Dealing with yeast...

I've had a few people ask about thrush lately so I'd thought I'd share my experience and some tips to help dealing with it. 


Yeast is yucky. We all have yeast. We get yeast infections when the yeasties beasties get out of control. This means the bad bacteria outnumbers the good bacteria. That's partly why probiotics are encouraged. They help with our good bacteria and help with preventing illnesses. Since we started taking probiotics, our yeast problems have been at bay. But sometimes I forget to take probiotics and I notice a different in how I feel and my daughter's bum occasionally. 

What does thrush look like? There can be white patches on the insides of baby's cheeks and tongue. They are different from milk stains in that yeast patches don't rub off or wash away. They can look almost like milk curds a little bit on the cheeks. Nipples may be extra pink or red with white spots or no spots. They can look shiny and feel itchy, burn, and be painful during nursing or pumping.


We had our first bout of thrush when RaeRae was 3 weeks old. THREE WEEKS! I think it was mostly my fault because I got lazy with changing my nursing pads. Tip: change your nursing pads often. My nipples were soooo itchy and it hurt to nurse. RaeRae didn't have any white spots in her mouth though so I didn't know if it was thrush or not. But after talking with the lactation consultant, we determined it was likely thrush. RaeRae got a prescription for Nystatin, a yellow semi-thick liquidy substance that we had to swab inside her mouth using a q-tip. 
I had to air out my nipples each time after nursing then rub in a layer of over-the-counter Lotrimin cream. Lotrimin is an antifungal cream made of Clotrimazole. I rubbed it on my nipples and areoloas until I couldn't see it anymore. Then I put lanolin on to help with the pain. It went away within a week.

We had our next yeast battle when RaeRae was about 6 or 7 months. However, it didn't start on her mouth. It started on her bum. She had a rash that wouldn't go away with CJ's butter so after asking some friends for advice and talking with RaeRae's doctor, I learned it was a yeast rash. Ugh--I was so annoyed. I felt stressed because I knew I had to wash her diapers, all of them, to kill the yeasties beasties. I learned Tea Tree Oil (TTO) is a no-no in killing yeast in diapers because you need a certain dilution of TTO and then the yeast can become resistant. So I use Grapefruit Seed Extract instead. I bought it at a local vitamin shop. It helped to kill the yeast, along with turning up my hot water to hot-hot. See here for another blog post on cleaning yeast from cloth diapers. I would put 4-5 drops of Grapefruit Seed Extract in with my wash, and sometimes with my rinse cycle. 

We had it off and on for three months from September 2011 to November 2011. Then again this past February for a few weeks. The February case was so bad that we needed liquid Diflucan. 


Dealing with the thrush, some tips:

• Treat both you and baby. You can keep passing the yeast to each other at each nursing session. It can take a week up two weeks to fully go away.
• Baby: Nystatin from doctor for a week. If really bad, we have had to use liquid Diflucan twice for RaeRae's stubborn yeast. 
• Try coconut oil on your nipples after each nursing session.
• Lotrimin cream on baby's bum and your nipples. 
• Air time for baby's bum if she/he has yeast on the bum too. (Get those cloth diapers clean!! We use Grovia Biosoakers or Earth's Best disposables if a really bad yeast rash on her bum).
• Avoid or lessen your sugar intake (yeast thrives on sugar).
• Boil pacis or bottle nipples after each use. If you pump, you will need to sanitize the parts that touch your nipples or baby's mouth too.
• Wash your nursing bras in hot water each day (can use grapefuit seed extract if you want).
• Wipe down baby's mouth with a wet washcloth after each nursing or feeding session so milk does not linger and feed the thrush (this was partly my problem as RaeRae would nurse to sleep, feeding the thrush; also a good habit to help prevent teeth decay).
• Up your probiotics or eat more yogurt.
•  Gentian Violet is another over-the-counter remedy for treating nipple thrush but it gets messy. We've tried it twice and I don't like it. You can google for more info. If you do use it, make sure it's the 1 percent solution as the 2 percent solution can be a bit too strong. 
• Hang in there! Keep nursing! 

Feel free to email me or message me if any questions! I've dealt with this enough to have all of these tips.