Coldsore Treatment for Children

Generally, the best way to prevent them is to make sure her immune system is strong. It is a lifetime virus that just occasionally flares up.

This is a fairly effective, cheap and non-toxic homemade medicine:
Boil a few teabags in a cup or two of water. Basically, you're making very, very strong tea. I've always used black tea, but I've heard lemon balm works too. Remove the teabags and/or strain out the tea. Continue to boil down the tea until you've only got a tablespoon or so left. Do not burn it.

Take the tea concentrate and pour it into a small jar or jar lid. Leave it open to the air. When it cools, dip a cotton swab into the medicine and apply it to the sore.

Allow the remaining medicine to dry. Whenever you need to use it, wet a cotton swab and rub it on the dry tea, just like watercolor paints. The medicine will keep indefinitely as long as you keep it dry.

Start applying the medicine several times a day as soon as you notice a sore emerging. If you catch it at the "tingly, but invisible" stage, you can sometimes prevent the sore from emerging entirely, but this requires your daughter to be alert enough to notice and tell you. Otherwise, it just speeds up the healing process.

There's a number of over-the-counter medicines you can use as well. Experiment and see what works best for you.

Cold sores are caused by a herpes family virus, and once infected you cannot actually prevent them to my knowledge. They do tend to flare up when there are stressors ie a cold (hence the name) or other physically stressing situations, so you want to try to do all the things you would want to anyway - make sure her nutrition is good, she gets enough sleep and water, maybe consider vitamins.

I have no idea about treatment, the only thing that makes them go away faster are anti-virals and I don't imagine they are recommended for kids. I would definitely call the pediatrician, too bad the nurse is so nasty.

Use sunscreen on the area if sun exposure is going to happen. I myself take L-lysine(an amino acid in pill form) to prevent outbreaks. If I take them faithfully I never get an outbreak. If I run out or forget I might get a little tingle and then I immediately take 2 pills several times a day and that stops the outbreak from happening. You can also look online what foods contain L-lysine naturally. I have also used Abreva, a topical cream that is sold over the counter but I am not sure what age that is for.

The anti viral, acyclovir, has been around for decades and pretty safe. It is also used for chicken pox, another herpes virus, and for kids before chicken pox vaccines were available. Check with your pediatrician to see if acyclovir is an option for your daughter. Maybe a low dose could be given at the first sign of an outbreak and stop it. You don't want her touching it then touching anywhere else, especially her eys.

Some people are carriers and never have an outbreak. She most likely got it from someone kissing her. Relatives tend to do that. You don't want her kissing any other siblings you might have, either.

Although there are lots of over the counter and homeopathic products, they don't really do much. You need an anti viral like acyclovir, which does work great.

Info about cold sores: http://kidshealth.org/parent/infections/skin/cold_sores.html

Info about canker sores:
http://kidshealth.org/parent/general/aches/canker.html

My daughter has had a cold sore in the corner of her mouth following an illness with fever. I've noticed it happens more when she's not wanting to hydrate enough due to feeling poorly. I try to push fluids and it helps. Campho-phenique worked for her.

She frequently gets canker sores due to allergies. Hydrogen peroxide works fantastic for those. We dip a cotton swab in hydrogen peroxide and apply it to the area. She lets it set for a minute then swishes her mouth with water and spits it out.

Both have worked very effectively.

Unfortunately, I have to deal with this as well.. My son gets it around his eye or by his nose :0( And has been since he was 2... He is on prescription medicine called bacitracin ophthalmic ointment.. He only gets it when: he's had too much sun on his face or when he hasn't slept enough...When he was first diagnosed, (took 3 specialists to finally figure it out) he kept getting it back to back to back... I was freaking out! They had to put him on a oral medicine for about 7 months to have his body build up immunity to it.... Now, he only gets it about 3xs per year... It stinks, but things could be worse!

I used to get those. What stopped mine was Shaklee's Energyzing Soy Protein. It contains L-Lysine, an amino acid that prevents them. I tried taking that alone as a supplement, but it did not work.
If you are interested in this let me know. It is good for lots of other things too, and it tastes good.