How I Beat Thrush Naturally

At BC’s 6 month check up we were diagnosed with thrush. My first response to the doctor telling me this was,

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But my boobs don’t hurt!

And literally as soon as that statement left my mouth, they started hurting. After nursing for more than two and a half years with two previous babies, I now have thrush. I did what any responsible mom would do–I hit up Google to see what fellow moms were saying about thrush.

I Found Great Information

There was great information out there. I felt really prepared to heal this thrush naturally, especially after my the doctor scoffed at my notion of healing him without medicine. The combination of other mom blogs, Facebook friends, and my Instagram stories, I was ready to get this party started and the thrush gone.

Here are some of the links that I found that were helpful:

Mama Natural
eMedicine
Candida Specialists

Here’s What Those Handy Dandy Links Didn’t Tell Me

I want you to know this:

Thrush. Hurts. Like. Hell.

No one really talked about how when your milk comes down and you’re nursing it feels like a million little needles are trying to make their way out of your milk ducts. I’ve had THREE unmedicated births that I feel like I handled like a champ. But guys. I want you to really feel me when I say this:

Thrush almost broke me.

via GIPHY

This was going to be it. I was tapping out of one of my favorite parts of motherhood–breastfeeding. Surely something that is so good for both BC and I shouldn’t hurt me this way, right? Anytime he latched, I flinched. There were tears–not from him as he was completely unbothered. Oh, but did I mention that he was cutting his top teeth at the same time?

Yeah, there’s a special place in heaven for me because I didn’t let the fact that I had BLOODY, bruised, and what felt like permanently damaged nipples stop me from nurturing this last little bundle my body had created. So how did I thrive despite thrush’s attempts to destroy me? This is what I did.

For the first 3 days I put Just Thrive probiotics directly on his thrush two times per day. After each nursing, I wiped out his mouth with the Jack N’ Jill Mouth Wipes. This helped A LOT. I was watching the white gunk come out of his mouth–super gross but whatever. During these 3 days, I also doubled up on taking my probiotic as well.

Because I’m not a glutton for punishment, after suffering that first day through the pain, I started taking 800 mg of ibuprofen every 6-8 hours–yes, just like when I gave birth. I also made some natural antibiotic and anti-fungal wipes using this recipe:

1 c of water
1/2 c of Apple Cider Vinegar
1/2 c of melted Coconut Oil
10 paper towels cut in half

Put all of the paper towels in a tupperware container. Mix ingredients together and pour over the paper towels. Cover them and shake to make sure all the solution gets in there. Use these wipes after every nursing.

Ok so by day 3 we still had thrush. Mine was going away as was evidence by the lessening of the pain in my boobs but he still had the white lesions in his mouth. I had ordered some Grapefruit Seed Extract (GSE) from Amazon (bae) and I created a solution daily for the next 3 days that had 10 drops of GSE with 1 oz of distilled water. I used Q-tips and swabbed this in his mouth 3 times daily. During this 3 day period we tried the medicine the doctor prescribed and he vomited it all over my bed so we were done with that.

So now we’re 6 days in and I see a huuuuuuge difference in the lesions. It’s completely gone from his tongue and most of it is gone from his cheeks. For the next couple of days I let it ride as I waited for the Gentian Violet to come in the mail from Amazon. This was the most highly recommended remedy. But we were nervous about trying this because it would turn his mouth purple–like all of it.

We tried it. I gave him two doses of it two nights in a row. Once the purple cleared I saw that his lesions had cleared as well.