Advice on Fever Blisters

Ask your Dr. if you can use Abreva on him. The instructions say something like 12 and older can use and those younger should as a Dr.

I rarely get them, but when I do, if I use Abreva as soon as I feel the "tingling" in my lips, it sometimes prevents it from turning into a completed sore.

Also, Carmex tends to be drying. It has Alcohol in it. You should find something more soothing. Personally, I use the Mary Kay lib balm, but I know there are other non-drying lip treatments on the shelves.

http://www.healingherbals.org/HealingHerbalsmain.htm - stock up on balms ... this works great and smells MUCH better than carmex!! :)

Fever blisters/cold sores are symptoms of a virus carried by, like, 80% of the population, so prevention of the outbreaks would be best accomplished by increasing antiviral products in his system - like ginger, onion, zinc, etc. Check out http://fitness-ideas.com/uncategorized/the-top-antiviral-... and http://www.mercola.com/nutritionplan/foodalert.htm for starters.

M.
i have had these things my entire life (34 years). they are painful, ugly and not easy to get rid of. Here are some of the things that i do when i get one....... any of these have helped me. I just prefer some over others. I get the VIT E gel caps and poke a straight pin through it and put it straight on my sore. Then i swallow 3 of them in the morning. and 3 at night. you might not want to do that many for your son. I have also used ice to freeze it. Aveeno makes a cold sore medicine that works very well. only need alittle bit. Remind him to wash his hands if he just touched his mouth.(yeah right he is 3) and dont use the same wash cloths on his mouth. they are very contagious. also wash the pillow cases.

Watch what kind of foods he eats. foods with alot of acidic content to them will break him out fast. Citrus, oranges, grapefruit, pineapple, tomatos, and sounds crazy but POPCORN. Something about it makes you have a break out. Sun,will make you have a break out. Summer is worse but remember that uv rays are present even in the other months. Dont let his lips get dry and cracked you can almost always bet on a cold sore.

As you may already know Stress is a big factor with cold sores. But what stress can a 3 year old have. well they have their own kind of stress that is big to them small to us. Try and notice if he seems to be a bit stressed when he has a break out. new school, kid not being nice to him, etc.
This is a virus Herpes. and it is something that we cant get rid of just have to live with it.

Good luck and if you have anymore ??? feel free to email me. Good luck

B.
P.S. I LOVE the way that you spell your name!!!!!!!!

Hello I was having terrible outbreaks with cold sores, I have linked mine back to fruit such as oranges, pineapple, etc, anything acidic makes me break out. I was taking lysine on a regular basis now I only take it if I know that I will be eating fruit for a special occasion or something or if I happen to start to get one I take the lysine and sometimes it won't form into a cold sore or if it does it is very small. I know the lysine tablets I bought were from Walmart and they are pretty big in size and may be hard for him to swallow but you could probably cut them up. Good Luck.

Since it's a very common virus I would suggest you do all you can to limit the viral load in your house. He could pick it back up from a poorly washed cup or silverware.

Honestly, I was plagued with them for years then I started taking a lot of L-lysine and Niacin with all my others in my multivitamin. Then the doctor prescribed Cipro for something else and I didn't have anymore trouble until last year. I was 2.5 years free of fever blisters and boils.

BLISTEX MEDICATED, WORKS WONDERS

Hi M.!
Cold sores are generally caused by the Herpes Virus type 1 while genital herpes is caused by the type 2 virus. The blisters of either can show up on any part of the body but type 1 usually appears above the waist line while type 2 usually sticks to the genital area. So, this does not mean that your son can give himself genital herpes. As far as treatment, I would follow the advice of his pediatrician, since children can react differently to medication, even herbal ones. The best advice I can give is to be diligent about hand washing!
Good Luck!

I hav heard that lysine (sp?) is good to keep them at bay. Good Luck!

My 10yo daughter is the only one in our family that gets cold sores. She knows exactly when one is starting and as soon as she does she puts on abreva (yes it is expensive) but it works wonders for her.

Zilactin-L is an OTC that works a lot like abreva, but much less expensive.

Hello M.,

I use Tea Tree oil (dab on with a q-tip) when I have a break out. Mine are brought on by stress. Fortunately, my kids haven't gotten them and I hope they don't. Taking L-Lysine can help prevent them or at least cut down on the frequency. Also, there is lip balm with L-Lysine to use.

All these things are effective, natural, and safe for use in children. They can be found at just about any health food store.

Good luck! Fever blisters are sooooo painful!

I have HORRIBLY suffered from fever blisters my whole life. I was told to take the vitamin L-Lysine. Abreva (lip cream) helps them heal quicker if you start using it right when you feel the tingling before they ever appear.

BUT, really they come when your body is wore down or stressed. I would just make sure he gets plenty of sleep, TAKE VITAMINS(!!!!!), and drink tons of water. This is about the only way to keep them at bay!!

http://www.liddell.net/prodview.asp?prodID=48 has a homeopathic remedy that you spray in the mouth (not necessarily directly on the fever blister as it is a homeopathic medicine that is intended to help the body return to homeostasis thus allowing your body's immune system to naturally fight whatever provoked the outbreak faster). The remedy is specifically for cold sores and canker sores/fever blisters. My daughter had a few appear in her mouth and after one spray in the mouth they started disappearing. With in 6 hours they were all gone. I had the same experience when I used it after having 6 in my mouth. After just a few hours half of them were gone and by the next day I had one left that was not nearly as painful. I sprayed one more dose and it vanished completely. Supposedly there is no "cure" for them, but this was the most amazing thing I have seen considering it was not meant to coat it to make it feel a bit better until it went away days later. It actually does make them go away faster - bottom line. It is not terribly expensive considering you don't use much. A child would use half the adult dose (which I believe it states that on the bottle). The cost is just under $12 a bottle. Good luck!

B. :)

I LOVE neosporin LT. It is affordable and works very quickly.

I don't know at what age you can start using this, but ask for about Zovirax cream from your physician.

I always just suffered through it (blistex, l-lysine, etc). No Doctor ever mentioned to me there was anything that worked, because lets face it the other stuff doesn't fix anything and it's VERY painful...) In college a nurse friend got a prescription for me of Zovirax (it is a cream for the sore). If you put it on when you first know it's coming, many times it doesn't come (keep it handy) - and if you don't catch it right away this makes it come and be completely gone inside of 1 week. ALSO - it supresses the outbreaks, I almost NEVER have them anymore once I started using this on them. Maybe 1 every other year or so. Used to be every other month.

So, I hope this is something kids can use! Good luck, it makes my lip hurt to think of a 6 year old trying to deal with this.

I'm a dental hygienist so I deal with fever blisters a lot in my profession. I have also had horrible break outs since age 3. The over all best topical med is Abreva - I put it on every 2 hours. I also take Valtrex (2 pills for 5 days) which shortens the healing time to about 4 days! You'll have to check with your Dr. about the Valtrex as I'm not sure what the minimum age is. Also, when applying any topical, use a q-tip so that you never touch the blister as they are VERY contagious. Because it is a herpes virus, you need to explain to your son not to touch it and especially don't touch his genitals (he can give himself genital herpes). I don't mean to scare you but just want to you have all the info.

L.

Look here for some good info:

http://www.herpes-coldsores.com/cold_sores.htm#Are_Cold_S...

here are some herbal remedies( I have used L-Lysine for years with great success)

http://www.herpes-coldsores.com/herpes_supplements.htm

look here for use in young kids:

http://healthlibrary.epnet.com/GetContent.aspx?token=7e90...

BTW: These websites were picked at random in a google search...

My 3 year old just started getting them. The first one was horrible, because we didn't know what to do so we just let it run it's course. I was looking for some cream for it the second time, and came across a couple of different choices. I was looking for something that said it was safe for young kids. I bought Campho-Phenique and it was awesome! It dried it up right away! He hasn't gotten another one since then, but I'm glad that I have it for next time. And it wasn't that expensive, either. There was definately more expensive ones. I hope you find something that helps.

My daughter has fever blisters (herpies) that appear on her hand. They have for many years. She is 6 and still gets them. We had to take her to the dermatologist to find out what it was. They said that she must has got it from someone. My husband is a carrier or the fever blister on his lips. When she was younger she has a very bad case of ezama (ms) and she had touched his mouth at the time her skin was broke open and got it. The only thing they did for us is put her on valtrex at age 3. To this day she still gets them but not as much. I took her off valtrex because it is expensive. The only other thing the doctor told us to do was use abreva and put bandages on it until it was gone. It usually takes a week to 10 days. They has not other remedy to get rid of them sooner. The older she gets the less it happens. Good luck.

I always get them when stressed or due to sunburns. Abreva works at keeping them small and healing faster. I also take the vitamin Niasin (sp) when they first appear until it goes away, again this keeps it from getting big. It's better to treat fever blisters because if they get too big, they can leave a scar.

I used to have a perscription for them, and can't remember what it was. It was expensive though (with my med insurance at the time) so didn't do it for over 1-2 months.

Fever blisters are infectious so your son needs to be careful about sharing drinks, kissing others, etc when he has a blister. Since he gets them constantly, I wonder if someone in your family is a 'carrier' of them but doesn't get them? I don't know if that could happen...it's just a thought.

I have gotten fever blisters from the time I was 5 months old...now I'm almost 30 and still get them a lot. Dr. is right....there is no way of preventing them but I have found prescription creams work better than over the counter meds like carmex. As soon as he feels a tingle/itch on his face immediately put it on. He'll most likely still get it but it can lessen how big it gets/how long it will be there. I would ask his doctor about that. Think what I have is called zorvorax (sp?). Poor guy...I know how painful they are.

I constantly got them as a child too. My mom thought it was too much acid in my diet so she made me quit eating tomatoes. That didn't fix the problem so by process of elimination, we figured out it was the sun. As long as I have sunscreen on around my mouth area when I go out, or even use that sunscreen chapstick, I avoid them completely.
Also, since it is an inflamation, if you notice it early on have him take some ibuprofen (anti-inflammatory) and it will help with the swelling.
I do use Abreva and sometimes it seems to work. Your doctor can also write up a prescription medicine for it.