okay, I am pretty sure i have (have had) thrush. my nipples are bright pink (unnatural pink) the skin was flaky and i have little cuts on both nipples right about where the nipple meets the areola.

on Monday night (36ish hrs ago) i took an oral Diflucan and got all purpose nipple ointment, which i have been applying alot.

I am still having excruciating pain when the baby latches on, not for the whole time she nurses just a minute during latch on, and it is killing me!!


so, my questions, does that sound like thrush to you? when should i expect to feel some relief??

It sounds exactly like thrush. You should feel relief within a few days. Is your little one being given oral medication (like nystatin liquid)? If not, you'll continue to reinfect one another. You will both need to have treatment until the signs and symptoms are gone for several days. I hope you feel better soon.:Hug

Yup, you described thrush to a tee. I fought it on and off for 6 months. I never tried treating it with diflucan, so I don't know about its effectiveness, but feel free to PM me if you want some other options for treating it. I can give you a whole list.

oh please do share your remedies. im dealing with thrush at the moment too and i only was given diflucan...no creams and nothing for baby. i want a cure!!!

Have you seen Jack Newman's protocol for thrush? It is quite complete, and the last step (only if needed) is diflucan - not one pill but several a day for two weeks! To start with, gentian violet is often helpful.

Check it out: http://www.drjacknewman.com/pdfs/Candida%20Protocol--2008.pdf

I agree with the PP, Jack Newman's recommendations are what helped us the most. We also needed to be really mindful of diet (sugars!!)...I have a sweet tooth, and loooove my pastas, so I needed to make sure I wan't 'feeding' the yeast...

Good luck! I hope you get rid of it quickly...

oh please do share your remedies. im dealing with thrush at the moment too and i only was given diflucan...no creams and nothing for baby. i want a cure!!!

Ok.

I started out using Gentian Violet....some swear by it and it did help to take the symptoms away but it seemed like when I stopped applying it after a week, the thrush would be back within a week or so. But I believe it's part of Dr. Newman's protocol and it's cheap(usually less than 2 dollars a bottle) and can usually be found at your local pharmacy(got mine at CVS). If you want to give that a shot, I found that the best way to use it is to paint your nipples with it, then let baby nurse, and that way both you and baby get treated without baby getting too much(it can cause mouth sores if over-applied).

The thing that helped me out the most though, was Grapefruit Seed Extract Capsules, and Acidophilous. I started taking both every day, and would double up on them when the thrush symptoms would come back(and pretty soon after taking them I didn't feel that itchiness anymore). Even if it seems like it is gone for good, I would keep taking the GSE or Acidophilous(or both) as a preventative, because thrush tends to come back at the drop of a hat(especially if you are a sugar monster, like me:o). But you won't have to take them forever....I don't take either anymore and haven't seen a hint of thrush in over a year and half.

I also tried to stay away from sugar and carbs, which I think helped with the initial bad bout of it I had, but after that it didn't seem to make that much of a difference so long as I was taking the GSE.

It is recommended that you treat both yourself and your baby even if one of you is not showing any symptoms, because it can be easily passed back and forth between you guys and can sometimes be asymptomatic. If you aren't doing the Gentian Violet, you can get this stuff called Babydophilous (baby version of acidophilous) at most HFS; it is usually in powder form and you can mix it with a little expressed breastmilk to give to them.

A friend of mine also had reoccuring thrush and she swears by this stuff called CandyGone (I think that's how it's spelled), also available at HFS like Whole Foods, etc. It's a little pricey(I think around 30 bucks or so), but I think there are several doses in a package and I'm pretty sure that one package did the trick for her. Also there is the GSE in liquid form, that you can dilute and put directly on you nipples. But make sure you dilute it first! I never tried the liquid, but I know someone that did without diluting and had an intense burning sensation in her nipples for like, hours. :(

And that's my 2 cents. Best of luck to you and the OP, I hope you get rid of it soon!! Thrush is certainly not any fun.

and i have little cuts on both nipples right about where the nipple meets the areola.

:yikes: oooh, I am SO sorry! My son and I had a months-long battle with yeast nearly a year ago.

Please be sure to take care of those "cuts" Mine got so bad that I honestly thought my nipple might detach! I eventually had to hand express one breast and nurse on the other for a few days and then switch sides for another few days in order to let the wounds begin to heal. This was the only way I got the sores to close and heal. If that dounds tolerable to you, I'd recommend doing it now, before they are too bad, because I honestly think my case was so persistent because of the gaping moist wounds.

FWIW, fluconazole and nystatin did nothing for us. It was taking and topical application of GSE in conjunction with eliminating sugar that finally did the trick for us. Best wishes...I feel your pain!

I believe this stuff works wonders. I took diflucan for two weeks. The baby took diflucan for the same. Nystatin does as work as well. The gentian violet worked best for me in the long run but it scared me a little. Who wants purple nipples ? I put lotrimin on the nipples. I wish you luck. It will go away. Please wash everything in super hot water and add vinegar to the rinse. Throw out your bras or boil them. Thrush is like lice on how it speads on everything and is hard to kill. I ended up throwing out my bras.

Please wash everything in super hot water and add vinegar to the rinse. Throw out your bras or boil them. Thrush is like lice on how it speads on everything and is hard to kill. I ended up throwing out my bras.

:yeah:

This is a really important part of the treatment. Don't forget anything that goes in baby's mouth too - pacis, bottle nipples, toys that get chewed etc.

If you are doing cloth diapers, You may want to boil them to get rid of the yeast, hot water and vinegar wont get rid of it all.

Also, your bras may need to be boiled, they can also carry the yeast and make it come back.