It's one of those fun things that no one mentions when they talk about the importance of breastfeeding: THRUSH. Sore, bleeding, cracked nipples? Sure, they mention that. Milk leaking through your clothes? Check. Supply issues? The football hold? You know all about that! But does anyone ever mention the possibility of a yeast infection on your boobs? Or in your baby's mouth???
A friend from university, and a fellow mom-blogger,
Jenn, tweeted today about her youngest developing thrush, and it brought it ALL back for me.
I was desperately trying to breastfeed my second daughter, despite my breast reduction surgery. We had finally gotten a rhythm of some nursing, some bottle-feeding when she suddenly stopped wanting to nurse altogether. I was certain that she had just develped a preference for the bottle, and I was sunk, and I was absolutely inconsolable over it. It was only when I took her to the walk-in clinic for something else that the doctor saw the tell-tale white mouth.
Because I was breastfeeding AND bottle feeding it was much more complicated. When there are bottles and/or pacifiers involved you have to boil them after every use until the thrush treatment is over, and then THROW OUT every single one, because if the yeast gets back into the baby's mouth, the thrush comes back. At the time we had Avent bottles, and a set of two nipples was nearly ten dollars, so to replace ten of them was just... horrific.
But there's more! The treatment is for baby AND mom, so anything that touches mom's nipples, clothing-wise, has to be washed in hot water and bleach. So much for the new mom "it's sort of clean" idea. Every time you wear something, it has to go through the laundry. Just what you need when the house looks like a cyclone hit it.
So what does thrush look like? Have you ever seen those white spots of mold on cheese? Yeah, like that, in your baby's mouth. At first it's very hard to tell the difference between thrush and milk residue on the inside of the mouth, but as it gets worse, it's pretty gross. Plus, milk residue will scrape off, thrush won't. In terms of what you might see on your nipples, well, I've never been all that sure, but apparently doctors can tell. All I know is that they ITCHED!
There are generally two treatments for thrush: one involves yeast-fighting ointments for you, and yeast-fighting drops for baby. You have to put the ointment on your nipples a few times a day, and be careful to wash it off before you feed the baby again. The baby gets these icky yellow drops that they will invariably spit out all over everywhere, and they stain, just so you know. The medication is called "Nystatin", although personally I'd suggest that you also ask for an oral medication for yourself called "Diflucan".
The other treatment possibility is called "Gentian Violet." It was the most commonly used treatment until recent years. It's a purple liquid that you dab on your nipples and inside baby's mouth (although
Dr. Newman says that you can just put it on your nipples, then let the baby feed and it will transfer to baby's mouth that way). The great thing about this treatment is that it only takes about 3-4 days to work, and in my experience, it actually worked better. I've heard people say that it stains clothing, but in my case it washed out fairly easily, much more easily than the spit-out Nystatin drops.
The only problem is that these days it is NOT easy to find. I ended up having to find a pharmacy that did compounding, since apparently it's used for compounding certain medications. So you can try pharmacies in or near medical centres. I suggested to Jenn that she contact her midwives, and they could tell her where to get it, and apparently that worked. I'm not sure that conventional doctors would know, to be honest, although I'm sure that some would.
Thrush isn't fun, but it doesn't have to spell the end of your breastfeeding relationship AT ALL, so don't let anyone tell you that! In fact, it's probably easier to deal with if you are exclusively breastfeeding, since you don't have the bottle nipple/pacifier issues to contend with. KellyMom has lots of information about thrush
here.
