antibiotics & thrush - questions

[patronus]

i had to take antibiotics for a sinus infection i couldn't shake. i started taking azithromycin (zpack) on friday and also started taking probiotics. today is sunday and my nipples are feeling slightly tingly and a tiny bit itchy.
is this thrush?? could it kick in so fast? what should i do?

also, how can i know for sure if i have it? i am a milk donor and won't be able to donate this milk if i have thrush.

there are about a million and one treatments for thrush online, i am confused.

[Turquesa]

Yea, to be safe, I would assume it's thrush. Sorry.

I had it with DD and it's a PITA to put it mildly. Follow all of that advice you Google up about washing stuff in hot water.

Different people have different experiences, but the ONLY thing that helped my thrush was Gentian Violet. (A conventional doctor will prescribe Nystatin, which is expensive and didn't do a thing for me). If you get Gentian Violet, make sure to get the lower strength. Keep plenty of wet rags and a sense of humor. I would put it on my nipples and areola. DD would look like Bluebeard by the time she was done nursing.

Oh, and I also took lots and lots of probiotics...both orally and topically on the nipples. Not sure if that helped--recovery really sped up once I started the Gentian Violet.

[jimblejamble]

After 5 months of dealing with thrush, I got a second prescription for Diflucan (the first time it was almost gone but my midwife didn't want to prescribe more so it came back...then I saw someone else who thought it was mastitiis and prescribed antibiotics and as soon as I ran out, I got a bottle of SolaRay Yeast Cleanse and that FINALLY beat it. I had tried everything else (gentian violet, vinegar rinses, going shirtless, staying very clean, yeast and sugar-free diet for weeks, athlete's foot cream) with no luck.

Good luck! Thrush SUCKS!!!

[patronus]

spoke with my lc who said this may be the beginning of thrush. she suggested i call my obgyn and request jack newman's all purpose nipple ointment. my obgyn called in the script for me so i'll pick it up tonight and see how it goes.

should i call dd's ped to get something for her too?

[Turquesa]

Usually whatever treats you treats the baby at the same time; she'll just nurse it right off you into her mouth...right where she needs it!

Let me know how this remedy works!

[jecombs]

I would still treat your DD mouth with the GV, even if you get APNO for yourself. My LC said that Nystatin is practically useless because about 60% of thrush is resistant to it.

My DD1 and I had thrush for 4 months. It sucked. We finally both went on a 2 week course of Diflucan. All I can say is make sure you are treating everything that comes in contact with your nips, milk, and DD's mouth otherwise you will re-infect yourselves. I washed my bras after every wearing in hot water, detergent, and vinegar and then dried them on the back porch in direct sunlight. I used microsteam bags to clean my pump parts, DD's bottles and pacis.

Thrush is such a bugger! I hope yours clears up quicker than mine did!

[patronus]

i've been on the APNO for about 24 hours and i'm feeling a little less pain (which wasn't that bad to begin with). so i hope we'll be able to get rid of this without too much of an issue. i have to admit, hearing about multi month struggles is bumming me out.

i called the ped and they said unless she has white spots they aren't going to treat her so i'm on a mission to get grapefruit seed extract. the whole purple mouth/nips thing with the gentian violet kind of freaks me out. so we'll try the GSE first.

tonight i'll be washing/sterilizing everything. what a pain. the IBCLC i spoke to suggested i iron my bras w/high steam prior to wearing them to kill the yeast (to avoid having to wash them every night). all this might be easier to take if i hadn't spent the last 3 weeks caring for a sick dd, then being sick myself. sigh. the house is a wreck and i'm disorganized regarding food & meals.
calgon take me away...

another thing - i'm reading the signs of thrush and it says "pink nipples" - mine have been pink for some time, i figured it was just a result of nursing. i mean what color are nipples supposed to be if not pink? they are a brighter pink after nursing and go to a darker pink after the very slight swelling of letdown goes away after nursing.

[karen1968]

I had thrush for 4 months with DS, brought on, I suspect, by the massive doses of abx I was given in labor.

I used disposable breast pads rather than washing or ironing my bras every day. They also protected my bras from all the treatments I was using (GV, GSE, APNO, etc. I also did four 2-week rounds of diflucan)).

One caution with the APNO - I don't know if you were given instructions on use or not. I was not, and applied it after every feeding as I had been doing with GSE. I didn't realize (PP brain!) that APNO had a topical steroid, and I ended up with an ulcerated nipple and having to pump one side for 5 weeks. IIRC, I should have only been using it 4xday. Please, PLEASE ask your care provider if you were not given strict instructions like that.

The only thing that cleared it for me was doing an anti-candida diet -> no grains, dairy or sugars of any kind. Basically meat and vegetables. It was boring, but it worked quickly (and I lost 10 pounds!). Everyone responds differently, so I hope the APNO will be enough for you! Good luck.

As to pink nipples...some people have pink ones, some have brown. The thing to look at with thrush is pink and SHINY. Mine were nearly red, they were such a dark pink. I think pinker than usual after a feeding would be normal, as the nursing would increase blood flow, IMO.

[patronus]

karen,
thanks for your reply. i started to have shooting pains in my breasts so i got a script for diflucan. i'm at the end of day two and just had the least pain nursing since this started a week ago. i hope i can knock it out. i'm doing oral gse, probiotics, gse wash & apno. also swabbing dd's mouth a couple of times a day with gse solution.
the apno- newman's candida protocol says to use it after every feeding so that's what i'd been doing. i'll watch my nips closely for damage.
i'm trying to cut down on the grains/sugar. it's tough though, it's halloween!
and to complain just a little more, i think i just got my first pp period today. this sucks! and i'm about to dump out milk that i should be freezing for dd or the milk bank poo.
thanks again for your response.