Oh my dearest Ash! Yes thrush, thrush, thrush. I *think* I am in the clear after nearly a year. It is the most goddamned awful thing I have ever had. It totally marred my postnatal experience too.

Ok, the BEST advice is on the RWH site called thrush in lactation. It is written by dr Lisa Amir, who did a PhD in nipple thrush. The cracking is because of the thrush, so once you treat that, the nipple will miraculously heal, I promise.

You need daktarin cream for your nipple and you need to apply it all the time...like every time you think of it. Don't wash off before feeds, and keep it up for at least a week after the nipple has healed.

You need to go to a doctor and get a script for nilstatin. It will clear the thrush from your digestive system, so expect lots of gas and bloating and maybe some pereneal itching (which the candida dies off it makes you itchy).

Then you need to get three of the diflucan tablets from the pharmacy and take one every second day while taking the nilstat and using daktarin.

I would also recommend putting the daktarin oral gel in babies mouth, but don't worry if you can't face it, because I couldn't with ds as a newborn.

I know that sounds like a horrendous amount of drugs, but seriously after a year I wish I'd done the full bomb therapy sooner. I've been to naturopaths and cut out all sugar and white flour etc (no tea or coffee or alcohol or fruit...gah). But in the end the only thing that helped was the drugs.

You need to nuke that bloody ****.

Please, please, please PM me if you want any support or advice. I will give you my phone number if you like.

Oh and ZINC....pregnancy and breastfeeding reduce your zinc and magnesium, so start dosing up. It is an immune booster! Once you have taken all the drugs then start a good probiotic.

It is the absolute pits. I am trying to eradicate the experience from my memory.

I am thinking of you!

P.s. Sorry for the thread detour peeps. I am loving the transfer discussion. It's scary, because home birth is the norm for me, the thought of a hospital makes me wanna be sick. I actually fantasize about free birth, but don't tell hubby that!