can anyone talk to me about thrush?

[iarebaboon]

DD is 6 weeks old

I experienced a lot of pain initially with BF, not cracks / bleeding, just very tender, sore breasts

I fed DS until he was 15 months, so I?m not a novice, and kind of knew to exepect to feel sore initially

The pain was subsiding, but for the last two days my left breast is very, very painful again

I?ve had the latch checked, it's fine. She hasn't got a tongue tie. i've been so careful to latch her on correctly

She is very big (10lb when born, `14.5lbs at 5 weeks) and strong and hungry which I initially blamed for the soreness, the sheer amount of attention my poor, sensitive boobs have been getting, and the power of her suck

However this 'new' pain is different and I?ve started to suspect thrush

The pain is a piercing sharp pain as she latches on. It hurts throughout the feed, but a more bruised sort of pain. The stabby, pully pain is in quite a specific place, it's to the immediate left of the pointy out bit of the nipple, but there is nothing to see, it feels like i should see a deep cut but there isn't one. The areola itself is shiny, and a bit peely. It?s not maddeningly itchy, but there is some itching now and then. DD does seem to have some white spots in her mouth, these could be bits of milk / sick, I?ve not figured out which

I?ve looked up the symptoms of thrush and I?m not sure, I definitely don?t have all the signs

oh and what made me also think thrush is that DD has had a sore, spotty looking, pink vulva for a week or so, this hasn?t responded to me conscientiously changing nappies every hour or two, drying thoroughly, susocreme / bepanthan, nappy off time

Sorry for the length and odd tone. I am very tired. has anyone had thrush with similar symptoms to these or am i well off suspecting it?

thank you

I had thrush when feeding DS when he was about 3 weeks, It sounds the same as you are experiencing go to the pharmacist tomorrow you can get treatment over the counter no need to see GP.
Hope it gets easier soon

Yup, sounds like thrush. That's the bad news, the good news is that it is really easy and quick to treat.

I got prescribed Daktarin cream for my nips and Daktarin oral gel for his mouth. It cleared up completely in a couple of days, although I used it for a week as told.

Go to the GP / pharmist tomorrow morning and by the evening you will be a lot better.

I don't think you can get the daktarin gel over the counter, as it is only licensed for babies over 4 months (choking risk) so has to be prescribed by a GP for younger babies. You need daktarin cream for the thrush nappy rash too.

Make sure you also hot wash all bras/muslins etc and sterilise any dummy or bottle teats the baby uses.

Thanks. I'd sort of convinced myself I was imagining it

But it would be wonderful to be able to make ot stop

I'll go to the pharmacy tomorrow and try to get a dr appt

Should I stop feedin from the bad side?

Feeding from the bad side won't make any difference to the thrush. It's important that you make sure you treat everything simultaneously though (you and the baby) otherwise you will reinfect each other.

Do you know what triggered the thrush? Any anti-biotics recently?

I expressed from the bad side as too painful to feed, daktarin gel ok if proper pharmacist gives it to you AFAIK - gave it to us

^no idea where it would've come from. I've never had thrush. Not had antibiotics. Does it come from somewhere? Do you catch it? Can it just start on it's own?

I'm not sure - I/ds have only had it when one or other of us have had anti-biotics. The balance of bacteria gets messed up and thrush can take hold.

It is one of those bugs that just sits around happily on the skin/in the environment without causing any problems until something upsets the balance e.g. antibiotics, immune system weakened etc. and then it starts to grow more and give you symptoms. It's not so much a matter of treating it to get rid of it, like you would with some bacterial infections, rather just getting it under control again.

You can "catch it" again once the symptoms have cleared up so make sure you have your own towel and like Rita says put stuff that has been in contact with boobs & baby's mouth in a hot wash (60 is fine I think). HTH.