Dear Anne,

As far as culturing yeast in breastmilk, I would treat it like any other
body fluid - centrifuge an aliquot of it and then plate the sediment to a
blood plate and/or to Saborouds (an agar which tends to inhibit the
growth of other organisms besides yeast).  She might also want to put
some into a tube of broth and let it grow for a few days and then plate
it out, although other contaminants will also flourish along with the
yeast.

As for the link to other yeastie-beasties in the household, they are not
all the same type.  "Jock itch" is usually a candida infection of the
skin and the partner can indeed be a part of the  yeast cycle. Athlete's
foot, on the other hand, is a fungal infection of a completely different
type and would not be implicated in systemic candida infection.

Warmly,
Sharon Knorr, BSMT, LLLL, IBCLC in Newark, New York (near Rochester)
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