Dear Lactnetters,

I have sure had a run on weird  breastfeeding situations this past month or
two.  I thank you for all of your VERY helpful responses.

Today I received a call from a mom who has had 4-5 weeks of burning pain
inside of her breasts, along with cracked and sore nipples.  It was treated at
a classic yeast problem , and the physician chose to use nystatin cream.  The
pain has really not improved much, with continuing burning pain in both
breasts.

Five days ago, mom noticed that her baby began to throw up "lots of pure
blood" after her feeding.  Mom was quite alarmed, but the baby didn't seem ill
or have symptoms. She pumped with a PIS to determine if blood was in her milk
- she states that in the early morining, 25 ccs of pure blood was pumped from
her left breast, followed by 25 ccs of breastmilk.  The right breast produced
breastmilk. In the afternoon, 10 ccs of blood was pumped. Mom emphatically
states that she is pumping only blood and that breastmilk comes out AFTER the
blood.

 Today, now both breasts are pumping blood, and the baby is becoming extremely
agitated from throwing up large quantities of blood.  Mom has resorted to just
pumping (on advice from her ped) to keep up her milk supply, but desperately
wants to continue nursing for one year.  She is now on oral nystatin, provided
from the OB offfice.

My question - is this phenomena caused by broken blood vessels caused from
intraductal thrush?  Shouldn't this mom be using diflucan? Has anyone had
patiens with this experience, and what did you do?

Thanks so very much,
Brenda Phipps, BS, IBCLC