Hello Mamas,
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I've had thrush that WON'T GO AWAY FOR 3 YEARS now and am STILL NURSING. I have done everything to get rid of it, have finally made peace with it (it's still there though much decreased) and thought I'd share my experiences for those who have tried fluconazole, gentian violet, GSE etc. to no avail.
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Disclaimer: I'm not saying you will have thrush for 3 years. A lactation consultant I saw with 30 years' experience says I'm only the second mom she's seen in her entire career who has not been able to get rid of it. And I'm not saying that you should keep nursing. How could I know that? I'm also not saying that what has worked for me will necessarily work for you. It seems that all of our bodies respond differently! But here's my real world experience, for those of you who are sick of reading the same old stuff over and over again that doesn't correspond to your reality.
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What I wish I had done a lot earlier: Candex. I get it at The Vitamin Shoppe. It's expensive ($40-50/month) but I'm not worried about harmful side effects and it really helps me. I take the maximum dosage (4/day). A really good probiotic rubbed on my nipples. After trying many, many brands, I use a powder form of All Flora from a company called New Chapter. Plus I take it orally. Eventually I started putting it on right after nursing, every time, and after a month or so it seemed to have helped. Now I just put some on if I feel it starting. I also found 9 garlic pills a day (3 3xday) to help. (I started with 6 a day (Pat Gima?), which didn't make any difference for me; I felt the difference when I increased to 9.) Finally, I wish I had brought the literature for b-fing mothers to my visits to my doctor a lot earlier. I would read about things, go to the doctor and find that they'd never heard of such things, and my resolve would crumble and I'd go home with the things I'd just read were likely to be ineffective. Finally I started bringing in references and pointing to them in the examining room and my doctor was willing enough (more or less) to go along.
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What I wish I hadn't wasted my time and money and life energy and stress on: 1. Crazy yeast diets. I tried them all. Lots of various lacto-fermented foods. Avoiding lacto-fermented foods. No sugar, no yeast, no vinegar, no fruit, no mushrooms, no tomatoes.... Then about 6 months ago I said f*** it and started eating normally again. I think it might have mattered for me a little, tiny bit. Certainly not worth all the energy and stress. And guilt. 2. Naturopaths who suggested supplements that aren't considered safe for breastfeeding, like iodine and DHEA and a tea-tree-based oil to rub on my nipples. 3. Treating my pumped milk like toxic waste. Apparently Tom Hale found yeast was not able to grow in breast milk. 4. Feeling guilty for not being able to get rid of it. When my son stopped nursing all the time, my thrush symptoms decreased dramatically overnight. (And I'm not talking about because I was spending so much less time nursing.) I believe my body was one gigantic and fabulous yeast factory, and what I did to try to change that just didn't have much effect. 5. All that obsessive washing of towels after every use and stuff. Did it for a while...even though we live on the third floor and have coin-op washers. Didn't seem to matter at all when I stopped, except I felt less crazy.
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Things I experienced that I never heard of anyone else experiencing: 1. One of my lactation consultants said "Well, you probably don't have Raynaud's AND oversupply AND thrush." But in fact I did. 2. For me, the pain was mostly during latch on except during the worst glass-coming-through-the-nipples times. I also had zinging pains I described as "electrical" that surged through my breasts. 3. I took fluconazole for 19 weeks. And in fact I think it did finally help toward the end. That was when I experienced my first pain-free time. But my doctor was extremely freaked out about the possibility of liver problems and freaked me out enough that I stopped taking it, even though I'd had several liver tests that showed no problems. 4. Getting angry at people who suggested I eat yogurt. 5. Marital stress due to how difficult it was to nurse...sometimes when the pain was at its worst I'd have to have my husband get beside me so I could dig my nails into him as my son latched on, and in general I needed his help all the time because it was SO HARD and grueling.
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So here is what my whole thrush journey has looked like, in case it is helpful to you: First vaginal yeast infection of my life (non-itchy) for last 5 1/2 months of my pregnancy (wouldn't go away...little did I know!). First diagnosed with thrush 2 months after son's birth. First pain-free period (9 glorious days!) when son was 11 months old due to who knows what, though maybe 19 weeks of fluconazole. On garlic, Candex, and probiotics, I graduated to being pain-free for a while at a time, punctuated by thrushy outbreaks of varying severity every 2-3 weeks or so. (They weren't predictable.) But around this time I started having itchy vaginal yeast infections. Oh joy. Things stayed the same till my son's molars finally came in when he was 2 1/2 and he suddenly started nursing a lot less. Now I'm mostly pain free and it has been gradually decreasing since then, though I know it's still there...still have vaginal infections and put probiotics on my nipples proactively every once in a while.
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When I stop breastfeeding I'm planning to use pau d'arco. (I used it for a few months after being informed it was safe for b-fing by a lactation consultant and it worked great! But then I was told by various health professionals that it wasn't safe.) Also olive leaf extract. I'm hoping they'll help me get back to my non-yeasty pre-pregnant self.
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Best wishes to anyone who has had tough enough experiences to find this useful. You are one tough mama.
I had a long-standing battle with thrush as well, from about 3 weeks until my dd was about 2 1/2 months. At first I didn't realize what it was, and by the time I finally did it was full blown. What really helped me was washing nursing bras often in hot water, applying Lotrimin directly to my nipple, and taking Diflucan. In the end I think I went through 3-4 rounds of Diflucan ( in fact my midwife left me a long standing prescription so if I need it I dont have to call her!) before it really went away. Occasionally I'll notice redness/soreness now, and I immediately apply some Lotrimin and that seems to keep it at bay. I hope some of this can help you and that things improve soon!
