Is this nipple thrush or something else? (Sorry, photo included)

[Velodromedary]

I'm BFing 8 month old but I have had red itchy sore nipples for several weeks now and can't seem to get rid of it. I think it's affecting my milk supply & is making feeding not a happy experience Is this thrush? First Dr said no & gave me hydrocortisone & clotrimazole (Canesten) cream, second Dr said yes probably & gave me clotrimazole cream and Flucoxacillin antibiotic tablets. I haven't started the tablets yet as I'm not sure antibiotics would work on thrush anyway? & I don't want to take them unnecessarily. My breasts aren't painful but the areola skin is where it's cracked, as it itches, weeps & gets dry & peeling. Please help! Is there anything else I can do? Thank you.

There are more symptoms to thrush, continual burning sensation when feeding, burning pain continuing after feed, your nipples may have a pink and shiny appearance (yours don't look like this, though very pink), your baby may also have it, amd may have a white coated tongue. Your baby may make clicking sounds whilst feeding.

Should you have thrush in your ducts, then you may get an excruciating stabbing pain. Which continues throughout the feed.

If it is this, you should be given flucanazole, with a large loading dose, and it should be taken for 10 days. Continue to feed your baby.

Hope you get yo the bottom of this, good luck.

My nipples looked like that when I had thrush, sort of red and shiny. I'd imagine the second doctor prescribed the antibiotics thinking if the areola/nipples are cracked there may be a bacterial infection too.

As for anything else, I found a study that concluded coconut oil was an effective anti-fungal, will try and post it later. It definitely helped me. Washing bras at 60 also good, and getting latch rechecked as it can be a bit of a vicious circle with poor latch-damaged nipples-thrush-poor latch IME.

As well as the topical clotrimazole for you. I gave my baby oral thrush gel, my doctor told me to go buy it over the counter as she could not prescribe to under twos. It is not allowed due to choking risk, so provided you don't stuff it into your baby's mouth in great blobs, it should be ok.

coconut oil to treat thrush study

I had it constantly with dd's 1 & 2, caused bright pink sore nipples.....yours does look very bright....is this a new thing? And is it on both? Main symptom was very sore to touch.....couldn't towel dry them and they itched especially when wearing my bra. My babies got it too....white tongue which cleared up easily with medicine. Mine always cleared with the canestan, just applied it after every feed but if baby has it you will keep getting it back. Hope you get it sorted, nothing like sore nips to get you down.

Thank you all for your help. Yesterday evening I noticed that DD is getting a white tongue now too so I'm pretty sure it is thrush. It's on both sides & is a bit shiny sometimes. It keeps coming and going but seems to be getting worse. Back to the GP I think, it sounds like we need something stronger. Thanks for the coconut oil link, I will try that too! Do I need to sterilise all DD's toys too or will it die on plastic, books etc if it's left to dry out?

Mine were young when they had it so weren't putting toys in their mouths. I remembered it was nystatin they were given to treat it and both of them took two rounds to completely clear it just to warn you, if I were you I would continue using the cream between feeds for a while after treatment is done just to make sure it's clear, the midwives and drs told me it's fine to keep using the cream as long as you wipe it off before feeds which I often forgot to do