I wanted to report on my recent personal experience with thrush, because
there were some aspects to it that seemed to be somewhat different from my
impression about "what thrush should be like" based upon posts on Lactnet and
most reading I had done.

My baby came down with very obvious oral thrush when he was 2 1/2 months old.
 This seemed odd, because I had not been treated with antibiotics for over a
year, and he had not ever had antibiotics.   He also had a very easy,
non-stressful home birth, so there were not really any factors that would
have contributed to his succumbing to any kind of infection.  The only thing
we have going against us is living in a place that is hot and semi-humid (San
Antonio, TX).

Listed below is the course of treatment we have gone through (in addition to
the medications listed below, I was practicing many of the recommendations
listed in the LC series on Candidiasis, such as using paper towels, boiling
clothes, etc):
Week one--oral Nystatin for baby, Mycelex cream for me, nothing for nursing 3
year old (could not convince doctor it was needed)
Week 2--same as above, except 3 year old put on oral Nystatin
Week 4--Gentian violet for baby (one treatment), treatment for vaginal yeast
infection for myself (no check for infection done, just a description of
symptoms--I am not sure I had infection, but doc went ahead and gave meds, in
light of recurring thrush), continued Nystatin for 3 year old
Week 5--another round of Gentian violet for baby, followed by oral Nystatin
(he did not get the Nystatin after the first round of Gentian violet),
continued Nystatin for 3 year old
Week 6--Diflucan for myself, one round of Gentian violet, followed by
Nystatin for baby and 3 year old.

It is now week 7 1/2.  It appears the thrush is gone (YAY!)  The thrush
disappeared after each round of Gentian violet, but returned in about 5 days,
until I got put on Diflucan (I had to change doctors to get the Diflucan, but
that is another story).

The reason I am posting about this is that, up until week 6, I was still
swearing that I did not have nipple thrush.  I *never* had any pain when the
baby nursed, certainly not the knife like pains that everyone talks about.
  However, it has been painful to nurse the 3 year old for quite some time,
starting when I was pregnant.  I had thought it would go away once the baby
was born, but it did not.  It had gotten to where I would only let him (the 3
year old) nurse for 30 seconds or so.  Well, that pain is now gone.  The pain
left about 3 days after I went on the Diflucan.   I suspect that I developed
systemic yeast while pregnant, and that was the source of the baby's thrush.

Looking back on it, I did have some indicators of this.  I had "white spots
like tiny blisters on the nipple" and "blanched appearance of the nipple
after feeding".  The nipples and areolae were very sensitive to touch.  But,
even with my background as a LLL leader, with access to Lactnet and to LLL
materials, I did not recognize these symptoms in myself.  I am posting this
to demonstrate that sometimes symptoms of nipple thrush are much more subtle
than many may believe.

I would like to thank Kathleen Bruce and Dr. Tom Hale (who I got to meet at
the Texas Area LLL Conference, and who is as wonderful in person as he comes
across on e-mail--he told me I have a "really sweet baby", a statement that I
have to agree with :)  ) for their help in getting me the information I
needed to get this resolved.

Susan Smylie, LLLL