Thrush and soothers...

[KimberleyDawn]

William and I just got back from the walk-in clinic with a diagnosis of thrush. I noticed after William's feeding that he had a few white bumps on the inside of his lip and on his tongue so off we went. The dr. said that I caught it really early and prescribed him an oral antibiotic. When I got the prescription filled the pharmacist made a point of telling me how important it is to clean the dropper after each dose or I would re-infect him. Will his soother be an infection problem while this is clearing up or will continuous cleaning keep it at bay? Also, Dh is convinced that this is from that horrible lady who put her dirty finger in William's mouth at the garage but I tried to tell him it's a just a yeast infection.
Kim

[Melanie]

You are going to want to boil or replace all nipples. I would think you'd want to change pacifiers 3-4 times a day during this outbreak.

[partyof5]

Here are links to a couple of articles regarding thrush. Generally they say to sterilize pacifiers, bottle nipples, and pump parts at least once a day. One article advises replacing pacifiers and bottle nipples after one week.

http://www.lalecheleague.org/llleaderweb/LV/LVOctNov98p91.html

http://breastfeeding.hypermart.net/thrush.html

http://www.breastfeeding.com/all_about/all_about_thrush.html

You may also want to post this question in the Maternity/Nursing Clothes & Feeding Baby forum for more advice. HTH!


~Cindy
mommy to...
Isabella (1999)
Sophia (2001)
Ethan (2003)

[malisa]

Kim,
My dd just finishsed her oral medication for thrush yesterday. The nurse practitioner said to sterilize all nipples, bottles and pacifiers for 3 days past the finish date on the oral medication (she took nystantin). Any toys that went in her mouth also got this treatment. She also said for the first several days to soak these things in vinegar for a few hours each night after sterilizing. This apparently kills the fungus. I was also instructed to add vinegar to the rinse cycle of the was with all of her clothes, particularly bibs and burp clothes. It is all a BIG hassle. I limited her toys and pacifiers to just a couple. Something else interesting that she told me was that thrush is a fungus caused by hard suckers--kids who love to suck on bottles/breast and pacifiers. Apparently sucking breaks down the saliva and allows the fungus to grow. She told me to really limit the use of the pacifier to nap/bedtime and when she really needed it. She did say however, that thrush is painful and not to let her be uncomfortable or miserable--as far as holding out the pacifier. Good luck. I also called back and talked to two other nurses to verify that ALL of the sterilizing was necessary for such a long time--they both confirmed it.

malisa
mom to Isabella 11/9/02