trush treatment - need to know it will get better! (long post, sorry!)

[blossombath]

Am hoping I can get some moral support and advice from others out there who have/have had breast thrush - struggling to clear mine up at the moment and feel like the treatment is almost as bad as the pain.

My DS is 5 weeks and think we had thrush from about 2w, but took a while to convince dr to give treatment as he didn't show symptoms at first. WHen I finally got treatment it was nystatin drops for him and clotrimazole cream for me - have read all the threads on here about how rubbish nystan is, and did buy a tube of daktarin gel but DH and I decided to at least try the nystan for a full bottle before giving up with it. Also have deep breast pain but hte doc didn't even mention fluconazole or any sort of treatment for the ductal thrush I think I have.

DS is still feeding on demand, about every three hours but with random cluster feeds here and there so am finding the constant cream application/wiping off/putting the nystan drops/crossing fingers and hoping DS won't demand feeding in the next hour/counting down to when I can take the next dose of pain killers incredibly tedious. Plus all the washing on hot and ironing his/my clothes to kill the spores...

WE've been doing it for nearly a week and things seem to be getting worse (more white spots for him, he's unselttled and the breast and deeper pain for me)PLUS i think the nystan is making him more snuffly and sicky than usual - could be a conicidence but even so it just feels like one more thing which is making things tricky at the moment. Am waiting for grapefruit seed extract and probiotics to arrive in post, and I could really do with any support or advice from people going through the same thing - what actually works to clear this up?!

Has bfing ever been pain free? Is the deep breast pain in both sides or just one?

When you bf do your nipples come out nipple shaped (perhaps a little longer) but not lipstick/wedge/bullet shaped, or change colour (perhaps going white/blanching/purple)?

Thrush in ducts in incredibly painful and usually described like cut glass or razor blades coming through nipples, does that sound familiar?

What happens if you try to rub of the white spots? Do they rub off, is the skin underneath raw or bleeding? Have any of the spots joined up to form 'plaques' or changed colour to yellow or grey?

Sorry for all the questions! It's difficult over the internet at times!

hi truthsweet, no worry on the questions, thanks for asking them!
think i had pain free bfeeding for at least a bit after the initial learning period - though the early days feel a bit of a blur already...and yes pain is in both breasts - a bit worse in the right where it goes back to my armpit. at first i thought it was something to do with let down but it seems to be random times between feeds - it is pretty painful, quite sharp needling pain but not total agony - maybe cos i'm taking painkillers so much, or maybe it's not a bad case?

nipples do come out a bit misshapen so i know i can keep improving attachment, but with the spots and pain after feeding the bf supporter i saw thought it was likely thrush (though she didn't watch a whole feed or anything)

the spots haven't moved for days, even though i do rub that area when i put in his drops (not hard though). none are changing colour, as far as i can tell, and not sure what is going on under them.

do you think it's not trush? what else could it be??

The issue is fluconazole has such a long half life in

thanks for link - will keep me busy at the next long feed!

in some ways i'm hoping its not thrush so i can give up these creams and drops. thinking i might bite the bullet and look into a private bf counsellor - the local bf support groups are great but its hard to get much time with them, and you can only get 121 support if lo is under15 days.

plus I am hoping that even if it's thrush I won't need any fluconazole - even with the pain in my breasts it's not agony so i was hoping that maybe diet changes and probiotics etc would help with the internal stuff and these creams will clear up the nipples and mouth...

hey ho, seems that bfeeding is one challenge after another in the early weeks - looking forward to it getting easier!

thanks for taking time for advice!

That's bonkers that you can only get 121 support under 15 days - some of my toughest times have been when baby is a lot older than that e.g weaning DD1 off bottles and back to ebf directly at 8 weeks, being in hospital with pancreatitis when DD3 was 6m and DD2 was 2 1/2 (both bfing), etc.. pretty short sighted if you ask me!

You could try one of the bfing helplines (call from a landline to get put through to the most local on-shift volunteer) and seeing if they could rec. a local bfc or if they had any things you could try at home in the meantime.

I had this and it is agony, especially about a half hour to an hour after feeding, it was like stabbing hot needles all the way through my poor boobies. I managed to get a leaflet from the bfn, which I took to the doctor, and he prescribed me some flucanazole when he'd read it.

I had vaginal thrush for most of my pregnancy so it was not really a surprise that I had it on my boobies either.

I gave up boiling bras and all the other stuff you're supposed to do, eventually it went away on its own, after about 2-3 weeks. I took paracetomol a half hour before a feed was due, though I was feeding on demand so it took some guess work.

It will go eventually, whether treated or not.

Thanks WGC - nice to hear it can clear in that time frame - I can mentally live with that. Left breast looking quite normal this morning (colour wise) so hoping things have turned a corner...