What is Thrush? also called oral candidiasis.

It is a condition in which the fungus Candida builds up in your baby’s mouth. Thrush is usually a sign of a weakened immune system or bacteria out of balance in the gut.

Thrush can easily spread to breastfeeding mothers.

If you take your baby to be checked for thrush, they will be prescribed an anti-fungal medicine to treat it. But I’ve found it can be treated without them.

Why not use prescription anti-fungal medicine?

The downside to common medications such as Nystatin is that many cases recur after treatment. It’s estimated to only be 5.6- 13% effective at curing the problem. Not to mention, an ingredient in the typical prescriptions is sugar! Sugar FEEDS candida and can actually make it worse. Plus, I don’t enjoy giving my babies added sugar.

For me, I always like to try the natural route first before using medications and in my experience, I have almost always been successful and luckily get to avoid many unanticipated consequences from conventional medicine.

After seeing the white spots in my sons mouth, I was surprised I hadn’t gotten thrush on my nipples yet, because it can easily pass to nursing moms. Soon enough though, it did transfer to me and I was able to treat us both naturally to get rid of it.

My tips for treating Thrush NATURALLY!

 

1. Support the immune system 

Thrush is a sign of a weakened immune system. So give yourself and baby a nutrient boost with REAL unprocessed, whole foods.

• Vit D, C and zinc. – my go-to, immune supporting, supplements

2. Limit Sugar!

Like I said, yeast loves sugar and feeds on it. Don’t encourage it and stay away from sugars for a while.

3.  Probiotics.

balance the good bacteria in your’s and baby’s gut with a good probiotic.

My favorite is Restore.

My BIGGEST tip!

The thing that has saved us the 2 different times we’ve dealt with thrush in our babies.

Grapefruit Seed Extract  

This is antimicrobial and antifungal. If used diligently, multiple times a day, it can clear up thrush within days. I’ve seen it work!

How to use:

mix 10 drops GSE with 1 ounce water.

dip cotton swab and wipe in baby’s mouth and/or on nipples.

(In my son’s case, he strangely only had white spots in his throat, so instead of gagging him, I chose to use a syringe and lightly squirt it to the back of his throat a few times a day.)

ALWAYS DILUTE (it can burn)

 

I hope this is helpful! If you like tips like this and natural parenting, please leave your email down below so you never miss a blogpost.

Peace