This post is about a mother and infant who have persistant thrush.  The
mother had to wean her first baby early due to yeast also.  This time, she
began taking acidophilus during the third trimester of her pregnancy
(powder--1/4 tsp. 3x/day).  Due to being a carrier of Strep B, she was
given 3 doses of IV antibiotics during labor.  On day 4 postpartum, I did a
home visit to correct the baby's latch.  The mother has an oversupply, and
we worked on lowering her milk supply.  She continued taking the
acidophilus, and immediately started giving it to her baby by inserting her
wet finger in the powder and letting the baby suck on it.  She took one
Diflucan (her HCP would not prescribe more since she had no symptoms of
yeast yet).  She also began taking Echinacea and Vitamin C.  She had no
symptoms of yeast, and we thought she was "out of the woods" until at 6
weeks, the baby got a rash on his neck and chest which the ped diagnosed as
yeast.  He put the baby on Nystatin and 3 days later, the baby got the
classic white patches on his tongue.  The ped put him on Diflucan 1/2 cc qd
(40 mg/cc) and had the mother apply the same liquid to her breast.  The
midwife prescribed Diflucan 100 mg. for the mother, which she took for one
week and the MW increased the dose to 200 mg/day for the second week when
the symptoms did not abate.  The mother also took GV for 5 days at the same
time.  After the first week, the mother applied Nystatin to the aerola
between feedings.  She continues with the Acidophilus, Echinacea and has
added Yeast Defense, which contains grapefruit seed and other things.  She
has not seen any improvement in either the baby or herself.  She tried
pumping and feeding the baby BM in a bottle for 3 days, during which time
the baby's fussiness stopped. The baby will nurse for 5 minutes and then
come off the breast and cry, act gassy, and refuse to nurse any longer,
even though he seems hungry.  The next feeding the cycle starts all over
again. However, he will not act fussy when he takes BM from a bottle.
Could this be due to the fact that the GV is in the BM and kills the yeast
when it gets pumped?

This poor mother is at her wits end.  She is ending the second week or
treatment.  How long should treatment continue and can she expect a
resolution to this?  I read one post where someone remarked that there may
be a relationship between oversupply and yeast.  Any comments?  She has no
family, and is pumping, boiling, washing, etc., constantly, in addition to
caring for a 3 year old.  Her husband travels a week at a time, and she is
doing everything without help.  She really wants to breastfeed.

I would appreciate any advice from the wise ones.
Warmly,
Sharon Gollman, RN, BSN, IBCLC
Lenoir, NC, the Yeast Capital of the World

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