signs of thrush when breast feeding?

[missytequila]

What are the signs of thrush? A friend of mine saw my baby and said that she has a bit of white on her tongue...which means she has thrush.

Is this true? Are there any other signs? Neither I nor she seems to have any other symptoms....
Should I go to the doctor?
Does she need medicine for this?

my midwife told me my DS had thrush in his mouth at 10 days old. I duly gave him nystatin medicine for over a week as prescribed but it made no difference. he is 15 weeks now, still EBF and still has a whitish tougue sometime- i think it must be milk / sick. I have had no symptoms of thrush on my nipples no pain/ soreness or anything so have done no more about it.

Does she have white spots inside her lips/ cheeks? White tongue could be thrush, I'd get it looked at, can be quite uncomfortable if it spreads to you.

Feel like you are passing razor blades through your nipples?

That was a sure sign for me

Thrush is very painful and makes feeding difficult as you are in so much pain. I know as I had it constantly until DS was 6 months old. Apart from the pain and blanching nipples I didn't get any other signs so a furry coating in the mouth or on your nipples isn't alwasy a reliable indicator. This can be confused with milk on the tongue too. DS would get a sore bum hole whenever I had thrush but it never put him off feeding, which it does for some babies.

You really cannot mistake thrush as it is so sore but it took me ages to sort it as a kept blaming the pain on a poor latch. I went to see a breastfeeding counsellor as I was about to give up from the pain and it devastated me so in a way it was a relief to know what it was and that it was curable.

It is a bugger to get rid of though and you both need to be treated at the same time regardless of who has the symptoms. You also need to take quite a high dose of anti-fungal medication as well as treating your child.

I agree that thrush is very painful - I've just recovered from a bout that went undiagnosed for three weeks (my DS is now nearly 6 weeks old). The pain of feeding was intense - eye watering, toe curling, exhausting. I then developed shooting pains in my breasts after feeds (painful enough to keep me awake at night), which was thrush in my breasts. I very nearly gave up, especially as BF counsellors kept saying that my latch was fine.

My baby didn't actually display any symptoms until I'd been in pain for nearly 3 weeks. The white in his mouth was quite furry. He also got quite an angry rash right around his bum hole and was quite windy and hard to settle on the boob (he had been fine up to this).

The white in his mouth is now gone, but he does have milk stains on his tongue. So someone may say that it looks like he has thrush, but having been through it now I know that it's definitely not thrush!

Hmmm - how old is your baby though? When they're teeny they tend to have white on their tongue, it's milk deposits

What Longtalljosie said... I thought my DD had thrush, but actually it was milk residue - known as "milk thrush" - which isn't actually thrush at all. She had milk patches on the insides of her lips too. I found with a firm wipe, I could get rid of them - not something you can easily do with true thrush!

If you're worried, you could try rinsing your baby's mouth out with a mouthful of sterilised water after a feed. Also, be super-strict about sterilising bottles and especially dummies.

thanks everyone. had her checked today and the doctor said it was not thrush, just milky tongue...

glad to hear that but now I still have to figure out why my nipples and breasts are still so sore..