Thrush in Baby's Mouth?

Question

My 7 and half week old son has little white patches on the inside of his lower lip and his tongue. A neighbour noticed them this evening and said its thrush and I should take him to the doctor.

The problem is, our surgery won't be open now till tommorrow morning - is it urgent enough to call the emergency doctor or will he be OK till tommorrow morning? He doesn't seem to be in any pain or discomfort and he's breastfeeding ok.

Also, if my baby has thrush will I have any symptoms? I'm breastfeeding and I've noticed my nipples are a bit sore and itchy - is this because of the thrush?

Answer 1

First of all, you do not need to go to the doctor (although you probably already have).

If you are positive that it is thrush, you can treat it at home with ingredients that you probably already have (or can quickly obtain). The doctor will give you a man-made solution. I have a natural one. And because it is natural, if it isn't thrush, treating it in this manner will not harm baby in any way.

GARLIC is a natural antibiotic. I have treated thrush in both of my daughters (3 yrs and 15 months) with garlic oil.
Penicillin has one chemical constituent and that is Penicillin. Garlic has at least 35 constituents. They "potentiate, enhance, and mitigate each other's effects inside the human body." That's like taking 35 medications in one!

Prepare a simple garlic oil to keep on hand for future use.
Garlic Infused Olive Oil
1 bottle olive oil
3-4 cloves garlic, peeled and quartered
Drop garlic slices into olive oil and close tightly. Let bottle sit in a dark place for 2-3 days. Strain out all of the garlic and store the bottle at room temperature. You can refrigerate it, but it will solidify. Just set it on the counter and it will begin to return to its liquid state.

THRUSH: Dip finger in garlic oil and swab baby's mouth with it, or use a dropper to put a drop on baby's tongue. Do not rinse immediately. Baby may not like the taste, but this will work. Do this as often as desired. (I have two girls under 3-this works!)
My oldest never got thrush until she was 2 1/2 years old. I brushed her tongue, applied garlic oil, and put her to bed. The next morning it was gone. One treatment!

Since you don't have time to make a garlic infused oil this time, you can buy garlic CAPSULES. Prick one and squeeze the contents into baby's mouth.

EMAIL ME if you are interested in more medicinal uses for garlic oil-ear infections, ear ache, sore throat, Staph and Strep infections, Cough with Chest Congestion. (Or you can browse through my "answers".)

About the SORENESS: I was sore when my youngest daughter got her thrush. I treated her with the garlic oil and did nothing but clean my breasts with water. When her thrush healed up, so did my breasts.

SUGAR feeds yeast, so you may want to monitor your sugar intake-for your sake as well as your daughter's.

Answer 2

Thrush is basically a yeast infection in the mouth. It's pretty common when they're tiny like this. It can be caused by not cleaning bottles and nipples properly. Sounds like you're breastfeeding though, so I'm not sure. Are either of you on antibiotics?

As long as it's not bleeding, and he's not in any obvious discomfort, you can probably wait. However, if it's daytime, it never hurts to call and ask.

Here's some info from WebMD:

Thrush

Home Treatment


Thrush is a yeast infection that can develop in the mouth and throat and on the tongue. Thrush is most common in newborns, infants, and older adults, but it can occur at any age. In healthy newborns and infants, thrush is usually not a serious problem and is easily treated and cured.

If your child only has mild thrush, you may only need to clean bottle nipples and pacifiers regularly and massage the inside of your child's mouth with a clean moist cloth. If you are breast-feeding, you should clean your nipples with an antifungal medication, such as nystatin (Mycostatin). You should also dry your nipples after breast-feeding. Applying lanolin-containing body lotion may help relieve nipple soreness.

Massaging plain, unflavored yogurt that contains live cultures (check the label) around the inside of your child's mouth can also help cure thrush. Yogurt helps healthy bacteria grow in the mouth; these bacteria stop the growth of the yeast that causes thrush.

Answer 3

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Answer 4

Thrush is not urgent enough to warrent a doctor visit unless you've exhausted all home treatments. Unless your baby has a horribly raised red diaper rash, he's probably only got a mild case. First, let me tell you I'm speaking from experience here...When my now toddler was 8 months, she got a horrible case of thrush. I hadn't heard of any home treatments to try so I took her in to the doctor. The doctor gave me a prescription of nystatin. It was gross and sticky, but I used it faithfully for the 7 days only to have the thrush come right back every morning. I finally got on the net and started looking for some other ideas. The stuff that works great for us is grapefruit seed extract (not grapeseed). Dr. Jay Gordon (a wellknown pediatrician) has a great website on thrush and using GFSE to cure it. He includes the formula for diluting the extract (it's pretty powerful stuff). Depending on the severity of the thrush, you use anywhere from 12-16 DROPS of extract/ 1 oz of distilled water (I use an empty infants medicine bottle since they're usually about 1 oz). This stuff works AWESOME! Here's the website...

http://www.drjaygordon.com/development/bf/thrush.asp

BTW, the reason that the nystatin doesn't work very well is because they add sugar to it to make it palatable to little kids. The problem is, yeast feeds on sugar so you're working against yourself while trying to kill it. Also, if you're given antibiotics in the future, make sure you (and baby if nursing) take acidophilus at the same time. Antibiotics can cause thrush (yeast infections) because they not only kill the bad bacteria in your body, but the good bacteria found in your digestive tract also. The good bacteria are what help keep yeast in your body in check. Acidophilus replaces the good bacteria.

Another thing, make sure you aren't eating a lot of sugary foods while treating thrush. Thrush feeds on sugar and can make it very hard to get rid of. You said that you have symptoms but even if you don't you must treat yourself, too. I think Dr. Gordon mentions it, but make sure you treat yourself AFTER the baby nurses so he won't associate the nasty taste of GFSE with nursing. Also, wash everything that touches your baby's mouth (paci's, toys) with vinegar and add a cup of vinegar to your wash cycle for clothes, especially bras. Yeast can live for a long time on objects and you can keep reinfecting your baby. Vinegar kills yeast.

If the GFSE doesn't work, you will probably need a prescription for diflucan. That will knock the yeast out, but you have to ask a lot of doctors to prescribe it since it is more expesive than the nystatin.

Good luck, thrush sucks!

Answer 5

It sounds like you could have thrush too if you're itchy. Also, you may notice shooting pains in your breasts.

EVEN IF you don't have signs of thrush BOTH of you need to be treated if you are nursing. If you aren't both treated, then you'll probably just pass it back and forth.

It is not serious and not urgent enough to warrent an ER visit as long as baby is eating OK. (Sometimes it makes their mouth sore and they don't eat well.) Your doc may not even want to see you and might just call in a prescription for you.

DO NOT Stop nursing!!!!!

Answer 6

It's fine to wait till the doctor opens. My daughter had thrush and they prescribe a liquid medicene to put in there mouth but my mother also told me to take a warm wet cloth and wipe her mouth and tounge after every feeding and I did that and she never got thrush again. It's very common in newborns. As far as your nipples I am not 100% sure but I do believe my cousin had irritation on her nipples because of her son having thrush.

Answer 7

It sounds like thrush. My daughter was just treated for this 2 weeks ago, and my brother also has had it twice. And antibiotics will probably NOT be given. It is a yeast infection. It is not an emergency, but needs to be treated as soon as possible so it doesn't get worse. It can get to very gross, ugly, and painful stage but it sounds like you caught it early. The Dr. will give you an antifungal oral medication. Very easy to use and very effective. You should consult your doctor,too. You both need to be treated or you will just keep passingit back and forth. Good Luck!!!

Answer 8

He should be fine until tomorrow, but you both have to be treated for it, regardless of whether you've got it yet. Thrush is a yeast infection that can be spread back and forth between the two of you. Very uncomfortable on the nipples.

Answer 9

Thrush is actually a yeast infection of the mouth. It is fairly common. Unfortunately, once you get it, it will most likely occur again. Especially if the baby takes antibiotics. Don't worry it is completely curable.

Answer 10

That's exactly why your itchy.... and you can also get a rash on your nipples from thrush. If your baby isn't fussing about it yet, it wont hurt to wait a day... Nobody's infected so they may not even do anything but perscribe you a cream anyway.