Judah developed some kind of blister inside her bottom lip a few weeks ago. After a little googling, my understanding is that she has what is called a “canker sore.” It’s a pretty harmless little bubble on the soft tissue inside her mouth.
I started getting this one recurring canker sore around Thanksgiving that keeps coming up (it’s very annoying) and I just use my fingernails to pop it occasionally and it heals itself rather quickly.
When she first got it, Judah was saying that it hurt and wanted me to fix it. So I did what any good mother would do - I got a needle out of my sewing kit, sterilized it, held her lip still with a tissue and attempted to pop the little blister.
That didn’t go over well. The “skin” of this thing was pretty thick and I couldn’t puncture it with the needle. All I did was cause my child to suffer undue pain. So after comforting her (and me) Joshua and I decided to just wait it out until it went away. Well it’s been a few weeks now since this thing made it’s appearance and Judah has taken to pulling her lip down and saying about her canker sore, “It’s getting better. It’s beautiful.”
The darn thing hasn’t shrunk or gone away at all, but I think she’s gotten used to it. Of course, it drives both of us parents a little crazy. Why is it still there? Why hasn’t it gone away? Is she going to have this FOREVER?
So last night, we were looking at it again and decided to take pre-emptive action. I thought, “I’ll just make it quick and get it over with,” and reached in to break the surface of the sore with my fingernails like I do when mine recurs.
Judah starting crying and trying to remove her lip from me, with my fingers in her mouth, and of course she couldn’t move or pull away because Joshua was holding her head still. It must’ve hurt an awful lot because she started choking while crying and we both thought she was about to throw up from it. We were fully prepared to have to clean up preschooler vomit. She didn’t. But these huge alligator tears rolled down her cheeks while she choked and cried and cried and choked. And i wanted to crawl into a hole.
The worst part? The sore is still there. I didn’t get it. It’s too smart for me. And I have on my conscience the deliberate causing of pain to my child. They should drag me out into the street and flog me. Maybe THAT would send me into labor.
aww. i know what you mean, but you were trying to help. but maybe they do need to flog you just so you’ll go into labor.
judah is so amazing for saying her sore was beautiful. that’s so special. i love it. i love it when kids surprise me w/ their vision.
awww. sorry! i know the guilt is probably much more than judah’s pain.
I get them all the time. “Orabse B” is what we use (my son and I). Put the paste on the sore and it will help it heal as well as deaden the pain. I use it on tongue sores when I drink too much O.J and Seth uses it on cankers.
It’s not harmful if swallowed.
Hi…I’m Paul Poe’s little sister and was just reading your blog.
I was thinking Judah’s sore might actually be a fever blister and not a canker sore…which would mean that it wouldn’t “pop”…and the remedy would be different. I used to get fever blisters all the time and still do occassionally…usually when I’m really stressed. I have to get a prescription from the dr to get rid of them. Lysine pills help prevent them…
I hope her sore heals up soon! Will be praying for just that!
i use Campho Phenique on mine. usually works with one application. i just use the regular antiseptic liquid; i didn’t even know they had more specific variations until i just looked it up on the web: http://www.bayercare.com/htm/camphohome.htm (i assume the gel would work better in the mouth. the liquid tends to take yucky and spread around.)
lysine should help too, but i’d be wary of giving a supplement to such a young’n
So her sore is inside her mouth on the soft tissue. I think it is a canker sore over a fever blister or cold sore. It looks like a little clear blister. i got something that looked exactly the same and discovered that when I punctured it, it went away. It comes back occasionally, but from what I understand, cold sores and fever blisters are caused by a virus and canker sores are not.
She says it doesn’t hurt, of course until I stick my fingers in her mouth - everything I’ve found says to give her something for pain. The only other thing is that every site says to take her to the doctor if she’s had it for more than two weeks. So I’m deciding -is it worth a trip to the doctor? It just seems so benign, yet so very annoying.
Any votes for taking her vs. not taking her?
i get stuff sometimes on the inside of my mouth (looks like a popped blister?) and they usually hurt and i’ve never tried popping them-yee gawds that sounds painful. i also grew up putting campho phenique on ‘em, which tastes nasty, but seems to help because it kills bacteria, and then they usually go away. my mom had us do it when we were little on.
has it been two weeks? do you have coverage to take her to the doctor?
cathie was suggesting taking a lot of vitamin c. that usually these things are a virus, and chewing on C-tabs seems to help them go away.
Good point about not being quick to give a supplement like Lysine to a little tyke. Sometimes I forget things like that, as I don’t yet have little ones. I certainly wouldn’t do it unless I got the go ahead from the pediatrician… Glad you brought that up, daniel.
Kristin…you are right about fever blisters/cold sores (same thing) being caused by a virus. Not sure about canker sores.
Oh my gosh, I am so psyched I stumbled upon this. My 11 year old daughter has the same exact thing on her inner bottom lip that won’t go away. I tried popping it with a needle as well, and the skin was very thick and nothing happened. So I will take some of these suggestions and pray they work!
Hey Kristen,
I get mouth sores often (don’t know what type they are) but I read somewhere that sores are sometimes caused by too much acidity (I love me some tomatoes)so generally all I have to do is knock off the tomatoes for a while and slosh milk (a base) in my mouth every night before I go to sleep. Don’t know if it helps or I just heal up, but I like to think it does.