first tooth.

The parent can first independently examine the teeth and determine if there is damage to the tooth enamel or gums.

In the presence of caries, food begins to remain in the damaged tooth, resulting in the process of decay. If external manifestations are not visible, then there may be other gum diseases.

The baby may develop a strange odor during pregnancy. They become red and swollen. You need to see a doctor so that he can make effective prescriptions.

Which doctor should I contact?

If your child has bad breath, you should contact your pediatrician. The reasons may be absolutely banal. For example, drinking a small amount of water if the baby takes a lot of sweets or other unhealthy foods. If you eliminate the root cause, the effect will go away on its own.

It is also advisable for the pediatrician to listen to the bronchi and lungs. If there is an inflammatory process or the presence of a chronic disease, it is advisable to undergo an examination by an ENT specialist to identify sinusitis, runny nose and other breathing problems.

You need to get examined by a dentist. He will tell you if there is a problem in the mouth, gums or teeth. The doctor will also help if there is an inflammatory process in the gums, when teeth are just beginning to emerge.

The need to visit a gastroenterologist arises if problems with the gastrointestinal tract are suspected.

Sometimes it is enough to pay more attention to your baby’s hygiene procedures and ventilate the room more often.

The treatment prescribed by the doctor should be carried out to the end, that is, the entire course, and not just until the unpleasant symptom is completely eliminated.

Medicines should only be taken under the supervision of a doctor. It is prohibited to do this on your own. Children from 6 years old can purchase mouthwashes that will eliminate the unpleasant “aroma”.

You need to ensure that there is always fresh air in the room. To do this, you should ventilate several times a day.

If the cause of the odor is a problem in the nasopharynx, then, in the absence of contraindications, you can use rinsing the nasopharynx with saline solution and warming it with salt.

If the doctor has not noticed any health problems, then you can eliminate the unpleasant symptom by performing the following manipulations:

1. A small child, from the appearance of his first tooth to 3 years of age, needs to brush his teeth together with his parents.
2. Stop eating sweets. Children love different goodies, but they still don’t know how to limit themselves and don’t understand why this is necessary. You can replace sugar with honey. Honey not only does not harm the body, but contains a large amount of microelements and vitamins.
3. You can increase the amount of saliva by eating an orange or an apple. But do not forget to rinse vegetables and fruits well before eating.
4. Give your baby enough water to drink.
5. Taking vitamins. You need to take a vitamin complex twice a year. Your pediatrician will recommend the best one.
6. Strengthening immunity. In order for your baby to rarely get colds, you need to pay attention to his immunity.

Doctor Komarovsky's opinion

Komarovsky claims that oral odor at the age of 2 years can be caused by dryness in the nasopharynx.

The doctor says that such symptoms can especially often appear after eating garlic or onions.

But sometimes the reason may be hidden in serious diseases in the body. In any case, you must initially go to the doctor to eliminate suspicions or confirm them and begin treatment on time to avoid complications.

In the video, Dr. Komarovsky talks in detail about the smell of a child’s mouth:

The most pleasant smell in the world is the smell of a newborn baby. The baby smells of milk and vanilla, in addition it smells of tenderness, velvet, affection and love. The child grows up and acquires an individual aroma characteristic of a person. One morning, the mother will be horrified when she smells the baby’s foul breath - a picture familiar to some parents.

Normally, the air from children's mouths is neutral and does not attract attention. But from time to time a sharp, unpleasant aroma is felt, causing anxiety among parents. The reasons for the appearance of a child are different, let’s look at the most common:

More often, odors are temporary and not associated with pathology. They change throughout the day, appearing and disappearing. This is normal.

Smell at a certain age

As a child grows up, the odors coming from a child's mouth change. Age characteristics will tell the parent the reason. What is the difference between the aroma of the breath of a baby and a teenager:

What smell indicates illness?

Sometimes an unpleasant odor appears as a symptom of illness. How to understand when it is enough to carry out a hygienic procedure, and when a doctor’s help is required? Halitosis is not a disease, but helps identify an associated disease. Rate the scent and compare whether it matches the description:

• Purulent or putrefactive, accompanies diseases of the ENT organs: tonsillitis, sinusitis, etc. Smells of pus are felt in the presence of stomatitis and dental caries. Examine the oral cavity; you may quickly find the source of inflammation.
• Sour speaks of gastrointestinal pathologies, dysbacteriosis or candidiasis of the oral mucosa.
• indicates an abundance of hydrogen sulfide gases in the stomach; rotten breath indicates possible stomach diseases.
• A sweetish aroma is an alarming sign; a cloying sweet smell indicates liver disease.
• If you feel the taste of acetone in your baby’s breath, this may be a consequence of diabetes or gastrointestinal diseases, and requires urgent medical attention.
• The fetid smell of rot appears during a cold, ARVI, or runny nose, which means that an inflammatory process is developing in the body.
• If bile enters the esophagus, the child may smell like vomit, although he has not vomited.

Directly, breath aromas are not a symptom of the disease, they do not need to be treated, but together with other signs they give impetus to a correct diagnosis if you see the signs: high temperature, runny nose, unnatural color of urine, pain, the child gets tired quickly. If the smell does not go away for months, go to see your pediatrician. The doctor will conduct a comprehensive examination.

How to get rid of bad breath?

If the “aroma” is the result of a disease, follow the doctor’s instructions. Be sure to follow the prescribed procedures and undergo the prescribed additional examination. When the root cause is eliminated, the smell goes away. What to do if the child is healthy, but the smell is still present? The well-known doctor Komarovsky in Russia gives recommendations:

How to mask bad breath if you can’t eliminate it completely

One of the causes of bad breath is taking medications. The aroma will accompany the child until the medication is stopped, becoming stronger with each dose received. Or, a more frequent case, is when the baby eats something odorous (fresh onions), and you need to take the child to classes or on a visit. How to mask or eliminate an unpleasant odor:

1. Brush your teeth, gums and tongue with a mint or pine aroma paste, rinse your mouth with an alcohol-free mouthwash.
2. Hold it in your mouth and chew another product with a strong but pleasant odor. For example, mint or lemon balm (possibly dried), citrus fruit zest.
3. Rinse your mouth with a decoction of herbs. They remove odors well: oak bark, mint, chamomile, lemon balm, rose hips.
4. Give your teenager a coffee bean or a piece of ginger. Coffee absorbs foreign odors.
5. Use an alcohol-free refreshing spray or sugar-free chewing gum.

Don't mask the smell unless you know the reason. Perhaps this is the only sign of a hidden disease.

Your baby's scent is light and delicate. With proper care, it will remain pleasant for many years. Compliance with the rules of hygiene, daily routine and nutrition and timely contact with a pediatrician is the key to good health for children. Take care of him.

Bad breath in a child is called halitosis. The human mouth is one of the dirtiest parts of the body, so the lack of fresh breath even in young children is understandable. The appearance of a bad odor is not always caused by a serious pathological problem, but still this phenomenon should not be ignored.

Bad breath from the mouth can occur in children at any age, even in newborn babies who are breastfed. With halitosis that continues for a long time, we can safely assume that there is a more serious problem than bad breath caused by poor oral hygiene. For example, the strong smell of ammonia is in most cases a symptom of kidney disease.

Newborns who are breastfed usually have a milky breath. This is due to the presence of a fairly large number of lactic bacteria in the body. Such halitosis is considered normal and should not cause concern to parents. In older children who are already well-nourished and have no health problems, bad breath should be absent or appear as a temporary phenomenon.

The causes of unpleasant odor in children, which are not caused by pathological processes, may be the following:

1. Food. After eating garlic, onions, cabbage, hard cheese, radishes and other specific foods, the child’s breath becomes stale. The bad smell lingers for several hours and then disappears. It is impossible to get rid of an unpleasant odor after eating some foods, even if you brush your teeth. Protein-rich foods can lead to a putrid odor. This process is explained by the fact that protein foods take a long time to digest in the stomach, causing rotting. Carbohydrates can also give this result, as they cause fermentation in the gastrointestinal tract.
2. Failure to comply with hygiene rules. If you do not brush your teeth regularly or if this is done poorly, which is typical for children, an unpleasant odor may appear. Plaque forms on the oral mucosa and teeth, which is the source of bad breath.
3. Sweets. Products containing sugar in their composition are provocateurs for the appearance of a bad aroma. Sweets activate the growth of pathogenic bacteria, which, in turn, cause the appearance of a specific odor.
4. Emotional stress (excitement, stress, fear, etc.). During the appearance of such emotions, the amount of salivation decreases, which leads to the appearance of halitosis. In an infant, the cause of dry mouth may be a lack of fluid in the body.

Oksana Shiyka

Dentist-therapist

When your breath smells bad, you need to find out the main reason for this phenomenon. You can get rid of it if you eliminate the main source of the pathology.

It is also recommended to eliminate bad breath in a child, the causes of which do not have a pathogenic basis, since over time, along with this phenomenon, a more serious disease may develop.

Pathological causes of odor

You can only find out the exact reason why a child’s breath smells in a medical facility. First of all, you should pay attention to the condition of your teeth and get examined by a dentist. Carious teeth are one of the main causes of halitosis. But there are other dental problems that contribute to the appearance of such a symptom.

A child has foul-smelling breath that may indicate the presence of the following diseases:

• chronic tonsillitis;
• sinusitis;
• sinusitis;
• pharyngitis;
• angina.

Additionally, the following symptoms may occur:

• nasal congestion;
• the appearance of plaque on the tongue and tonsils;
• runny nose;
• increased body temperature;
• cough;
• a sore throat.

After the doctor examines the child and carries out all the necessary tests, a final diagnosis is made that reveals the reason why the child’s breath smells. Based on this, appropriate treatment will be carried out.

The smell from the mouth of children can be quite specific and resemble acetone. This manifestation of the body indicates a high level of acetone in the blood. The cause of an unpleasant odor may be physical fatigue, insufficient exposure to fresh air, or fasting.

Bad breath in infants is not always caused by a serious pathological process. The presence of the smell of acetone in an infant may be due to a violation of carbohydrate (energy) metabolism. When a newborn is bottle-fed, due to its not yet perfect digestive system and enzymatic deficiency, a bad odor also appears from the mouth.

If the baby previously suffered from an illness that was accompanied by a high temperature, then the unpleasant odor from the child’s mouth indicates that the glucose reserve has been depleted. It (glucose) participates in pyrogenic reactions. Children have much less glycogen in the liver than adults, and it is depleted faster.

Oksana Shiyka

Dentist-therapist

Strong breath odor with decreased or complete absence of appetite can occur with tumor processes or infectious diseases, as well as with anorexia nervosa.

Other pathological causes include:

• problems in the gastrointestinal tract;
• dysbacteriosis;
• helminthic infestation;
• diabetes;
• pathologies of the endocrine system;
• dysfunction of the pancreas;
• kidney and liver diseases.

In almost all cases, such causes of bad breath in a child are complemented by other symptoms that are difficult to miss. A teenager may complain of fatigue, abdominal pain, itchy skin and gastrointestinal disorders, vomiting, etc.

When children appear, they may have the following health problems:

• entry of gastric juice into the esophagus;
• increased stomach acidity;
• gastritis;
• esophageal diverticulum;
• inflammatory processes in the stomach;
• thrush.

Rotten egg smell from breath

When a child has a terrible smell reminiscent of rotten eggs, it is quite easy to find out the reason. This symptom appears only with certain pathologies in the functioning of internal organs. These include:

Accompanying symptoms are:

• the appearance of bitterness in the mouth;
• belching with bitterness;
• dysbacteriosis;
• discomfort or pain in the stomach area.

A young child with these symptoms should be taken to a doctor for a professional examination and diagnosis.

Bad breath, which smells unpleasantly, is considered a common disease. As a rule, to find out the reason for its appearance, one pediatrician will not be enough; you will need to consult several specialists at once.

If a child develops bad breath, it may indicate an inflammatory process in the gastrointestinal tract, so you need to be examined by a gastroenterologist. But as a rule, first of all they pay attention to the condition of the oral cavity. Even slight bleeding gums can lead to an unpleasant odor.

In the first days of a baby’s life, we watch him especially carefully; any little thing can alarm or alert him. All this is not in vain - the baby’s delicate body is still completely unpredictable, any organ system can fail due to a trifling infection, allergies, or colds.

Such inconsistency and suddenness force us to look for signs and symptoms of possible diseases in the behavior of a newborn, even where there are none. Such signs include bad breath in infants, which always worries parents.

Natural odor from a child's mouth

There is no exact “flavor” that would be the norm for any baby. All children are incredibly different - they have different heredity, diet, and the quality of the foods they eat. Most parents who have paid attention to this aspect of their baby’s health claim that it should smell like milk. They are partly right, but not always.

A distinct milky smell most often comes from the mouths of children who are breastfed. The mixture will not give such an effect; its smell disappears quite quickly. The smell is maintained by lactic acid bacteria, which actively develop there, taking advantage of the moist and warm environment - the baby does not always swallow saliva, this reflex still works intermittently.

The main reason for the appearance of bad breath in infants is usually the appearance of the first teeth. As soon as the baby's first tooth erupts, attentive parents should carefully monitor the cleanliness of the oral cavity. Not only can even baby teeth easily undergo caries, deteriorate, and even break without the participation of external factors, but bacteria develop on the teeth much more readily. While one or two teeth may not seem like much of a threat, there is nothing worse for a baby than an advanced case of an oral infection.

Poor nutrition

Try not to be scared, start with the simplest things. Your baby's bad breath may be the result of recently eaten foods. Newborns have a weak digestive system, so they are not able to digest some heavy foods without consequences.

If you gave your child food with a strong smell, added spices to it (which is highly discouraged for babies), or simply went too far with the quantity, the consequences of this may appear within a few hours. This is especially true for children who have already been switched to grated food.

From the variety of baby food, it is difficult to immediately choose the most healthy option that the child will eat with pleasure, but with experience, parents understand that nothing is impossible if you look closely at the baby and observe his needs.

To avoid such situations, strictly follow the rules for feeding infants - there is a clear list of foods that should never be given before the child reaches a certain age. This is not done to prevent sour or other bad breath from the baby, but to eliminate foodborne infections that are painful for the baby, eating disorders and bouts of diarrhea.

Possible causes of unpleasant odor

If it is not a matter of nutrition and you are sure that the child was not given anything heavy or forbidden, then you should seriously think about the situation and find out what reasons precede it.

The main causes of bad breath in children.

Failure to comply with hygiene rules

As mentioned above, the mouth and sparse lines of teeth in a baby are a real paradise for bacteria. In addition to his own microflora, many microorganisms enter the oral cavity every day along with food and everything else that the baby tastes - toys, dust, pets.

Be prepared for the fact that you won’t be able to keep track of everything - babies are extremely curious and explaining to him that he shouldn’t put anything in his mouth won’t work. It will be much easier to monitor the condition of your mouth and teeth and brush them carefully twice a day.

Stagnation in the stomach

It's not easy to digest everything completely when you're a baby. Almost every product contains new elements that are potentially dangerous for the digestive system due to the unknown to the immune system. It often happens that food remains in the stomach longer than it should, and the reasons for this are the product’s incompatibility with the infant’s gastrointestinal tract and its “heavy” composition. Cabbage (a lot of fiber), onions (too active acidic environment) and baby meat puree, which many parents use to teach children the taste of meat (may contain starch in large quantities).

Dry mouth and larynx

Bacteria love humidity, but they also reproduce well in dry and warm conditions. If there is not enough saliva in the baby’s mouth and this happens regularly, then an unpleasant odor in the mouth and especially around the teeth will certainly appear.

Cold or sinusitis

Many parents wonder why an unpleasant odor appears during illnesses of the baby that have nothing to do with the digestive system? This is easy to explain - when the nasal mucosa becomes inflamed, it becomes difficult for the baby to breathe through the nose and the entire burden falls on the mouth. The number of bacteria increases; due to a runny nose, the child may not close his mouth at all, getting dirty with saliva and creating ideal conditions for bacteria.

Real diseases or at least disturbances in the gastrointestinal tract. If you can rule out all the previous reasons, then immediately take your child to all the necessary doctors - a pediatrician, a gastroenterologist and a dentist, if the child already has teeth.

The main thing is to react in time. Bad breath is not an annoying side effect, but a warning flag for parents. It means that you need to immediately pay attention to the child’s health, change the diet or adjust it.

Sour odor from baby's mouth

Of course, no mother wants to smell such a smell from her baby one day. The smell of sour milk is extremely unpleasant for the human nose, and therefore causes reasonable concern among parents. In fact, it is one of the safest smells that parents are concerned about.

The smell of sour milk is often associated with breastfeeding, and for good reason. Human milk is very fatty, with a characteristic odor, which may also seem strange to some people - it all depends on the overall consumption of dairy products. In other words, you may not know how abnormal a baby's milky breath is.

Just because you're not breastfeeding doesn't mean there's no reason to suspect a milk bacteria imbalance. The fact is that bacteria of this type multiply incredibly quickly, and, as Dr. Komarovsky said, there is no way to monitor this. It's easier to prevent - if you feed your baby formula, be sure to make sure that there are no residues left in the baby's mouth. The perishable mixture will quickly turn into curdled deposits in a humid environment, and the smell from them is extremely unpleasant and lasts a long time.

If there are no food remains, then there is cause for concern - the child may have. This disease is not at all dangerous in our time - it can be treated with several doses of a good drug prescribed by a professional pediatrician.

There is no reason to be afraid, because now medicine even considers dysbiosis a type of gastric disorder - this means that the baby’s stomach just lacks the bacteria necessary to maintain a healthy and active microflora. And since it is the intestinal microflora that is responsible for digesting food, the solution to the problem appears by itself.

Toxic and medicinal odors from baby's mouth

Or rather, the smell of acetone from the baby’s mouth. This problem is not age-related and the smell of acetone can occur in a person of any age. On forums and programs, Dr. Komarovsky advises under no circumstances to ignore such a symptom. In addition to the pungent and unpleasant odor, there is a much more serious danger - the likelihood of diabetes or liver injury.

Both are also characterized by the accumulation of acetone and its odor in the urine, which is more noticeable, but there are exceptions when parents may suspect something is wrong based only on the smell of the mouth. Such diseases require immediate treatment, especially for infants - in their case, much can still be prevented, or even cured altogether, by stopping the disease at the initial stage. It will be much better to find out right away that your child is diabetic than to make a terrible mistake in the future.

The smell of medicine is also a common reason for discussions that Komarovsky holds for parents. The mystery and uncertainty of such a smell very often frightens them, especially if the child is only a few months old and has never been given any medicine. It's really worth worrying about. Firstly, inexperienced parents may confuse the abstract smell of medicine with the smell of acetone. And secondly, even if this is not the case, the smell of drugs from the child’s mouth may also indicate diabetes, respiratory diseases (sore throat, inflammation of the adenoids, purulent bronchitis).

If you detect any odor that worries you, contact your pediatrician - you yourself will hardly understand the reason for its appearance. It is better to pass all the tests, eliminating the possibility of missing something important. The baby still needs a full check-up every six months, so having such a problem is a great reason to visit all the necessary doctors.