Hello Ljberk,  

The mother's nipple redness that you've observed on more than one occasion, along with her reports of ongoing nipple pain throughout the feedings and even upon air contact may be signs and symptoms of thrush.  

Babies with thrush can display feeding difficulties, presumably due to the likely pain of oral thrush in the infant.   

Maternal antibiotics before or after the birth is a risk factor for thrush (the mother may have been GBS+, for example), and thrush is unfortunately not a rare experience during lactation.  Even though burning pain and itching are possible symptoms of thrush, these commonly reported symptoms are not required symptoms in order to be correctly diagnosed with thrush.  Some mothers with thrush will deny burning pain and/or itching but will nevertheless report nipple pain, and the nipple redness will become more pronounced and extensive without timely treatment.  In early thrush, you may see reddened nipples only, but as candidiasis/thrush spreads without timely and effective treatment, the areolae can also become inflamed.   

Infants with thrush may or may not have visible signs of oral thrush, but a diaper rash consistent with thrush may be present.  

It's important to note that even when the nursling has no visible signs of thrush, both members of the dyad should be treated for maternal thrush for most rapid resolution.  Otherwise, thrush spores can be passed back and forth between mother and baby during every feed, and the mother's misery is unfortunately and unnecessarily prolonged.  

Dr. Jay Gordon's recommendations for treatment of thrush:  http://drjaygordon.com/breastfeeding/thrush.html

Am glad to hear that the dyad was referred to an IBCLC for a thorough evaluation.  Please keep us posted. 

Hoping that this dyad will soon be happily nursing with no further maternal nipple/areolar pain and no more chomping by the baby,

Debbie

Debra Swank, RN BSN IBCLC
Ocala, Florida USA 
MoreThanReflexes Education
http://www.MoreThanReflexes.org

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