Thrush and Other Fun!

For several weeks I had a lot of discomfort when Charlie nursed, mostly on the left side.  At first I thought he had nursed too long at night and it was sore.  Then, it hurt to pump and I really didn't want him to nurse at all.  That's when I started googling.  I wanted to google something like, "nursing feels like being stabbed with a hot poker!" That's how it felt.  It was totally different than the pain of a clogged duct.  It felt like it was burning and anything touching it hurt.

I read about the saliva of teething babies bothering mom's skin, having a milk blister where milk gets trapped and dries causing a clog, and thrush was another possibility.  The descriptions for most of these said it would affect both sides, but for me it was really just the left.  I let it go for a day or two waiting for some more definitive symptom to identify the problem.  The area didn't really look any different.  It kept getting worse so I started googling again.  This time I found descriptions from moms who had just one side have thrush or who had it and their little one didn't.  One mom described it as nursing razor blades and I was sure that's what I had too!  It hurt that bad.

Treatment is often an anti-fungal called nystatin.  As I read more, it works about 30% of the time.  Um, I want better odds of nursing without pain than that and oh yeah, I want it better now.  Grapefruit seed extract and coconut oil are both good anti-fungals that have some success and aren't messy like gentian violet.  Oh yeah, and diet can help to kill off the yeast overgrowth causing the issue.

Now I have thought about the need to clean up my diet, but usually plan to do so when I finish that cupcake.  The pain was pretty bad, so I got on board with this.  The Candida Diet is limiting.  No dairy, no grains, no peanuts or cashews, no Coke Zero, no added sugar of any kind, no potatoes or starchy vegetables, no shellfish, no processed meats, etc.  You basically eliminate all foods with sugar, additives, or molds.  Boy, I love nursing this baby!

We headed off to Whole Foods to get the necessities and I dove in.  By day 3 I was feeling rotten.  I guess that's the result of the yeast dying off and releasing toxins.  I also noticed my milk supply dropped off a lot.  The pain was a lot less, but little milk - not exactly my plan.  More googling ensued and oh yes, there it is, "Nursing mothers should never eliminate all carbohydrates and sugars from their diet."  It turns out, I should keep eating some starchy vegetables, lower sugar fruits, and even some whole grains.

The last couple of days have been spent fighting to get milk production back up.  I had some placenta pills left and have been taking those.  I have also been drinking lots of water and trying to nurse Charlie more frequently.  I had nearly 4 gallons of pumped milk stored, so that has been keeping me going mentally.  Ugh, so not fun!