Healthy Family
This post is part of the Breast-Kept Secrets: Breastfeeding Advice from One Mom to Another series. Go back and read all posts here.
This post was originally published August 19, 2011.
One of the biggest breastfeeding challenges I have endured is thrush. I really cannot complain because I had a mild case. However, my thrush led to my second baby’s 5-month battle with yeast infections.
It’s important to know the symptoms of and remedies for thrush, so if you or your baby are infected, you can continue on with a successful breastfeeding experience.
What is thrush?
Symptoms
- white patches on baby’s mouth and tongue
- red, itchy, burning nipples
- shooting pain in breasts
- a vaginal yeast infection in mother or baby*
*It’s important to note that even boy babies can develop yeast infections in the diaper area. A baby’s yeast infection presents itself as a BAD diaper rash that will not go away or continues to return despite use of diaper creams. Check out the post I wrote on yeast for Jack Be Natural here.
Causes
Thrush develops when candida, a yeast normally found in the body, grows out of control. This can happen for a number of reasons. Moms or babies who have been on antibiotics are especially at risk.
Although I had no pain medications during my second labor, I tested positive for group B strep in both pregnancies. I had hospital births and was required to have a dose of antibiotics during labor to help prevent complications if my baby were to come in contact with strep B.
I believe the antibiotics I received in labor led to my thrush and my baby’s 5-month yeast infection.**
My experience
I only recently realized that I believe I had thrush when my daughter was a newborn. My first few weeks of nursing her were very painful (which surprised me since it had not been that long since my older daughter had weaned), and I was also red and itchy.
However, my daughter did NOT have any white patches in her mouth. I know now that not ALL of the symptoms have to be present in order for it to be thrush.
The tell-tale symptom was her persistent yeast infection.
I had never even heard of a yeast infection until my second daughter had one. I discovered it while researching her terrible diaper rash that just wouldn’t heal.
I even switched to cloth diapers in an effort to help her rash (and became a cloth diaper addict!).
Her pediatrician FINALLY diagnosed yeast, and a combination of a prescription anti-fungal cream and CJ’s BUTTer Plus got rid of it.
 |
| When cloth diapers didn’t help my baby’s rash, I knew it was yeast. |
Prevention
Whereas you may not always be able to prevent the use of antibiotics (although I would try to avoid them if possible), there are a few things you can do to help prevent the overgrowth of yeast in your body:
1. Eat foods full of probiotics (like sourdough bread, fermented foods, yogurt, kefir, etc.), or
2. Take a good probiotic supplement
Now, I was very good about taking probiotics during my pregnancy, but I really stopped taking care of myself after the birth. To be completely transparent, I had a hard transition going from one kid to two kids, and I stopped taking care of myself a lot.
My baby was sick a lot her first winter despite exclusively breastfeeding.
And I think a lot of her sickness was probably the result of me not taking care of myself.
I thought I was doing the right thing by trying to take care of my girls….but I was doing them a disservice by not being a healthy mommy!
Remedies
1. My thrush went away on its own after I started taking my probiotics again. I also used lots of lanolin to soothe the soreness. You can even make a paste of probiotic powders and water and rub it directly onto the infected area.
2. Genitian violet is a dye which kills bacteria and can sometimes treat thrush. It is available without a prescription but should only be used on adults.
3. I 100% recommend CJ’s BUTTer Plus as a yeast fighter for babies with a yeast rash. Apple cider vinegar is another remedy that Autumn at All About Cloth Diapers has used.
I would talk to your doctor or another trusted healthcare provider about other remedies for you and your baby.
Have you or your baby ever had thrush? Do you have any remedies to share?
**Whether or not one should receive antibiotics during labor is an entirely different post for another time. I err on the side of caution. I believe those who have home births even take antibiotics if they test positive for strep B. I wore a hep lock instead of an IV with my most recent labor, which allowed the nurse to administer the antibiotic while still giving me the freedom to move around.
***This post is completely my personal opinion based only on personal research. I am not a doctor. I encourage you to talk to your doctor or a trusted healthcare provider if you suspect you have thrush.
Carrie
Thank you so much for sharing this! I’ve never had thrush, but I’ve heard it can be tricky to get rid of. I teach childbirth classes, so I’m going to share it with my couples. 🙂
Renee
Coconut oil has antimicrobial properties and can be used to heal yeast infections. I am currently pregnant with my first so I haven’t had thrush with breastfeeding yet. However, I did have oral thrush myself and a single application of raw coconut oil was sufficient to combat the oral thrush. Also, I have a good friend who used coconut oil to heal herself and her baby from thrush due to breastfeeding. This is just another idea for those looking for a natural remedy!
Siné
I second Renee’s comment; coconut oil is fantastic at treating yeast infections of all sorts. My daughter got a yeast infection in her belly button (?!) when she was 6 months old and the coconut oil took care of it in a couple of days.
katie
Silver to the rescue! Its the only thing that finally killed ours. Put it in a spray bottle and spray diaper rash and vaginally or on your breasts. Drink it your water about a tsp for 16oz.
Holly
Another great way to treat trush is with grapefruit seed extract. It is a natural anti fungal and can be found in most health food isles of super markets. Take about 15 drips of gse into 1 oz of water. Apply with a clean washcloth or q tip to breast and to baby’s mouth. Can use a few times a day. You can also add it to your diaper laundry to help stop yeast in the wash.
Helen
This is off topic somewhat, but I would really love suggestions for how to rebuild gut flora after antibiotics for Strep B during labor. I am 37 weeks pregnant with #4, and this is the first time I have ever been positive. I am not comfortable declining the antibiotics, but would like to have some ways to begin aggressively rebuilding our gut flora this fall. Any suggestions? Recommendations on what type/brand of probiotics to take?
Jessica
Hi! I think the best way is to consume probiotics frequently and consistently. I found some at GNC (health store) that came in powder form in single-serving packets. You can mix them into anything cold, like juice, yogurt, or smoothies. They have no flavor and you can hardly tell it’s there (only a little crunchy texture if you don’t mix it well). If you mix it into yogurt (preferably yogurt that doesn’t have a lot of added sugar) then you have the added probiotics that are in the yogurt as well! =) I have also used probiotics that came in capsule form (found boxes of them buy-one-get-one-free at my local grocery store) and they work well also.
According to the research that I did before I started taking probiotics, you want to look for the highest count of live-cultures that you can find, and a brand that offers a variety of strains in each serving. I believe the capsules that I bought had 10 different strains of probiotics and had over 20 billion active cultures per serving. I struggle with a gluten sensitivity (can cause stomach discomfort) and have battled a terrible yeast infection on my breasts this past year; I noticed significant improvement when I started taking the probiotics. I hope this helps! =)
Jessica
I delivered twin baby boys in February of last year; I almost exclusively breastfed them. When they were about 6 months old I started a nightmarish battle with a persistent yeast infection on my breasts. For about 9 months I fought the yeast infection, and tried many things! I tried a variety of anti-fungal creams (both prescription and non-prescription), gentian violet, vinegar rinses, grapefruit seed extract, probiotics, and more. I cut out foods containing gluten, yeast, and sugar for months. These treatments offered occasional relief and made life more bearable (the infection was excruciatingly painful!), but still the yeast infection never actually went away. This past spring the Lord prompted me to try eliminating milk and yogurt from my diet, and miraculously the the yeast infection went away!! I would like to share this information with others, in hopes that it might help someone else fighting this battle. I would never have suspected dairy having such an impact, if the Lord hadn’t shown me! I do believe that the other things I was doing helped also, but it’s like cutting out the dairy was the boost that my worn-out body needed to finally succeed at fighting the yeast off.
Angela
Praise God! I believe that! My mom prompted me to ask God what was causing my cystic acute acne. I never wouldve that it would be food. But it was almost everything I was eating everyday….that was contributing to it. It was wheat oats milk gluten corn soy……etc. Now my baby has thrush because I haven’t been eating the way I should. And I’m breaking out. Well God is gooooooood!
Kristen
My 3rd had thrush at about 3 months and we tried all the meds. After dealing with itfor 2 months and it not getgetting better Ittalked to a retired nicu nurse who suggested I wash my breasts with just water after each feeding and feed my son yogurt. I thought he was too young for that but was willing to try anything. In 2 weeks it was cleared and never came back.
mamie
Hello my daughter cought thrush at 3months old from the formula she was on so we switched formulas. The thing that cleared it up was putting coconut oil on her bottle at every feeding and binky durning the day the best thing that got rid of the yeast was rubbing yorget the live kind on her bottom after each diaper changed gone in two day you want the plain kind of yougert
Erin
Thanks for the tip!
Alisa
My first child got thrush from her pacifier. I had “cleaned” it a few times by putting it in my mouth. (Which I swore I would never do.) It over loaded her mouth with the bacteria from mine. Then she got pneumonia by choking on the liquid meds that she had to take. She was 2 and a half months old. Needless to say I NEVER did that to any of my 8 children’s pacifiers again. Thankfully we’ve never had to deal with thrush again though.
Erin
Oh my goodness! That is a warning sign people need to heed! Thanks for sharing!
LJ
I’ve dealt with unrelenting, severe thrush! Not fun! I second a lot of the above – coconut oil, gentian violet, vinegar washes (add to laundry too, to get it off if towels and clothes where it can linger), GSE, probiotics. It’s not fun, but eliminating sugar from the diet also helps hugely. Use disposable nursing pads as it can linger on cloth ones even after washing.
One caution: the author mentioned using Lanolin to soothe sore, thrushy nipples. This actually can make it worse as it thrives in a moist, warm environment. Coconut oil soothes without keeping the nipple moist and has the added benefit of being anti-fungal.
Erin
Thanks so much for the tips, Lj!! I’m so sorry you had to suffer so much!