Oral / Nipple thrush, please help before i give up

[stickybean]

Hi,

I have never posted on this topic before so appologies in advance for the self inulgent, desperate wingy tone of this thread...

My baby is 2 weeks old today, breast feeding started off fine, usual pain when latching on but otherwise no probs.

In the last couple of days she developed oral thrush and i have it on my nipples.
I am in so much pain, my nipples feel sunburt or like someone is cutting them with knives.
When i do feed she doesn't appear to latch on that well (this might be a totally seperate problem to the thrush), doesn't take enough in her mouth and because of my nipples i am just in pain the whole feed.

The doctor prescribed Nystan for the baby yesterday, and canesten for my boobs. I am also been put on antibiotics for a womb infection which is sure to ruin the effect of any treatment.

Ok winge over, here are my questions...

I am using the canesten twice a day, can i use lansinoh nipple cream in between?

Should i consider using nipple shields? i have some but haven't used them

Should i express and give her a bottle?

Do you have any other tips for me to get rid of the thrush / help with the feeding?

From the first 2 weeks i know i can do it but i am in pain and feeding is stresful for both of us becasue of it, she feeds up to ten times a day. Help me not quit please!

I have looked at a couple of other posts on this topic so sorry to ask similar questions, i just needed a bit of help with the specifics.

Thank you in advance

Well done for getting this far, thrush is evil.

Cream - sorry I don't know, but I'm guessing the lansinoh will keep your nipples nice and moist and less likely to crack - which will make the pain worse.

Nipple shields - a lot of bfc would suggest you stay away from these as they can cause more problems than they solve. I tried them and thought they were crap anyway.

Expressing - will probably be just as painful for you, and the bottle feeding will probably be just as painful for your lo as well. Also expressing isn't recommended until after 6 weeks (your supply needs to become established)

Getting rid of thrush - cut out yeast and refined sugars from your diet. It is hard but will only be for a short while.

I also used to count to ten to get through the worst bit of the pain - it just took my mind off it.

Keep feeding through it, it will get better. It can be hard, but just think what an achievement it will be when you get through it all.

Good luck xx

Poor you, thrush is sooo painful
I would recommend taking painkillers and trying to carry on feeding from the breast if you can

I had it with both DC and for the second I tried Grapefruit seed extract tablets
www.bodykind.com/productdetails/CatIDx275/ProdIDx959/citricidal-grapefruit-seed-extract-100-1x.htm
I am generally skeptical of alt health stuff but they did seem to work much quicker than daktarin

This is an info link from kellymom
www.kellymom.com/newman/c-candida_protocol.html

If you end up with cracked nipples then try not to let them dry out
www.leron-line.com/updates/Wound_healing.htm

and keep treating for a few days after it seems to have gone away. Best of luck x

never tried nipple shields myself but would guess that they're worth a bash as final resort (if you've tried all else and want to give up)

I got the fluxowhater (? sorry) tablets in the end but was a struggle to convince gp.

Thank you so much for your replies.
is it really ok to take the thrush tablet thingy?? if it is i will go and get one.
But will try the other suggestions first.

I really appreciate your responses.

please try the grapefruit seed tabs. As well as this you can tgreat the baby an your nipples very quickly with grapefruit seed liquid extract.

Make up a pot every 24 hours of about 100 ml water, 12 drops grapefruit seed extract.

Swab your nipples and baby's mouth after every feed.

It took two days to clear severe thrush which the prescribed treatments could not shift...

fluconazole also good: if GP won't prescribe it you can buy over the counter but you'll basically have to lie about what it is for!

Read the BFN and kellymom linkss about it to put your mind at rest.

Sending husband out right now to get the grapefruit seed tabs and liquid. Thank you so so much.

Hey and by the way: you're allowed to whinge on here - it's what we're for

Pain while BF is awful, even when you're really committed - just makes you want to scream and chuck it all in...

Good luck with it and please don't hesitate to post if you have more questions or pain.

Have you tried to sort the latch BTW?

Often thrush starts in nipple damage caused by latch problems...

nipple shields saved my breast feeding career when i had thrush with dd so i would say yes try them.

let me see if i can find some other info for you.

my thread where i was advised to buy the loading dose of fluocanazole (sp) myself when GP wouldn't prescribe

excellent info from breastfeeding network

This is going to sound so ewww that you can dismiss it if your would rather.
When I was breastfeeding I had not idea what I was doing...the nurses were no help as they were too busy.
Find a local dairy and get whatever salve they give to solve the chapping on the milk cows udders.
The stuff we had (in Iowa) was a very thick red can that looked like a combination of hard butter and cocoanut butter. It was very thick and utterly yucky but...it felt blissful on my sore, chapped nipples.
Clean yourself off throughly before nursing.
Look into breast pumping until your little one can latch on correctly...the anxiety of trying to feed while chapped doesn't help either of you. Put your breast milk in a bottle, that way they still get it and you can heal. Let us know how it goes.
If you can't find a dairy try regular coaconut butter or ask the pharmicist.
Something else is trying some baby bottom salve. Babies bottoms are just as tender when they get a rash and a good bottom salve will help heal your sore nipples too.
Just remember to wash it off before expressing or feeding. Good luck!

Sorry but you don't need to go to the trouble of finding a dairy!

If you have sore nipples, something thick and lubricating like Lansinoh or Kamillosan will be ideal and you can buy these everywhere.

But these don't help thrush, in fact can make it worse because they hold moisture in which helps thrush to multiply.

She needs to work on the latch and treat the thrush and then treat the underlying damage with moist wound healing techniques

Just wanted to say thank you to everyone for all your support last weekend. After a very tough begining to the week and a couple of visits to my very sypathetic GP and breast feeding clinic things are getting better, not perfect yet but on the way.

I really appreciate all the advice, i honestly never realised how hard breastfeeding was going to be and the support on the feeding board is so useful.

Thank you

Hi there,

I really hope you're better now but really wanted to post to help anyone in the future with this agonising problem!!

I had two and a half months of deep breast thrush - crying (both of us) almost everytime I fed my son from my right breast, felt like he was sucking needles or glass thorugh it. Shooting pains too. (Reeeeally not helped by my mum saying "Oh put him on the bottle for god's sake!" every time she witnessed it...)

It's really interferes with bonding and your whole enjoyment of feeding your child and it became such a chore, especially when they are pulling and biting at you!

My doc prescribed the usual including Daktarin, Nystatin etc, not one remedy helped me and my son.

I finally got referred to a wonderful breast feeding counsellor who recommended some alternative cures from the Organic pharmacy (www.theorganicpharmacy.com) who sent everything by post. Here's what FINALLY worked for me!!

First of all as a first aid measure to dramatically reduce the pain I took homeopathy called Borax. I also sprayed my nipples with a natural antiseptic made with silver particles called Colloidal Silver after each feed. The infant gets the Borax through you I think, although my son didn't seem to suffer that much anyway.

This reduced the pain withing days and I then cleared it up completely with Acidophilus probiotic powder - I made a paste by emptying a capsule (kept in fridge) and mixing it with breast milk or water and applying it to the nips and letting it dry in the fresh air for a bit, then leaving it on inside bra for as long as poss. You can also give this to the baby mixed with breat milk, does no harm. Just couldn't believe how well and how quickly this all worked.

Only problem is I have since been diagnosed with chostocondritis. It's where the muscles/cartilidge around your rib cage inflames and causes tenderness. Now no-one has related it to the thrush but I am absolutely convinced it was caused by the prolonged pain and inflammation. It's in exactly the same place as my shooting pains always started from, the bottom of the breast. So get help early, and if the doctor's fungal foot creams (which is all they seemed to be!) don't worked for you then try the alternatives, I found them brilliant!

I'm planning to B/F again with my 2nd, due in Feb, in the hope it'll give me a "clearout" and return the area to normal again, here's hoping...

Success story here - very stubborn thrush as result of antibiotics.
Tried 2 course of nystatin/ clotrimazole
then Daktarin,
then Wilfsell and The blonde recommended Grapefruit Seed Extract and its finally clearing after 7 weeks!!!

Thanks ladeez!!

(bought capsules for me and the drops for her)

Question for TettyLouBar - with the drops how much did you give? Just ordered capsules and drops from Livingiseasy.co.uk following horrible experience with Nystatin (gave DS colic and made him v.unhappy)

Thanks

N

Sorry for late reply, I believe wilfsell comments on the drops a few message back on this thread.
I pretty much followed her advice, it also details what to do on the kellymom site, goodluck!

TettyLouBar - thanks for this - had missed that post :-)

Will give it a go. Am also seeing NCT breastfeeding councellor tomorrow to get our latch/technique checked out

Many thanks to Stickybean for starting this thread which asked all the questions I would have done!