Thrush!!

Emily - posted on 01/22/2009

Yep, you should be able to find it at any health food store.

Angela - posted on 01/22/2009

Can you get GSE without a perscription?

Cheryl - posted on 01/22/2009

PS. I reccomend taking acidophilus pills everyday or every other day. It will help to make sure that you don't get regular yeast infections and it keeps you regular too! :)

Cheryl - posted on 01/22/2009

The GSE was a godsend for me. We had thrush in early December and I used GSE and took  2 acidophilus pills a day for 2 weeks. I used the GSE (diluted) and swabbed baby's mouth with a clean wash cloth (which was washed afterward in HOT water with a few drops of GSE) before feeding and wiped my nipples down after feeding and every hour for the first week. I then wiped just after feeding after that. I read that yeast can regrow in 90 minutes so I was certain to wipe my breasts every hour. You have to be pretty aggressive to get rid of it completely but it was worth it. We're yeast free and it hasn't been back.

Barbara-Anne - posted on 01/22/2009

really???  That's crazy, thanks for letting me know, I stand corrected. I was just there in May!!  How quickly things change.  I looked on the website just now and it's gone.  Thanks for the update!!

Angela - posted on 01/22/2009

Actually, their information was based on Dr. Jack Newman's most recent conference in which they attended. I read too that yeast is very strong, and will not completely die off when frozen. ( I tried to find the info that you were talking about on Dr. Newman's site... but could not :( ).

The nurses at our clinic use Dr. Newman as their main resource, as well they follow many of the LeLeche League protocols. (two very strong breastfeeding resources!)

:)

Barbara-Anne - posted on 01/22/2009

You can't eat dairy because of lactose is sugar.  It's just in a form you don't usually think of.  I completely disagree with the nurses that tell you not to freeze milk.  Dropping below zero will definately kill the yeast - it's actually a very effective method.  I was told the opposite by the Jack Newman Clinic (http://www.drjacknewman.com/) - he's one of the biggest breastfeeding experts in the world.  I'm so sorry you were given bad information.

Angela - posted on 01/22/2009

About pumping when you have thrush...

I asked the nurses at the Mother Baby Clinic at our hospital about pumping and storing breast milk... they told me that you should not freeze the milk as the yeast will still live in the frozen state, but you can store it and use it as usual in the fridge.

Anyone know why you can't eat dairy??

Miranda - posted on 01/21/2009

i used grapefruit seed extract (GSE) in the laundry to kill the yeast. also limited my sugar and yeast intake as well as mushrooms. watch the ingredients on processed foods (i had risotto and pistachios in my cupboard that had yeast in them). taking a probiotic benefits you as well as your breastfeeding baby. if you don't want to take probiotic pills then try to eat yogurt every day. i stopped pumping the whole time because i wasn't certain that i'd be able to sanitize my pump thoroughly enough to remove the yeast. my doctor had both me and my baby on nystatin and after a couple of rounds it eventually went away. another thing that really helped was changing my breastpads with every feeding to stay dry. i feel for you. thrush was the worst part of my first year with my baby! whatever you do try to keep nursing just as you were before. if it's too painful it's okay to offer the breast that hurts least at the beginning of each feeding.

Karen - posted on 01/20/2009

The Dr. Newman's Nipple Cream is great! And my Dr also put me on an oral. She said I could also take Tylenol for a couple of days. Everything cleared up in less than a week.
I kept on pumping, no reason to stop! And the bleeding will stop... don't worry, it was probably a tiny bit and I've been assured it's not harmful to baby.
Good luck!

Tiffany - posted on 01/20/2009

If your baby ends up with thrush, the easiest treatment is grapefruit seed extract. There is a liquid that you mix 10-20 drops per ounce of water and rub it on any affected area (nipple, mouth, or diaper) at every diaper change or about 5-6 times a day. There are also pills that you can take that reinforce the antifungal/antibacterial properties of the extract for you and the baby. I ended up using this course of treatment with my daughter after two rounds of Nystatin did nothing to clear up the thrush in her mouth. I think the brand is Citricidel or something like that and is available at natural/health food stores.

Maggie - posted on 01/20/2009

I too am battling with thrush. Both Becky and I are using the anit-fungal stuff. My main problem now is that I was not breast feeding much (only about 1 feeding per day because the pain was excrutiating) for a few days and now it seems that my prouction is down to almost nothing. I am having to feed Becky with formula most of the time. I start with the breast but she gets really fussy, so after about 15 minuted of that I go for the bottle. Both of us were in tremendous pain at the height of the infection.



Is there anyway that I can boost my production back up??



Also, when I went to pump tonight the area right around my nipple started to bleed. This can't be a good thing right?

Angela - posted on 01/20/2009

Thanks to everyone for your great advice! Its so nice to hear that this can come to an end!! I saw my doctor today and she prescribed me Dr. Newman's Nipple Ointment. Apparently its great for both the nipple pain, and the yeast! So we'll see! So in addition to this, I'm going to keep rinsing with the vinegar and water solution, eat tons of yogurt and avoid any sugars, dairy and yeasty foods!! Yay... ! Gosh, what am I going to eat now? lol... never realised how much sugar and bread I consumed... So far it looks as though my son is free of any infection of yeast in his mouth.. so I hope it stays that way!

One more question... someone mentioned avoiding pumping because the milk doesn't last long... how long do you mean? Say I pumped and ran out to do an errand, leaving a bottle for my hubby... is that too long?

Catherine - posted on 01/20/2009

I'm sorry to hear you have thrush! It's the worst thing ever, and it almost made me want to stop too! My pediatrician saw it in my baby's mouth when he went in for a visit. He told me to call my OB and let her know what was going on. She called in an RX for me without having to be seen. I hope you can conquer this thrush soon, I know it is NO fun at all! All I can say is just to keep working through it!

Catherine - posted on 01/20/2009

I'm sorry to hear you have thrush! It's the worst thing ever, and it almost made me want to stop too! My pediatrician saw it in my baby's mouth when he went in for a visit. He told me to call my OB and let her know what was going on. She called in an RX for me without having to be seen. I hope you can conquer this thrush soon, I know it is NO fun at all! All I can say is just to keep working through it!

Angie - posted on 01/20/2009

My son had trush for about a month with my son.  We used ultraviolet. It does contain alcohol but it's like 2%. You can get it at the walmart pharmacy and it works much faster than anything else, but I wasn't using it enough. That's why we had it so long :P. But before starting anything I would DEFINATELY see your doctor and see what he/she recommends!!

Katie - posted on 01/20/2009

You poor thing! It's so painful, isn't it? It won't last though, swift treatment will sort you both out!.

There are some great ideas posted here about preventing thrush, but in terms of getting rid of this bout, I would recommend using an antifungicidal cream on your nipples 2-3 times a day for 10 days - two weeks (even if your symptoms have disappeared before the two weeks are up, keep at it to make sure all the spores are gone). The other important thing to do is to treat your baby, and keep checking his mouth / nappy area for reinfection, or you will keep passing it back and forth. We found a gel (like Daktarin) to be the best thing to use in baby's mouth, and it's surprisingly easy to apply (much easier than the liquid suspension in my opinion, and seemed to clear the outbreak much much more quickly). Once your on top of this outbreak, the recommendations from the other posts will help you to prevent reinfection.

Keep going, the pain will subside before you know it!

Patti - posted on 01/20/2009

My baby had thrush when she was around a week old. Her ped gave us some oral medicine, and he told me to give it to her and put some on my nipples, and it cleared up in about a week, and we haven't had a problem since. Good luck!

Barbara-Anne - posted on 01/20/2009

I spent $1000 on medication for thrush and in the end it was the candida diet that worked for me.  No sugar, no yeast.  I did it for two months and it's finally, finally gone.  The yogurt on the nipples worked too.  I also took a very high dose of probiotics everyday and grapefruit seed extract to kill it.  The Newman site recommened below is great.  Good luck.  Thrush sucks.

Debbie - posted on 01/19/2009

I wish you luck ... I am just getting over a battle with the yeasty beasties! Here is a great site that might help. http://www.drjacknewman.com/help/Candida...

Cathy - posted on 01/19/2009

I had awful thrush with my son.  We tried everything.  What worked best was limiting my sugar intake, increasing my intake of yogurt and mixing a solution of part vinegar and part water that I used on my nipples in the shower to counteract the yeast.

Emily - posted on 01/19/2009

ooooh... no fun at all. Thrush is basically a yeast infection and a nasty one to get rid of. Personally, I would start by sterilizing anything that has come in contact with your milk... bras, shirts, baby's clothes, sheets, burp rags, cloth nursing pads if you use them, etc.

Try to cut yeast-y things out of your diet (breads, most salad dressings, pizza dough, etc) and eat more yogurt, etc. I would also get to a health food store and get some pro-biotics to help encourage the growth of good flora for your body to help fight the yeast.

Good luck with this one... there definitely is a light at the end of the tunnel... but it can be a long road. One last thing... I wouldn't pump and store your milk while you're dealing with this... the yeast in the milk can make the milk go bad very quickly and become unsafe for your little one... just continue to nurse on demand directly from the breast.