Cold Sores: Why Kissing Babies on the Lips Could Kill Them

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Cold sores are also known as Fever Blisters. They are small blisters that develops on the lips and also we can see them around the mouth too. Usually, It has a red skin around the blisters and looks swollen and sore.

Blisters are irritations or damages caused to the skin as a result of friction or burns.

At times, this blisters caused by cold sores may break open and begins to leak fluids from it, sometimes it will scab. In adults, cold sores are less dangerous and may likely last between the span of few days to about two weeks.

Cold sores is as a result of Herpes Simplex Viruses (HSV). HSV has both type 1 and type 2 known as HSV-1 and HSV-2 respectively. It is termed Cold Sores because it affects the mouth and lips. Another sort of HSV beside Cold sores is Genital Herpes because unlike cold sores which appears on the lips and mouth, Genital herpes appears around the genital. However, Herpes Simplex Virus-1 (HSV-1) causes cold sores more often than HSV-2.

Cold Sores (Herpes Simplex Virus) In Babies:

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When it comes to New born babies, cold sores can be very dangerous and if not discovered on time, it can lead to death. As dangerous as it is, no nurse or midwife in the hospital or at home will care to warn mothers or educate the populace on the risk of cold sores on new born babies.

Newborn babies are adorable. From their precious faces to their tiny features, it's understandable that both adults and children wants to hold them. But a quick kiss on a baby’s mouth can unwittingly leave a child with lifelong infection that, for a newborn can cause serious health problems.” SOURCE

Thus, babies usually contract cold sores more commonly through kisses on the cheek, lips or any part of the face or exposed body parts.

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Adult have antibodies which helps keeps the virus (cold sores) isolated around the lips without necessarily affecting other parts like the brain but the immune systems in babies though there are supported by antibodies in which they got from their mothers (only aids in protecting them from internal diseases), when exposed to external infections it can be extremely dangerous. In other words, the immune system of babies is not just strong enough to contain the virus (as adult immune system)

Effect of Cold Sores on Babies:

The irony of it is that, cold sores in babies does not have similar health effects as it does in adults. It can cause the following :

1. Poor feeding habit,
2. Fever,
3. Sensitive,
4. Infections in the brain
5. In most cases death.

Can We Really Protect Our Babies From Cold Sores?

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Parents have to be careful when giving their babies out to others and also try to protect their babies from unnecessary contact with other people. This is because a person who is infected with cold sores can easily spread the infection even without showing the symptoms.
This process of trying to protect the baby may be very hard, if not impossible in many cases.

The only way out is to make sure that babies who are in their first three (3) to four (4) weeks are kept away from too much contact with people as they are more prone to cold sores.

From there after, the baby would have been able to develop more resistance and immunity, from this stage, cold sores are not very dangerous to them anymore.

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