Newborn thrush & nipple pain, does it get better?

[ExhaustedButHere]

DD is 6 weeks and we’ve been battling thrush since 3 weeks, half her life!

I had a traumatic birth (hysterectomy, cardiac arrest, ICU) and after all that, we finally came home and she was breastfeeding like a champ, which was amazing after struggling with DD(4). Then thrush hit.

We’ve tried Nystan for her, Daktarin cream for me, and even a 150mg dose of fluconazole, nothing’s worked so far. GP prescribed Daktarin Sugar Free, but it’s discontinued! I’ve switched to Milton cold water sterilising instead of microwaving and got Milton laundry tabs for bras and burp cloths.

My nipples are raw, painful, itchy, DD is gassy and fussy, and we haven’t fed at the breast for 3 weeks now (gutted!). I’m pumping to avoid reinfecting, but the feeding/pumping routine is so exhausting, especially as she’s so gassy one feed can just merge into another with all the squirming and extended winding.

To top it off, DD(4) had the chickenpox vaccine (school outbreak) so we’re watching for a post vaccine rash, and she and I are both getting colds as well.

DP is great, doing all the heavy lifting with DD(4) so I can rest, but I can’t sleep through the night as I have to pump every 3hrs to keep milk supply up and find it hard to switch off in the day.

I’m so tired, under the weather, in pain and overwhelmed on top of trying to come to terms with birth trauma. I just need this one thing to bugger off already!

PS: if I don’t reply soon it’s because I’ve finally dropped off, so knackered! And also apologies for the long post 😬

I tried everything with my first baby, when he was 6 weeks old, the GP took one look at me and told me I needed to be well for me and my baby. I went home and gave him his first bottle. With subsequent babies, I stopped breastfeeding at first sign of thrush. At the time it felt heartbreaking but looking back I wished I’d given up at first sign with my first baby.
I really wish you all the very best and hope you’re feeling better soon.

Poor poor you. I had this at two weeks old, fortunately Nystan and Fluconazole cleared it up, although the pain on feeding took another two weeks to fully go.

Would you consider combination feeding with formula? I know getting a supply going is important (IF it's what you want!), but having a slightly longer gap between feeds helped me a lot both mentally and with the discomfort. You could go to bed a little early and take a slightly longer brake between pumping sessions? I assume it's like direct BF and the midnight to 6am period is important to supply. You could drop the 9pm pump perhaps?

Have you had swabs done and thrush of the best actually diagnosed? If not then you should. There is a lot of talk (evidence based) around breast thrush at the moment and over diagnosis and that most of the time it is likely other things. The breastfeeding network has a good page on causes of breast and nipple pain. You sound like you could do with a session with a skilled breastfeeding practitioner to unpick everything that is going on.

I had thrush with both of mine. It was horrific. One question and suggestion, can you feed from the breast instead of pumping? I found it much more efficient and easier because it’s less work. As long as you are both being treated, there should be no reason you shouldn’t. Personally, I found the Miltons quite harsh on my skin and it risks killing off all the good bacteria you need to help you combat the thrush.

@OakleyStreetisnotinChelsea haven’t had any swabs, in fact GP hasn’t seen us in person. It was specialist breastfeeding Health Visitor who saw us and said it’s likely, GP prescribed on this basis. To be honest though, I’ve done a lot of reading and it does seem the most likely as I don’t think it’s mastitis. I don’t have a fever, the pain is in both nipples and it is mostly centred around the nipples. The stabbing pains radiate from nipples, there aren’t really any other patches of pain or hot spots or anything like that, also there is a white residue in the nipples and they are pink, shiny and itchy, In baby she does have a milky tongue but she also has a cluster of white spots on the roof of her mouth that can’t be wiped off and now a couple of white spots on her gums too. We haven’t fed at breast for 3 wks so not issues related to latch. She’s been thoroughly checked for tongue tie as my first had it but no sign of it and her latch and bf was amazing before this hit.
Taking it all in together I think it does suggest thrush rather than other causes.

Good suggestion and funnily enough this morning I just thought sod it and have put her back on the breast. Being able to just breast feed in the night would be a game changer tbh. She’s not being treated right now as we were prescribed the oral gel which seems to have been discontinued but I do have Daktarin cream. A bit paranoid about having to wipe it off thoroughly before she gets on but Ibhave to do something. Will be getting back to GP first thing Monday to let them know we can’t get hold of the gel. I’d imagine he’ll just out her back on Nystan.

i see what you mean about Milton but I’m not too worried about that as it’s killing bacteria/fungus on things rather than on/in us. I’m taking a probiotic too now, hoping to hit it from all sides.

I’m really glad to hear the Nystan and Fluconazole worked for you both. And useful to know it took a couple of weeks to kick in as I only took the Fluconazone just over a week ago and if I think about it the nipple pain is marginally better as before it hurt all the time now it feels sore all the time but the main pain is when by breasts are full of milk just before pumping. I think I’m just overwhelmed with the tiredness too.

DD had formula in the early days as I was sedated for a couple of days in intesive care. I’m ok with it but breastfeeding her feels really important to me, especially as I did with my first for 9mths. My aim is to just get to 3 months first if we can and then see where we are.

Good suggestion to intentionally space out a pump. I’ve done it a few times accidentally and all that’s happened is that I pump twice as much next time. As long as I fully drain the milk out I can’t see it dropping the supply too much as it’s still ‘in demand’ perhaps?

I can totally understand that. Ibhave nothing against formula, just mentioned above DD had it in her first week as I was sedated for a couple of days in ICU. But I think maybe because if that I’m really keen to give all I can, even for just the first 3 months, then see where we are. But this is definitely a massive hurdle and really struggling at the moment. I might well look back and wish I’d just taken a different road sooner but it’s so hard to know what the right thing to do is and once I decide to let go or breastfeeding it’s not really a path I can come back from 😔