Thrush in breasts?

[newfirsttimemum]

Dd (5 weeks old) has thrush nappy rash; HV prescribed Canesten 2 days ago and already the spots have nearly disappeared.
However, I've been having dreadful breast pain after feeding for the past couple of weeks and looking at the LLL site and breastfeeding.org, all the symptoms of thrush in the ducts. We had a difficult start to feeding with both nipples cracked and bleeding, but thanks to wonderful NCT counsellor I'm pretty sure the latch and positioning are now correct. Nipples had healed fine but are both now newly cracked.
I've been to the GP this morning who didn't want to use oral thrush treatment, but instead prescribed Canesten cream and antibiotics. ("Just in case it's an infection". He also said cracked nipples are very common and it's fine to keep taking the paracetamol.)
Obviously I'll start with the cream straight away, but given that antibiotics can cause thrush, and presumably therefore might exacerbate the current situation, should I take them?

[VeniVidiVickiQV]

Whats the name of the drugs he has prescribed? He might have prescribed fluconazole or flucloxacillin???

You should start treatment asap. Boil wash all your bras. Sterilise everything that goes in your baby's mouth (excluding your boobs!).

You can take ibuprofen, which works better for thrush and mastitis pain. If you take it about half an hour before you expect to be feeding it has more of an effect on the pain.

I had this for 9 weeks - it sucks!

[newfirsttimemum]

Thanks for replying so quickly! Yes, flucloxacillin. Will this help with the thrush then?
Only boobs go in her mouth so that keeps things simple. Spent yesterday boil washing all nappies so will do bras today.

[VeniVidiVickiQV]

Yes, start taking it asap its the right stuff.

[newfirsttimemum]

Oh that's great - thank you! I'll go straight to the chemist and pick it up, along with some ibuprofen.

[eidsvold]

something i found handy for thrush that I had when breastfeeding dd2 - daktarin oral gel - put it on nipples after feeding - helped pain go away and stopped dd2 reinfecting me as she had thrush in her mouth.

[chocolatekimmy]

Has baby been prescribed oral drops too? Even if there are no signs in the mouth upon inspection they can still carry the bacteria.

I was given Nystan (allergic to canesten)cream for me and nystan oral suspension for my daughter. She didn't have any visible signs but it can just keep passing back and forward if both not treated (same as adults with thrush, bloke should be treated too)

It will ease off, you just have to stick with it unfortunately.

[newfirsttimemum]

Ah. No, she hasn't any signs of thrush in her mouth and hasn't been prescribed anything. Back to the doctor again then.
Thanks Eidsvold - will ask about Daktarin too.
Having battled through the first painful couple of weeks of feeding, I'm not about to let this stop us now!

[yellowrose]

you need to treat baby AND yourself asap even if no signs of thrush in baby's mouth. my ds never had any signs in his mouth either (although he stopped feeding for 24 hours once due to what i later found out was a very sore mouth) - thrush is there even when not visible.

if you have thrush in your milk ducts, which it sounds like you do, you MUST treat baby with something too. I recommend (as do several well-known bf orgs. ) daktarin oral gel for baby and canestan for you plus oral meds. for you if the pain doesn't go away. it is true that antibio's can create more thrush, but it is better than suffering breast pain.

i did daktarin and canestan and found them very effective.

good luck, thrush is a damned bugger to get rid of but will go if you persist