Thrush

[hayleyvt]

SO, My April baby is here, born April 13th...10 ibs 4 oz and wonderfully healthy. He is now 13 days old and I believe he has thrush, and me too....is the only way to treat this with a perscribed anti fungal med? I have not heard back from the pediatrician yet, and I am sure I will find out soon enough, just wondering if any other April moms were dealing with this.

[laughingfox]

I've never had it, but here's what I've heard from other moms:

Gentian violet can be used to treat it, but will strain your nips and his mouth a very dark purple.

If you're using lanolin, stop! It can feed thrush. Olive oil is a mild anti-fungal and can be used instead.

I've heard varying accounts of moms taking probiotics and garlic pills to treat it, too.

ETA: Congrats, mama!!

[krismarie]

i actually bought an infant probiotic powder (made my jarrow) and mixed it with some breastmilk and used a dropper to squirt in my babe's mouth. also, i wiped off my nipples with cider vinegar between nursings. i also loaded up on probiotics myself (plain yogurt, capsules, etc).

personally, i never had good luck with the prescribed stuff.

good luck and congrats!!

[GreenTeaGinger61]

Thrush survivor here. I had it BAD with my first two. Once we had it the only thing that cleared it up was gentin violet. Not my favorite stuff but it did the job better than the meds. And we had gothe baby pics which are really funny to look at later:P

With my third and this one, I've been more proactive. Lots of probiotics, grape seed extract pills, and I've been washing my nipples in a combo of olive oil and tea tree oil (I always wait a bit to nurse afterwards). So far no yeast.

Oh and another thing I did with the gentin violet is I gave up sugar. It sucked but I think that helped clear things up faster.

[hayleyvt]

Thank you mamas,
I thought that you all would have good advice. I have never had to deal with this before....this is my third, and I still am not positive that it is Thrush....his tongue and roof of his mouth are coated with a thick layer of white/cottage cheesy stuff...When I talked to the ped, he said the best way to tell is by taking a tongue depresser and scraping the white stuff, if it comes off and has irritation/redness/blood undernieth than it is thrush....well, I tried this and nothing came off... maybe it was the fact that I was too gentle doing this...I mean he is 13 days old, who would want to be anything but gentle.
oh and I guess I am heading back to the store....where do you all find probiotics?

[sanguine_speed]

[Elecampane]

Originally Posted by sanguine_speed

Not sure if it's available in the US, but Dr. Newman has a nipple ointment that can be compounded at pharmacies and prescribed by midwives. I used that too in addition to the other efforts. It has antifungal in it, in addition to others:
http://breastfeeding.about.com/od/ni...iplenipple.htm

It's available here, you do have to get it from a compounding pharmacy. It's good stuff. I actually had a mild case of possible thrush during pregnancy and my mw prescribed this. Worked a charm.

[hayleyvt]

huh? So, how do I ask the pharmacist about this? Do I bring in the recipe from the link or do they carry this already made somewhere?