Just a note to recommend Grapefruit Seed Extract (GSE) for anyone suffering with thrush in their breasts. My son is now 13 weeks and I finally feel that we have said goodbye to the thrush thanks mainly to the GSE.
I was in terrible pain (almost worse than giving birth, bringing tears to my eyes and having to hold my breath when he latched on) towards the end of feeds and afterwards to a point where I was having to take painkillers. It seemed to be worse in the evenings and when I was generally a bit cold. I'd never heard of getting thrush in your breasts. On mentioning my symptoms (burning/shooting pains in both breasts spreading towards my back and feeling a bit cold) to my health visitor I was just told to put another jumper on! It was a breastfeeding advisor who finally confirmed what it was (many weeks later) and told me that I would need a course of fluconazole (loading dose then 2 tablets per day) daktarin for my nipples and miconazole for baby. Unfortunately, this didn't seem to help and so I returned to the doctor who doubled the dose for 10 days. This again didn't seem to help much so I returned to doctor who prescribed me antibiotics for mastitis (although I never noticed blocked ducts or redness). There still didn't seem to be any improvement after the antibiotics so after some investigation on the internet I decided to try the GSE, applying a dilute solution of it to my nipples after each feed. I had had to continue taking the fluconazole throughout the whole thing (to counteract the effect of the antibiotics) but it was only once I began using the GSE that I felt the pain easing dramatically and finally going altogether. The whole thing has been a bit of a nightmare really and I was very close to giving up breastfeeding altogether but now I feel we've turned a corner.
I thought it would be useful to start a new thread for people to share their experience of thrush as it was mainly through looking on mumsnet that I was able to work out why I was suffering so much. At first people kept telling me that the pain was probably down to an incorrect latch or a particularly painful letdown and I thought it would just get better on its own. I wish I'd known about thrush and the best way to treat it sooner as I would have been able to avoid weeks of painful feeding. Has anyone else used GSE successfully? What symptoms did you experience?