After suffering from mastitis,followed by a breast abcess I am now diagnosed with thrush - totally depressed!

[DiabloCody]

Hi girls,

After 14 weeks juggling one condition after the other with the subsequent treatments- ie antibiotics I have now ben diagnosed with thrush. It;s vile.

My nips are so itchy that I cannot cope with the bra rubbing them. I have bought some Avent "milk collector's" which are helping a bit to relieve the friction between nip and bra.

The leaflet says not to use them more than 40 minutes a day- i use them 24/7 - is that a bad thing for milk ducts? I have noticed that I am leaking a lot and worried that I am messing something else up.

Feeling very embarassed feeding in public as the whole procedure of feeding baba it super messy with the leakages, the creams, and the discomfort.

I am starting to get a bit down about all the issues that I have dealt with so far as they are diminishing my enthusiasm about breasfeeding and making it extremely difficult for me to cope.

I utterly love feeding my little one but as soon as I stop feeding all the bad feelings start; cleaning the cups, cream on me , cream on baba- washing hands constantly... grrrr

Would you have any tips on how to deal with my situation?

Many thanks in advance.

It's not really going to plan is it?
Things will improve really they will, especially as you've survived the mastitis and the breast abcess, they are the tricky bits to feed through.
The thrush is just another one of those hurdles that you will get through too. Is your baby being treated for thrush also?
I doubt the Avent thingys will do you any harm if it's just to give you an airing. But i think they can encourage some leaking iirc. Can you sleep without anything on and lie on some towels?

It's crap when you have all the faff and it's not as easy as it's supposed to be, but you will get through this. It's still early days.

(((((((((((DiabloCody))))))))))

You are certainly suffered.

Have you talked to your health visitor if you are feeling down. The health visitors are there as much for you as for your baby.

I have no idea what advice to give you. I have thrush at the moment and it helped me going to an NHS breastfeeding group and meeting women going through the same experiences.

Horrible linkage from one to the other via antibiotics. Thrush is a pig to have and to shift. Make sure the Dr gives you something to treat yourself and the baby otherwise you'll just reinfect each other (assuming you're lucky enough to have a GP sufficiently clued up to know about thrush in breastfeeding Mums - if not download this to take to them: BfN leaflet). On the self help front, try eating as much acidophilus yoghurt as possible and cutting as much sugar from your diet as you can bear to give your body the best chance of fighting it off. There's good info on kellymom and probably heaps on Mumsnet too if you search for thrush threads. You've done brilliantly to battle through so far. Really hope things settle down soon so you have a chance to enjoy it.

There's a guide to clearing it yourself here: Yeast Invasion

Oh goodness you are being put through the mill! Big hats off to you for persisting- not easy at all. I had thrush and it has been a bugger to get rid of. Most people find conventional treatments work (oral loading dose of fluconazole plus 10 days smaller maintenence dose, cream for your nips and gel/liquid suspension (depends on age of baba) for your DC).

It NEEDS to be both of you getting treated otherwise you might as well squeeze the creams down the toilet for all the good it'll do! That BfN leaflet is good. Kellymom, as beanbearer has linked to, is full of info- I tried EVERYTHING (drugs, diet, herbal stuff...)and it finally went after I went on holiday and swam in the sea regularly. So nice holiday on the NHS methinks for you! (Failing that maybe salt water wash, or bicarb of soda dissolved in water washes as per kellymom!)

I sympathise with the feeling you can't go anywhere with all the faffy feeding you have yo do, I felt like that, popping all my pills and washing/swabbing my nipples and baby's mouth religiously- plus it was just boring after a while! I longed to just feed and get on with it.
Anything that creates a nice warm, moist sweet environment (bm is sweet) means the thrush thrives. So if you can have time away from the shells that might help. If you do a MN search on thrush you will get a lot of threads about it with plenty of tips. But if you survived mastitis and an abscess (wow) you will make it through! Big un MN hug. x

Oh and my weekly whinge and update to everyone at my bf support group was what kept me going too.

Get some acidophilis tablets. I really feel for you as I had thrush too and it's horrid.

Wow, thanks ever so much for your comments. It has been very interesting reading all your suggested links.

My hv, breastfeeding consultant and breast specialist have been very supportive but the only creams we have been daktarin, that in my opinion are not really doing the business.

The links to the bfn and kellymum have been a superb source of info so thank you for those!

I will defo buy tomorrow the acidophilus tablets- and scoff as much yogurt as I can.

Once again, thanks ever so much for taking the time to get back to me with your advice. xx