Rising Rants

Warning: whining and TMI ahead.

I HATE yeast. Not necessarily those in baked goods, but I’m not allowed to eat baked goods, anyway, because of the wheat/sugar they contain. And I just want to eat a cookie, darnit!

We are still in the throes of thrush, and I am really frustrated. I’m not in pain much myself, but Bean’s got white patches in his mouth again, and seems to be uncomfortable with nursing. He is still happy other times, though, thank goodness. Our best way to inspect his mouth spots is to get him laughing and giving big open-mouthed smiles (I feel vaguely disingenuous being funny mostly so I can inspect his mouth, ug).

I don’t know why we’re in this mess; I have had a couple rounds of antibiotics at birth and a couple months ago, but otherwise try to be careful. But I’m realizing that for a trying-to-be-natural, (reluctantly) working mother living off the grid, kicking this stuff is HARD. Behold the various recommendations and my associated rants:

Wash bras, towels, etc in hot water daily. (haha; we’re lucky to get a couple rounds of laundry done each week; we’re entering the dark time now, not enough sun. Also no dryer, not enough room to dry everything daily).

Dry things in the sun for UV (ha; see weather turning, above. I can’t use the sun that does show up 3 days week when I’m at work). I do the best I can.

Use Gentian Violet in baby’s mouth and on nipples (This is a coal-tar derived dye that also kills yeast; it is usually more effective than other antifungals that the yeast are now resistant to.). It stains mouth and clothes, and can cause mouth ulcers and in long exposure, cancer. Mmm! But it’s doctor/LLL recommended! We actually tried it for 6 days, maybe in a too-diluted strength, and we still have yeast. Bean doesn’t like it, and I just have a visceral reaction against staining his face and mouth purple. I’m also getting lots of conflicting information about how exactly to use it, and at what concentration, etc. Got a call back from the doctor’s nurse yesterday and he just said to use GV, but had “no idea” what concentration should be used. You can only buy it in 2%, but most references say to use it in .5% or even .25%. But I think that’s what I’ll try again for a few days, to see if we can knock it back again. Blah.

Boil toys, nipples and pump parts for 20 minutes every day (Grr. We’ve tried to stay away from plastic toys and have lots of cloth/wood toys; hard to wash, let alone boil. Even the plastic teethers, etc we do have say don’t boil. ???). We’re dealing with this at an older age, when he loves toys and puts everything in his mouth… I can’t boil everything. Plus, when I boil nipples and pump parts in our hard water, they get skuzzy. Need to remember to buy distilled water. I also need to address the bottles/nipples he uses at daycare, probably just buy new ones (which also have to be boiled before use). I have been trying to use the sun on toys when I can. Unrelated note: spellcheck approves of the word “skuzzy” but doesn’t approve of the word “spellcheck.” Hmm.

Don’t freeze expressed milk; use later could reintroduce yeast. (Argh. This one gets me the most. How am I supposed to get milk to feed him when I’m at work, especially on Mondays when I have to use the milk from Thursday? I envision this endless cycle of re-infection and depleting my small frozen supply from long ago). ???

Take acidophilus, grapefruit seed extract, garlic, Echinacea, avoid dairy, wheat and sugar. Yep, doing all that, not too bad (other than that the grapefruit seed extract tastes HORRIBLE and is also a pretty potent substance). But darnit, sometimes I just want to eat a cookie or put real milk on my cereal! Maybe someday….

I can’t help but think of all the things that would be avoided if I was not back at work and away from him 3 days a week; at least then I wouldn’t have bottles/ pump parts to worry about. He may have even “caught” this at daycare; there’s another younger baby there who had bad thrush (he’s bottlefed, though, so it was easier to cure; no reinfection from momma). I know it’s not supposed to be contagious, but if you can give it back to youself-??? Daycare provider has said Bean should bring his own toys, but I’m sure it’s hard to keep everything separate with 9 little ones around (a whole ‘nother story). I don’t know. I’ve read entirely too much on the topic, have advice from plenty of people, but everyone’s got a slightly different idea on what’s right. And I hate to think of us as being “infected” and “contagious”. Yuck.

OK, lunch hour is over, now I’m back to writing grant reports about totally unrelated topics. Wheeeeeeeeeee. Maybe more cheeriness for y’all later. I know we are lucky in many many ways, I just want to get rid of the yeasty beasties!!