Hi Gunjan,

There are quite a number of underlying processes that can cause mouth symptoms, such as your son is experiencing.

Some of the more common causes are due to nutritional deficiencies such as : folic acid deficiency; or iron deficiency anaemia; or niacin deficiency (vit B3 -pellagra); or riboflavin (vitB2) deficiency. These can be caused by insufficient quantities of the above, in the diet, but can equally be caused by an inability to absorb nutrients from the digestive system, for various reasons.

One of these conditions called Tropical Sprue results from a malabsorption digestive syndrome. I think this is reasonably common in India, so possibly your doctors have already considered Tropical Sprue as a possible cause. This usually present with three symptoms - sore tongue, diarrhoea, and weight loss.

Some of these deficiencies can also be triggered by sensitivities to spicy food or interaction to some medications.

Let us know how your son progresses!