BabyWhispererForums.com
EAT => Breast Feeding => Topic started by: bheemeryck on December 05, 2006, 20:55:40 pm
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My dd is 10 weeks old, and this is the second time we've had to deal with thrush. I knew we'd gotten off too lucky the first time it went away so quickly!! My daughter is the one with the symptoms this time, white patches and refusing to nurse well. We started treatment on Saturday, and the spots have decreased in size and don't look as sore, but she is absolutely refusing to eat a full feeding, and I'm starting to panic. She eats a little better at night, and she will eat just before she falls asleep, (totally breaking my no nursing to sleep rule, but like I said, I'm panicing!!) but when she does try to nurse she pulls off repeatedly, and now I'm starting to get sore!! I need some advice as to how I can prevent damage to my nipples while I'm trying to get her to eat.
I have read the Dr. Newman protocols and we will be incorporating those today, but is everything I'm describing normal, and if so, when can I expect it to get better? Maybe the treatment prescribed by the doctor is not working- is three days of treatment enough I should be seeing an improvement? Any advice would be SO much appreciated, I'm loosing sight of why I want to breastfeed so bad in all of this...
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I TOTALLY understand! we just finished our 2 1/2 month battle with thrush. What medicine are you on and for how long? I was on a medicine called dyflucan for about that long and my son went through 3 different medications himself. I had to go to a breastfeeding specialist (who is a pediatrician) and they would treat both of us. my OB first gave me 3 of the pills because 1 is supposed ot be strong enough to take it away! yeah right! I had to be on that same strength pill twice a day for 15 days at least before we were able to see any results. What medicine is your LO on? Mine went through nistatin then gentian violet then went onto dyflucan before we were able to see any results. My lo didn't have a lot of symptoms in his mouth but he had a little and then diaper rash. we had to get gynalotramin to get rid of that. As for the feeding thing, I would just take your time with the feeds. is she pretty consistant at how long she is on before pulling off? if she is then take her off before that time and burp her then put her back on and do it again. that way your control the pulling. also sometimes you have to just deal with it for a few more days until the treatment starts working. there are a lot of nystatin resistant yeasts though so if your lo is being treated with that and you not seeing any improvment in 5 days I would call your PED and ask about maybe a stronger/ different medicine. remember that even small improvment is improvment.
If this is a repeated problem I would contact your Lactation center and ask if they know of a dr. that specializes in BFing medicine. they are wonderful and will get rid of the problem completely so it wont come back. I remember thinking the same thing about trying to figure out why I was wanting to nurse so badly. it hurts so much and it seems like the treatment isn't doing anyhting. it would be so easy to just bottle feed but the thrush may not go away just by doing that. just keep your head up. I promise there is light at the end of the tunnel. be sure you are both getting treated at the same time or else it will just get passed back and forth. just know that it may take months but there is a cure out there it is just a matter of finding the right medicines to kill the yeast.
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Okay.... onto week 2 of the battle with thrush. We thought we had it beat with the gentian violet, but she was really hard to feed on Tuesday, yesterday night I looked in her mouth and her cheeks are covered!! I guess we'll do another round of g.v. and if that doesn't work we'll have to go to the doctor and get more drugs (sigh)!! This is so frustrating, and I know I should probably do the whole Candida diet thing, but at Christmas time that is going to be virtually impossible unless I stay at home.
I was using clotrimaderm cream on myself and I did a onetime dose of fluconazole, that cleared up the thrush problem for me (about 6 weeks ago), now I am using a vinegar rinse. For the current thrush problem, we used the nystatin drops for dd for 5 days,and there was no improvement , we then switched to g.v. for 3 days, there was improvement, but now it's back. Maybe we did not do it long enough? Dr. Newman's site said to stop after 3 days if there was improvement... I even e-mailed him looking for advice, and he seemed to think it was odd that my baby was showing signs of discomfort due to the thrush, apparently that is not common, but they look like sores, how could that not hurt?! She is really struggling to eat, I feel like I am force feeding her, the only time she gets a really good feed is at night, and she's been getting up every 2-3 hours t night to make up for not eating during the day. What a vicious cycle! Maybe she is getting reinfected from me?
We just need to find a different doctor I think, I live in Northern Alberta and there are lactation consultats in the area, but no doctors that specialize in BFing. Maybe I'll try Edmonton..... I feel like crying I'm so frustrated, I can't believe this is so hard to get rid of!!
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don't stress out. you lo will have some discomfort from eating if it is that bad. Keep your head up and hugs, I know htis is a very frustrating and difficult think. did you contact your lactation consultant?? they may know if a good dr. who can help you to get this all taken care of. most dr.'s don't give you enough medicine to clear it up when it is this bad. a lot of the yeasts are resistant to nystatin. it is common for it not to work. The vinigar rinse didn't help me either.I would go into your dr (if you don't find another one that can help you) and demand to be put in the fluconazole for 15 days. do the treatment of a double dose on the first day and 1 pill after that for 14 days. you can use the cream that will help as well. Then ask if your lo can be put on a suspension version of fluconazole. it is the only way we could get it cleared up in my son. I promise it will work if you do this combo. the fluconazonle is a very strong med. that is why they don't do it normally right off. But if it doesn't get cleared up in LO but it does in you then she will give it right back to you and if your clear it up in Lo and not you you will give it to her. it sounds like the GV needs something else with it mine was the same. the GV jst didn't work by itself. it had to be used with the fluconozale to work.
The Bfing slecialist isn't listed under a Bfing doctor. they are listed in our book as a pediatrician. so you will have to ask the Lac. consults if they know of anyone. or call some ped. and ask if they specialize in that.
There were so many days I thought about just not BFing anymore. my son also has reflux. I just couldn't handle the thought of living this way on top of the reflux. but I was torn because BFing is better for the reflux because it digests better. But I am so glad now that I pushed through it. feel free to PM me if you need any extra support. I know it is really hard but just do what you can. if you need to sleep a lot during the day to get caught up from all the feedings do it. demand the treatment that will work the fastest. that is what I told you. it wil be about 2 weeks until it gets cleared up. there is light at the end of the tunnel.
HUGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Thanks for the support Melissa, I'm not going to give up, but I sure feel discouraged. Nothing goes the way you want it to... but I will take your suggestions to our GP tomorrow, and go from there. I'll let you know how things work out!
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Well, we've been thrush free for about 2.5 weeks now... and counting. We did fluconazole for a week, and continued with gentian violet,and are now doing acidophilus, so I really hope we've beat it. My dd is eating much better, so now we can work on our night waking problems... someday this will all be a distant memory and I'll laugh at hoow stressed I was!! Thanks again for the support, I appreciate it!
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glad to hear things are so much better!!!!! where did you get the acidophilous? I have to go get some for myself. seriously it is just a memory and now you will be able to help others when they have the problem!!! :D We havn't had any reaccurances here either, but I think it is possible that is why I need to get the acidophilous. hope it continues!
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I got the acidophilus at a health food store, it's made by new roots and has 25 billion live active cells and is the powder form, so I can give it to babe. It's kind of expensive, but right now it's so worth it!! You could probably go with one with less active cells, ones with 9-10 billion are made that would probably work for maintenance.
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I'm not a happy person at all right now, we've got the thrush back >:(. I don't understand what I'm doing to have this return for a fourth time, UGHHH!! Now she's playing with toys and we'll have to wash EVERYTHING... I ruined my bras with all the washing last time, and this is getting expensive. Okay, now that my rant is over... I guess it's back to square one... I hate thrush!!!
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When I started taking acidopholus my syptoms started again so I stopped taking it. maybe that is the same deal with you. I am not sure why it would do that but verytime I ate yogart it got worse too. I just have stopped everything but changing my nursing pads a couple times a day and airing out as much as I can. hope you et better. I was also on the fluconazole for 2 months before everything got cleared up!
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Hugs to you Becky. :'(
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I feel a little better today, with two treatment of the gentian violet she appears to have no spots left... maybe we caught it before it got really bad. Still dosen't solve WHY she is getting it... but that may be impossible to answer. Thanks for the hugs, I'm going to go and do something fun for me today to try and bring my spirits back up, maybe get outside and soak up some sunshine!!
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was your LO on any meds? like suspention type meds?? my Lo had to be on fluconazole and the gentian violet for it to go away. I was also taking the fluconazole. If your Lo wasn't on anything there is a BIG possibility it could be throughout her system and you are treating the symptoms and not the source of the yeast. some people (like me) are born with high yeast count and if you don't take care of it while their young they will have problems with it their whole life. I have had yeast problems sat birth and then I had my first infectoion when I was 12. I have been dealing with them with the overthe counter creams every month for the past 10 years!!!! now that I have fixed the problem internally I have had no problems with it. hope that helps!!! good luck!
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I'm pretty sure she's getting it from me, or at least is very sensitive to yeast, I have had numerous yeast infections over the years. We did a big round of Fluconazole about a month and a half ago... plus gentian violet and Nystatin, GV seems to work at first butnot for extended use, and Nystatin is useless. I went to our Dr this morning for another round of Fluconazole... he would only give me a prescription for another week though, I don't think that is going to be enough to zap it. I'm going to try grapefruit seed extract as well this time, and continue with that and the acidophilus after the fluconazole is done, maybe we don't need the drugs. So frustrating, I had yeast problems with Ds#1, just he had the never ending diaper rash... I'd almost take that over the thrush in the mouth (as cruel as that sounds). So both my kids are very sensitive, it's gotta be me.... I'm the common factor!!
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It could be that you pass it on to them and they get it in their system. I would ask your Ped about getting your Lo on the fluconozale as well. it would be worth it if it works and you are all done with the problems!
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I'd probably have to find another Dr... he was very hesitant to try such a long dose again, and we did discuss it, but he thought she would probably get a sufficient amount through bm. I guess we'll try it his way first and when he's wrong I can say 'I told you so' and start all over again....