thrush

I feel embarrassed to be writing about this - but it's such a common thing I shouldn't be.

Tuesday morning I noticed a significant rash on Ms. Charlotte. It looked like yeast to me (thank goodness I have experience in the rash area - enough to tell the difference between a normal rash and yeast.) I tried her in disposables with a couple different heavy-duty creams, and no difference. I called the pediatrician and they prescribed a prescription cream with Nystatin to hopefully clear it up. Then I had to go buy disposables (groan), but at least I bought the ones that are made of cornstarch and not plastic (that made me feel a bit better).

My diapering blog has more information about this, but that evening I began a long and tedious process of trying to figure out how on earth to strip her cloth diapers of yeast. After about 3 hours, I learned that the most effective way was to wash them in bleach. *sigh* So, after that, and several repeated washings, followed by a detergent wash to hopefully make sure all the bleach was out. I'll keep her in disposables until the rash is COMPLETELY gone. For several days no less. I don't want yeast lingering in her diapers.

THEN, amidst all the chaos (the night I before I was going back to work, no less) ... I figured out that she has thrush in her mouth. JOY. Another couple calls to the pediatrician's office, and talked to the nurse who would talk to the pediatrician in the morning. At least that could wait.

James talked with them the next day while I was sleeping, and prescription for Nystatin oral drops was prescribed. Problem was, he couldn't go pick them up, and I didn't have time to. My parents watched Charlotte last night, so my wonderful, wonderful father (best daddy ever) was able to pick them up for us.

So, we are now putting drops in her mouth every 6 hours until the thrush has been GONE for three days. We are SLATHERING her cute little rashy bum with 'bumbalm' until the yeast rash is gone. My cloth diapers are gathering dust, but I'd rather that than have to get rid of the yeast again (hopefully it's gone). And, I am now back to work (I'll post more on that later).

I'm not sure if I need to be treated for the thrush as well. The pediatrician's office said it wasn't necessary so long as I wasn't having symptoms myself (I'm not). I placed a call to the lactation consultant today to be sure (haven't heard back). A coworker suggested dripping the nystatin drops on my nipples to get the benefit of it that way. I'm sure that would be fine, but I'm not comfortable doing that without double-checking with the LC or someone that's more knowledgeable. I guess we'll see!