3 month old with thrush since he was 1 week old

Specialties Pediatric

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i have a nephew that is 3 months old and he has had thrush pretty much continuously since he was 1 week old. he was solely breastfed until he was 6 weeks and now he is fed breast milk via bottle. his mother sterilizes each bottle after use and also sterilizes his binkys. they contacted the doctor and she keeps giving him scripts for nystatin. does anyone know what could be the cause of this? thank you for any help you can offer.

Jolie, BSN

6,375 Posts

Specializes in Maternal - Child Health.
i have a nephew that is 3 months old and he has had thrush pretty much continuously since he was 1 week old. he was solely breastfed until he was 6 weeks and now he is fed breast milk via bottle. his mother sterilizes each bottle after use and also sterilizes his binkys. they contacted the doctor and she keeps giving him scripts for nystatin. does anyone know what could be the cause of this? thank you for any help you can offer.

Newborn infants have immature immune systems, and have difficulty fighting off infection. Despite repeated courses of treatment for thrush, he has not been able to overcome this infection. That leads me to suspect one of three things: 1.) He doesn't have thrush. 2.) He is becoming re-infected due to inadequate/improper use of medication or contact with contaminated items, such as the breast pump. 3.) He has an inadequate immune response. I would highly recommend he be rechecked in the pediatrician's office. Don't settle on a phone call and a script. Good luck!

nbnurse95

38 Posts

My cousin also had a baby, breastfed, who had thrush. She also had a hard time to get rid of it. Was your nephew born by C-section? My cousin's ped told her that due to the doses of antibiotics given pre-op, it's fairly common to see the newborn develop thrush, the strain is also very strong these days and normally harder to get rid of than it use to be. The other thing is, she had to be treated with an oral medication because she was actually carrying it in her breasts. That sounded strange to me but it was what she was told.

churdlpn

35 Posts

yes he was born by c section. thank you to both of you for all of your help. i will have to let my sister in law know all of this info. i didn't even think about the breast pump that she is using and i don't know if she is sterilizing it.

new_mom26

94 Posts

Hi. I breastfed my daughter and she also had thrush and when she had it the doctor recommended that I should also be treated. I had to use a cream for myself and also had to take pills while my daughter had to take nystatin. The doctor also recommended that I throw away her binkys and buy new ones and if I had a breast pump and bottles that I also throw those away..

Gail-Anne

97 Posts

I agree that this child needs to by rechecked, not just phone scripts. Is it really thrush? I had a child who needed IV ABx when a few weeks old, so mouth looked like thrush. Went on med, kept looking like thrush,but no discomfort. Dr looked again and we decided he had a "geographic tounge". Not thrush at all, off and on his mouth would look like it tho.

Specializes in Pediatrics, Nursing Education.

I've seen the docs give Diflucan to both mom and baby when breastfeeding with oral nystatin for the babe. If bottle, giving baby both diflucan and nystatin. I can't remember how old tho, but seemed to be in the 3-6 mnth range.

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