I was interested in Debbie's remark about prevalence of yeast in Florida.  I guess that living in a "desert" (at least it used to be one)
makes me forget that there are wet places on this good earth (blush).
My question, I guess, is, how much would ambient weather influence
incidence of yeast infections? It's not that I'm skeptical, not at all!,
but I have seen such a tremendous leap in candidiasis here in my supposed
desert ever since the OB service at the hospital began the protocol of
prophylactic antiobiotic from labor to one week pp for rupture of
membranes before onset of "active labor". One dept.'s protocol is to give
antibiotics if 12 hours before, the other dept's is if 6 hours before. sigh.
One woman called me recently: baby had oral thrush, bf mother not treated
and now she has breast pain. When we finished with this issue (her
getting treated, that is, which unfortunately is often a big issue in
this city), I asked if she had recently had vaginal candidiasis and the
answer was yes, just a week before birth. I took a deep breath before
asking, oh, so casually, if the baby perchance had a diaper rash? Guess
what? Yep, you got it (or rather he did, poor thing). At this point, I
settled down for a long and detailed talk about hygiene and trying to
both treat and contain the yeastie beasties.
Ergo, am I right in thinking that lapses in hygiene and increased antibiotic
use
are more serious influences on this prevalence of yeast that we seem to
be seeing? Judy Knopf in the desert - weather still in the 70s during the
day and it's almost January!