Symptoms and Treatment of Thrush When Nursing
By Lisa - Unschooling Mom
Thrush And Breast Feeding
Unfortunately I have had way too much experience with thrush and mastitis over the past 9 years. Thrush is tricky- especially in new moms because there are often no visible signs.
Symptoms of Thrush
Symptoms of thrush- basically a yeast infection for mom can include: burning pain when baby latches on -often subsiding after a minute or less. Burning pain AFTER nursing . The pain is often describes as a pinching feeling or burning or shooting. What makes this different from a bad latch is this pain goes away just after latching on. The pain can be excruciating- it often brought tears to my eyes. To complicate things- a bad latch can cause a yeast infection. The nipple gets damaged and yeast can breed in blister or crack.
Thrush in baby or toddler can show no symptoms or will look like white curd on tongue or inside cheeks. The baby will feel no pain.
Treatment and Prevention of Thrush
Both mom baby must be treated for thrush or the will keep giving it back and forth to each other.
Women with Cesarean infections are especially prone to thrush because of the antibiotics received in IV. Breastfeeding moms who have recently taken antibiotic are at high risk for thrush. I will take acidophilus when taking antibiotics as preventive measure.
If you are new mom and this is your first experience with suspected thrush please contact your doctor or midwife immediately. It is relatively easy to cure and the pain is unnecessary and can undermine your desire to nurse and/or your milk supply.
Note- it IS safe to nurse baby with thrush- the milk is not affected.
Using Gentian Violet To Treat Thrush
Note: Sore nipples due to a poor latch-on technique, eczema, psoriasis, dermatitis and bacterial infections can potentially present with symptoms similar to yeast. If you can identify other potential causes for your discomfort, don’t necessarily assume that you have yeast.
I am not a doctor- this is my own experience treating thrush. I have had great success with Gentian violet (1% solution). It can be found at most drug stores or health food stores. I used a Q-tip to “paint” each nipple. Some people also swish Q-tip around in baby’s mouth however the baby will be treat when he nurses. Gentian Violet is extremely MESSY!!! It is a deep purple and stains anything it touches. For this reason I recommend using a night. I used for four nights at first sign of thrush.
Baby will have a purple mouth and teeth but this goes after away after a day or so.
Use gentian violet as first line of defense- it works most times. If you worsen or still have symptoms after 3 days I would go to doctor.
More Breastfeeding Help
For more information visit Dr. Jack Newton’s excellent site on nursing and breastfeeding. Visit his site and read his article on using gentian violet to treat thrush
Related Homeschooling and Unschooling Articles
Topics: Breastfeeding Support, General Homeschool and Unschooling, Health and Remedies |
May 8th, 2008 at 10:26 am
I am always interested in learning about new ways to treat ailments. I thought that this article was well written and pretty informative. The Gentian violet is an amazing remedy for thrush that I have used after a close friend told me about it- I can tell you from experience that it does indeed work.