Help - about to give up on breastfeeding due to thrush

[oysterpots]

Am in absolute agony because of thrush Started applying the prescribed Daktarin cream to my nipples yesterday but the pain is so intense that I'm not sure I can wait for it to take effect, and am on the verge of switching to formula.

Has anyone had the same experience? How long does the Daktarin take to kick in? Will it really get better??

Help

Only recently I had thrush and mastisis and was so ready to throw in the towel - I found canestin cream the best remedy for the thrush and it had gone in only a day or two.
So sorry to hear youre having a tough time - I can totally sympathise. It's horrendous.

ouch...i'm going through this at the moment and it hurts...

i saw the doc and based on nct/bfn guidlines am taking oral fluconazole tabs for 10 days, after an initial high dose one, i have daktarin gel for my nipples, plus nystatin mouth drops for LO.

as far as i understand both you and your LO need treatment to make sure the infection clears up.

after taking the big dose tablet yesterday, i feel much more comfortable already.

here's the link to BfN information fyi.

i found when i had deep tissue thrush with ds the ONLY thing that cleared it up was a course of diflucan. i had to really bully my gp into giving it to me, but it was worth it and i could feed relatively painless after the 1st day of taking it.
good lukck

Thanks for letting me know your experiences. DS has been prescribed the Daktarin oral gel so hopefully he'll be sorted.

Elsbells - is it the same Diflucan you can buy over the counter? Maybe I should get myself some of that without talking to my GP, considering she doesn't even believe thrush exists in the breasts

Did everyone continue bf while they treated it? I'm just not sure I can stand the pain (and I have a pretty high pain threshold) so would rather express and bottle feed while this is going on. Any advice?

oyster - i have anothe dose of it but the high dose fluconazale has helped me too. i am putting the dakarin my boobs, i have also been advised to bathe them in bicarbonate of soda water! bubba is on daktarin gel for her mouth.

i have continued to feed through all bouts. i know it is agony but i still had pain when i tried to express. good luck. xo

Someone on my post-natal thread recommended green bush flower essence as it cleared up her and DSs thrush within three days. I've ordered some and plan to take it as well as the prescribed meds.

I hope you get it cleared up soon.

slight hi-jack...hey DG, not seen you around for ages...hope you and LO are doing well!

check out this link

My thrush cleared up very quickly with the same treatment you are having (is your LO also being treated?), but I also took acidophilus tablets from the health food shop. I think they are the 'good bacteria' you find in those crappy yoghurts but in a concentrated form and without the accompanying sugar.

Wash your bra at 60 degrees, change it every day, don't wear breastpads if you can help it, keep your breasts cool and dry and remind yourself that you will get better soon. It is so painful, you have my sympathy, but you will be glad you got through it and carried on in the end.

Best of luck

DG..other than the info on that website, not sure. Come onto the June PN thread...annobal will have the answert I'm sure. I'll ping an e-mail to a friend of mine who has done courses in bush flower remedies and report back!

oysterpots, sorry for my wee hi-jack, I hope you are felling better today and the pain is lessening.

Hiya
Yes Diclucan is the same stuff you get over the counter. BUT it's a high dose. My GP gave me a 150g tab then a lower dose to take for an additional 9 days. It was VERY hard to convince him to give to me as it is not licenced for breastfeeding woman.

But I cried and cried and explained how I could no longer deal with the pain and that I would give up BF etc and printed all the material from the web regarding using it to clear thrush in the breast and it was safe for BF women and so on.

I would do the same if I were you. Get ALL your evidence printed out and hopefully your GP will prescribe.

Let us know what happens.

oyster, I had to post to give you a squeeze - I went through the same thing four months ago, initially GP dismissed it, saying there was no way I had thrush, and 3 weeks of toe curling lip biting nipple bleeding later, I marched in there armed with the BFN info and demanded the tablets and creams for both ds and me. It worked, took about a week though. In between I just about managed to keep going by expressing (a bit less painful than direct feeding, and I was more in control of it which made it more bearable). I also took painkillers 20 or so mins before some of the feeds. Praps if expressing is bad for you, you could do occasionaly formula feeds, just to give yourself a bit of a break (as long as you express/feed enough to keep your supply going)? For me, knowing that I would have x hours without a feed helped me to relax and mentally prepare for the next bout...
Since then I've had probiotic yoghurts every day as apparently the 'good bacteria' help keep the thrush at bay.
I'm really pleased I stuck with it, looking back it was a HORRIBLE but temporary thing.
I wish you all the best with it. xx

How you getting on Oyster?

this is all you need to know on Thrush

Check out this link on the Silverette and Thrush too

Not getting on very well I'm afraid. Spoke to a LLL counsellor the night before last and was determined to carry on with the bf.

But today it's been so painful that I just can't do it. I can't feed him and have tears dripping down my face from sobbing so much - it's just not right. Am 90% sure I'm going to switch to bottles because I don't think I'm doing right by him for resenting him every time he's hungry because it's so excrutiating to feed him.

He's 5 weeks old today so hopefully by bf for this amount of time I'll have given him some health advantage. I really hope so anyway because I don't want the decision I make now to come back and bite me - if he is a sickly child I know that I'll probably regret it every single day but I just have to do what is right now.

Are there any non-bf mumsnetters out there who can support my decision?

Whatever your decision is you should be supported, do you want to clear up the thrush in both of you and mixed feed, thereafter, I know it is the most excruiciating pain in the world, call the LLL counselor again, and dont let anyone make you fell guilty for doing what you want to do.

Well you've got my support, whatever you end up doing. I may have been lucky enough to have come through it, but I know that if it had carried on for another 2 days longer than it did, I was going to stop bfing (dh and I made a deal and came up with a deadline by which I would stop bfing if I didn't feel I was over the worst) - for exactly the reasons you say, it just feels so wrong to be breastfeeding and sobbing your way through it, and dreading feeds, and resenting him.

You have given him a HUGE health advantage by bfing this long. And you will give him more of an advantage by being a happy, relaxed and healthy mama, regardless of how you feed him. Thrush is nasty, and I totally agree with clueless - get yourself treated a better whatever else you do.

I think everyone -- FFders and BFeeders will be quite supportive, oysterpots. If someone isn't supportive, they are ignorant eejits you shouldn't listen to, anyway. Most people end up FFding because they couldn't make BrFeeding work, FF wasn't their first choice. And NOBODY else expects you to carry on forever, trying to endure severe chronic pain and distress.

You mustn't feel like a failure -- it's just a disappointment, and honestly, as parents, we get a lot of those over the years! At least formula is reasonably safe to use. Maybe with time you'll be able to reflect on what went wrong and have another go at breastfeeding, if you ever have another baby. I know someone who failed to Brfeed completely (all kinds of problems) with her first 2 babies, but the 3rd fed like a dream.

For the record the thrush with dd1 made me give formula feeds, hope you are feeling better.

Try not to feel guilty if you have to give up - sometimes you have to give up even though you don't want to. I gave up BF with DD when she was three and a half weeks old because feeding was so painful. She had had thrush in her mouth which was treated at the same time as I was being treated. It did clear up but the feeding continued to be extremely painful and she ended up making me bleed quite badly. When I told our doctor I had switched to FF she told me that the early weeks of feeding would have given DD a flying start and not to feel guilty at all (didn't stop me feeling guilty though!). It turned out DD was tongue-tied and this was the problem (dentist noticed this on first visit!) - wish Mumsnet had been around then! You've given your LO a great start so if the problem doesn't ease you shouldn't feel guilty at all.

oysterpots I gave up at much the same stage with my DS asd like you i was resenting every feed as it was just so painful (not thrush, but other problems) I beat myself up over having to stop for such a long time as it hadn't even crossed my mind that i wouldn't be able to BF. I had a very unsympathetic HV as well who was scathing of my decision to stop.

So, you have my empathy and support for deciding you can't go on any more; you have to do what's best for both of you. You've given your DC a flying start.

Before you do give up though, have you been taking fluconazole in tablet form? the pain in my breast started to abate about 36 hours after taking the first dose.