Hi ladies,

Not a massive problem at the moment - more of an irritant. I've been given an anti fungal cream to treat nipple thrush that I've been suffering from. It started a few weeks back - I had toe curling pain when trying to latch Theo on and later my nipples felt really itchy but Theo has had no symptoms and I haven't had white bits on my nipples.

Initially the doctor gave me some oral gel to put on the nipple (Daktarin) and left it at that. When I went back to see a different doctor I queried whether Theo should be treated to as, while he hasn't had any symptoms, he seemed a little whingier than usual. She told me I should then express all the milk from the affected breast and throw it away (something an nct breasfeeding councillor told me to ignore - and I did). As you can see my faith in Doctors is not at an all time high and I was wondering how long thrush should take to be resolved. It seems fine but everytime I stop the treatment my nipples get itchy again - I've not stayed off it long enough to see if it then gets painful as I really don't want to experience that pain again.

Any suggestions/thoughts?? Should I persevere for another week (it's been about nine days since I last restarted) and then stop or is it possible that this anti-fungal gel isn't strong enough?

Thanks for reading this essay!

Emma
xx

Hi hun so sorry to hear you are still suffering but well done again for not giving up.
I dont really know much about this or what to suggest but have you looked througr the breast feeding problems section in advice sorry hun not sure how to give you the link but you can click advice from the top of the page & go from there.

hi, not sure if this will help or not but when I noticed white bits in Jenny's mouth I asked the health visitor and she thought it was thrush and told me to get both of us treated (although I had no symptoms) otherwise the infection would just keep passing from her to me and back again so I would say that Theo should be treated as well to get rid of the problem once and for all.

You may be able to just go to the chemist and ask the pharmacist for something rather than go to the doctors again.

Hope you get some relief from it all soon

xx

Thanks Claire and Josh's mum (sorry I don't know your name) - I'm an idiot and managed to not mention that Theo is being treated for thrush too! It jsut feels like the treatment is not getting rid of the thrush just keeping it from getting bad. We're due to move house soon so I might just query it with our next doctor.

Thanks

Emma

I would have expected it to have cleared up by now - I know you said Theo is being treated but are you being religious about sterlising dummies or anything else he may put into his mouth - if you are treating him but he gums on something inbetween then he could be reinfecting himself (and you)

Another option would be nystatin which I know is the first one round here to get prescribed but I don't know if that is stronger

Hello,
I totally feel your pain / annoyance as I had nipple thrush for about 8 weeks and for me it was excrutiating the whole time. I'd cry through feeds, have to bite something as she latched on due to the pain etc. Anyway, we finally got rid of it with a combination of Anna having Nystatin and I had had canesten, daktarin oral gel, daktarin cream (which I had to gently wipe off before a feed) and then lastly (after weeks of none of these making any difference to the pain that I was feeling deep down in my breasts), a fluconazole pill. The GP told me I had to stop breastfeeding for 72 hours after taking it, express when I'd normally feed and give Anna formula in this time. Of course, I read lots about this, spoke to a breastfeeding counsellor and they said to ignore that and just take the pill.
I also at that time started feeding with nipple shields as I literally couldn't take the pain any more.
This combination (had to keep sterilising the shields between every feed) did eventually work.
I hope you get it sorted soon.

Thanks iolaus and drainpipe (sorry I don't know your real names!) - my doctor has given me literally no advice on this so I wasn't really thinking about the dummies (I feel pretty stupid now ). We just bought a load of new ones so will make an extra special effort to clean and sterilise each time he uses them. Thanks so much for hte advice about the stronger pill - I really don't want to stop breastfeeding for any length of time if I can avoid it (isn't it awful how the doctors seem so keen for it to be interrupted!) particulalry since I've had a couple of cases of mastitis and pumping exclusively is not good for that. I really sympathise with you over the pain - I was biting something whenever he latched on and wincing with the pain and dreading each feed my HV and Dr's have been rubbish and just told me it was cracked nipples they only prescribed the cream in the end to shut me up I think but it's definitely made a difference as the pain has gone!

Thanks again for the very helpful advice!

Emma
xx

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I generally take one of the single dose tablets for thrush. The only reason it's not prescribed for use during breastfeeding is that they can't test it on babies BUT there has not been any reported side effects to babies from the tablets. I checked it out thoroughly before taking it the first time.

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I know my floor isn't clean enough to eat off, but then.....why would you want to?

sorry not used this site before, i have had the same pain as you have decribed so painfull doc has given me fluconazole 2 days ago but still in pain. how long before yours went away?? thanks

I totally feel your pain / annoyance as I had nipple thrush for about 8 weeks and for me it was excrutiating the whole time. I'd cry through feeds, have to bite something as she latched on due to the pain etc. Anyway, we finally got rid of it with a combination of Anna having Nystatin and I had had canesten, daktarin oral gel, daktarin cream (which I had to gently wipe off before a feed) and then lastly (after weeks of none of these making any difference to the pain that I was feeling deep down in my breasts), a fluconazole pill. The GP told me I had to stop breastfeeding for 72 hours after taking it, express when I'd normally feed and give Anna formula in this time. Of course, I read lots about this, spoke to a breastfeeding counsellor and they said to ignore that and just take the pill.
I also at that time started feeding with nipple shields as I literally couldn't take the pain any more.
This combination (had to keep sterilising the shields between every feed) did eventually work.
I hope you get it sorted soon.[/quote]

Hi Sarah,

The pain is awful isn't it??? All I can suggest is make sure that both you and baby are being treated - that is what prolonged mine. I had a few stop-start treatments as I would forget a dose but once I managed to apply to both of us twice a day for around ten days I was better. The really sharp pain eased after a few days - in the meantime take painkillers to help take the edge off the pain and remember it WILL get easier!

Best of luck and well done for sticing with the feeding!

Emma

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