When DS was tiny he had suspected oral thrush and we treated him for it as HV recommended based on white on his tongue. Down the line, after multiple bottles of treatment, we took him for an oral swab with his GP to find out if the white on his tongue was still thrush, or just milk. GP was happy to do swab, said there are no signs of thrush on his lips, roof of mouth or inner cheeks so in her opinion he most likely doesn't have it. But test came back positive surprisingly, again we treated it.
Now he's 4m old and is due his operation to repair his cleft lip so I took him to the GP again for a swab to make sure thrush is gone (they can't operate if he has oral thrush). This time it was a new GP we hadn't seen before. I briefly relayed relevant info and requested a swab. He said No, it's pointless, there is always Candida in our mouths so it will always come back positive ?!
So now I'm confused as to whether the positive we got before was wrong (as I suspected, due to no real physical symptoms), and if so, how can anyone know for sure? The HV was the one who prescribed the original medication based solely on white on the tongue (which could have easily just been milk surely?). He has what I'm certain is milk on his tongue now too. But without knowing for sure, how can they safely operate on him in 2 weeks?!
Has anyone here had experience of oral thrush in babies and can shed ANY light at all for me? Maybe it's just the anxiety about the operation but I can't get past worrying there could be complications if they operate if he does have thrush, as it seems there's no way to know for sure?! :(