13 month old with thrush, chronic diaper rashes, constantly breastfeeding

[flower16]

I am worried sick, and I will call the pediatrician tomorrow being that it is sunday but I noticed thrush inside my 13 month olds mouth. This will be her third run with thrush. She also has on and off (more on than off) chronic diaper rashes, which I believe are also yeast. I am worried that something is wrong because it is unusual for 13 month olds to get thrush, isn't it? Also she has been very, very clingy, not wanting me to put her down for most of the day, breastfeeding constantly, and taking almost no solids (although she isn't a big eater in the first place). Any thoughts, suggestions?

[NaturallyPeachey]

You might want to post this in breastfeeding challanges. Have you been treated for thrush? I would treat yourself as well as DD if this is recurring. Also, put her on a good probiotic. I think you can get thrush at any age and if you think her diaper rashes are thrush then she's probably had it for a long time. My son - and I since I was breastfeeding - had it when he was 9 months old and it was not fun! Good luck mama!

[pbjmama]

I don't think it is that unusual for a 13 month old to get thrush, certainly not unheard of. Any antibiotics in you or her lately? Sounds like all the symptoms are thrush related. I would start treating with probiotics (both of you) and naked butt time. If this is a longer term problem post back because I have alot more info for you, my ds and I had thrush for over 8 months.

[redvlagrl]

I could have written your post (minus mouth thrush) at the same age. DD had yeasty rash problems her entire life until we FINALLY licked it a month ago.

I had thrush in my breasts so treated us both with Dr Newman's Candida protocol at about 10 mths. You might want to try this to get rid of the mouth thrush. Basically, it's Grapefruit seed exptract, Gentian Violet, and probiotics. I know Gentian Violet isn't the most natural thing, but I preffered it to the strong Rx drugs that were the alternative.

For the bum, we tried *everything* over the months. Finally, I broke down and put her in sposies and got a script for an antifungal/contizone . Unfortunately this didn't work at first because I kept stopping as soon as it was clear, not wanting to expose DD to the drugs. HOWEVER, it was v v v important to keep using the cream for 3 weeks after her bum looked clear. Once we ran out of the rx, I just used canesten. The other "aha" moment was when I decided to strip the diapers using chlorine bleach (in the past I had tried everything else). I had to kill everything once and for all, despite my hate for bleach. I didn't care about ruining them either because I was at the point where they were unusable due to the rashes anyway.

I turned my water heater up to full and after a few hours filled my machine. Because I was diluting bleach I didn't walk away like usual, dumping my diaps in, but stuck around so it was full and diluted before adding the diaps. Despite being on the hot setting, I discovered that my washer adds COLD toward the end of the fillining cycle!!!!!! I turned off the cold tap and let it fill with scalding water, added a whole lot of bleach, detergent, and borax and soaked my diaps for a few hours then washed/rinsed v v v v well. It bleached out the colours from some of my wipes, but also really cleaned everything. My PFs were so much lighter and so were my inserts. It was scary to see the difference. We are back in cloth now for over a month and no problems. I put a zinc based bream on her at night with a liner. So def check the actual temp of your washing water if using cloth.

Good luck and I hope this helps

[mommy2one0326]

I would recommend probiotics as well. If she has had an antibiotic any time recently that will cause a lot of yeast.

[paulamc]

Here's a link to Jack Newman's protocol:

http://www.drjacknewman.com/help/Candida-Protocol.asp

[Catherine12]

My kids have had a lot of yeast diaper rashes over the years, and I second the suggestion of adding bleach to the diaper wash (if you are using cloth). I resisted doing this for years, but now I add chlorine bleach (about 1/3 c.) to the wash every time I see rash starting and it really, really helps. If I added it to the wash every time we would probably never have rash at all. Boiling diapers works even better but takes a while to do. I hate using bleach, but it is better than using sposies.

The problem with yeast is that it is very hard to kill and persistent; even if you get rid of the infection there will still be yeast in the environment waiting to reinfect you.