Help! Anything I can buy at chemist for nipple thrush?

[fifitot]

Pretty sure it is what I have. So sore. Would canestan cream help or do I need something else?

Anyone around? I am desperate?

Yes, canestan/clotrimazole for your nipples, and you need to treat the baby too with daktarin oral gel.

Thanks. Will they sell the oral gel over the counter do you think?

tada

They will, but it's only licensed for babies over 4 months I think.

Take a fluconazole tablet - the kind you take for vaginal thrush. Docs have prescribed these for me in the past

Also grapefruit seed extract tablets (can get them on Amazon)

Thanks - off to the late night chemist!

You need to see the doctor as you need a longer course of slightly lower dose flucanazole if the thrush is in the milk ducts. And you can't get the gel OTC afaik.

Agree it is probably worth seeing a doctor. As a stopgap I found the suggestion of bicarb in Ina May's Guide to Breastfeeding quite helpful. Boil 1 cup of water for 5 mins, decant into a sterile jar or bottle and add 1 tsp of bicarbonate of soda. Use this to swab your nipples before and after feeds. The two times I suspected thrush doing this seemed to sort things out within a day or two. This is anecdotal and is not a substitute for med advice of course!

Daktarin oral gel for baby AND Dakacort cream for you - fluconazole from the GP is the cream doesn't work. Have a look on the breastfeeding netwrok site at their thrush leaflet. The gel isn't licensed for babies under 4m as a mother choked her baby by squirting a huge glob of it in it's mouth (baby was fine in the end) rather than smearing it on with a finger. Just don't tell the pharmcist the age of the baby!

GP only gave me the cream as no evidence of thrush in baby's mouth. Didn't want to give me fluconazole as felt we needed to try the cream first,

I can see his point about unecessary meds but it's not his bloody nipples that are burning!

Can I feed form the sore nipple?

Yes, you can keep feeding. If you express any milk while you have thrush though don't keep it, as you can re-infect the baby if you use it later.

I'm suprised the GP didn't want to treat both of you - even if the baby doesn't have symptoms you are likely to just pass it back and forth between you if only one has treatment. When my ds had it only he had symptoms, but it didn't clear up until we were both treated simultaneously.

I actually can't bear to feed from the affected nipple tbh and am expressing that side.

I agree about treating baby but doc was adamant. My GP hardly gives medication unless you're practically dying!

See another doctor. Yours has set you up for not getting rid of this as fast as possible which is awful. Sounds like you have a bad GP IMO - appropriate medications are a good thing from modern medicine!

Well we see how it goes over weekend and maybe go back Monday. Thanks.

Put the Daktacort cream on this morning and an hour later fed the baby who obviously grimaced at the taste because I had FORGOT TO WASH IT OFF!

AAAAAAAAgh - the leaflet says not to be taken internally so is this serious? Help! (God I am so stupid)

Don't worry it had probably all wiped off on your breast pad/bra already.
You really do need to get to a diff GP and get treatment for your dc's mouth. With dc1 I printed out the bfn leaflet linked to earlier and insisted the gp prescribed something for the baby.

Has anyone mentioned that you need to do bras and pyjamas etc on a hot wash ?
Hope it goes soon , i had it twice with dc1 and once with dc2 and if properly treated quickly it will go, but if not can hang about.

I rang NHS Direct Moo and they said it would be OK.

I am going to go back to docs asap next week. Do I have to wash things everyday? I don't usually change my pajamas every day but suppose I need to change bra each day.

How quickly did it go when you had it? Feels a bit better today but am still only expressing on that side. Been eating tons of live yoghurt to try and restore my 'natural balance'! My trouble is I like sweet stuff too much.

Will take the leaflet with me too - good idea.

It took several weeks for us to get rid of it - first was just given the gel to treat ds so it wasn't shifting, then they prescribed cream for me too, then ds got a thrush nappy rash and they prescribed one cream which didn't shift it, then got another that did.

Eventually once we were treating my nips, ds's mouth and bottom, and hotwashing/sterilising everything, it finally went!

Take this with you when you go to the doctor.Most are absolutely clueless about the way to treat thrush in a breastfeeding dyad

Your baby MUST get treatment too even if there is no overt evidence of thrush in the baby's mouth.

Are you sure it is thrush though? Have you been to a support group or spoken to a breastfeeding councellor about your pain? They may be able to help suggest what it might be if not thrush. Have a read of this as it might give you more clues as to what it might be or try ring one of the helplines to speak to a BF counsellor.

Just wanted to check.

Is it actually painful during a feed? If so it probably isn't thrush. The pain with thrush tends to be deep, shooting pains in the breast (or nipple) after a feed.

If the pain is during a feed it would be a good idea for a knowledgable bf counsellor to asses the positioning and attachment and have a chat with you about other possible causes.

Thanks - think he has nappy rash so looks like he has it too.

Pretty sure it's thrush, it is sore at latch on and throughout but getting really shooting pains after a feed. I have been feeding well for months so sure it's not a positioning issue.

Oops. Sorry didn't realise.

Good luck with getting the right treatment. It can be a real battle sometimes.

The combination that worked for me in the end was canestan for nipples, daktarin gel for mouth and canestan hc for bottom - but it'll probably be a bit trial and error.