I agree with other pediatricians, sorry, that a white tongue alone is
not thrush.  To make this diagnosis, you need the patches on the
inside of the cheeks and lips.

However, the presence or absence of thrush in the baby's mouth is
*not* a reason to discount a mother's pain as being due to yeast.
It's helpful to see thrush in the mouth because it backs up our
clinical impression, but the fact is that many babies have thrush and
the mothers have no pain at all.

Jack Newman, MD, FRCPC