Does anyone know how long is too long for a baby and mother to have thrush? What are the consequences? My baby is 7 1/2 mos. old and has had it practically all her life! I believe this case is so bad because of a misdiagnosis by her first pediatrician. I told him about the thin white patches when I first noticed them before I even left the hospital after having her! He told me they were just milk curds from breastfeeding and not to wipe them away. Later on I told him about the "needle-like" pain I would feel every so often in my breast when I would breastfeed, and about the pink-pearly look of my nipples. I was told by the doctor's associate what I was feeling was pain from a crack in my nipple that was so small I couldn't see it. That kind of insulted me. I know the difference between pain on my nipple and pain deep within my breast. I did some research on my own and came across organic Mamaki tea from Hawaii. I drank the tea myself (my baby won't take rubber nipples). Those leaves worked wonders! I saw remarkable results starting the first day of drinking the tea. Then I got a bad sinus infection and was given amoxicillin. Right after taking that, with no success, the yeast came back. Then my baby caught some bug that had me rushing her to the emergency room with 104.9 fever! She was given antibiotics, antihistamin, and tylenol.

She now has the worst case of thrush I have even seen with my own eyes. I myself am now getting over having a clogged milk duct which, once "unplugged", resulted in that one duct giving out "salty milk" (thankfully the salty taste hasn't affected my baby's nursing at all). I almost stopped nursing on that breast until I read nursing frequently is one of the best things you can do for a clogged duct. The saltiness is finally going away after about a week or so (curiosity led me to see what the milk from that duct tasted like after the lump started going down, since the milk was in there longer than normal). Unfortunately, I myself am no longer covered by medical insurance, so I'm doing alot of very careful self-dianosing. The baby still has coverage, thank God, but now I'm wary of just following doctors orders without a little research of my own along with it.

I have since been given Nystatin for her by another doctor. It hasn't worked and just makes by baby throw up when I give it to her! I've tried gentian violet also, but now realize I didn't try it for nearly as long as I should have (was afraid because no one around me was even remotely familiar with g.v.). After some researching, I will now try the gentian violet again and Mamaki tea also (this time I will give her some directly as well as drink it myself as I did), along with some other alternative treatments such as garlic tabs and lecithin mentioned here on this informative website I came across during the same research session which led me to this forum. Go to:

http://breastfeeding.com/all_about/smith_anwers1.html

I'm near my wits end, yet hopeful that I'll make my way though this bout with the yeasty beast for the baby and myself. If anyone out there has any other helpful suggestions, please don't hesitate to share it!!!

Other helpful sites:

Concerning Plugged Ducts and Mastitis

http://www.lalecheleague.org/llleaderweb/LV/LVMarApr93p19.html

Helpful advice on the use of Gentian Violet

http://www.angelfire.com/md2/moodyfamily/thrush.html

P.S.

Breast Milk is EXCELLENT to use on eczema! I saw miraculous results after using it on the advice of another mother from a baby eczema forum. Thank God for these forums!

Good luck to us all! :)