Gentian Violet Experience?

I have found Thrush very difficult to get rid of. My 13 month old baby still has it after about a month of treatment. My ped gave us Niastatin which we haven't had success with. I've asked 2 different Pharmasists about Gentian Violet and have been told by both that it is only used topically for adults, not orally for babies. But, on the other hand, I've also been told first hand that GV is the only thing that worked to get rid of Thrush in a baby.
Good luck.

My dd and I battled thrush through 2 doses of Diflucan to no avail. My cousin recommended something called Jarro-dophilus and after a week it was gone! We fought it with many things for almost two months and then a week of this stuff and it was gone! I got it at Henry's, but you can probably get it at health food stores. It is just a combo of 7 of the "'good" bacteria and it works wonders. It is amazing stuff! I highly recommend it. Good luck to you.

Go for it - it is not a big deal ,looks funny for a few hours at most - it does stain clothes though. Also, ask your doc for Vusion cream if your baby has a rash - it clears up the thrush rash really fast and then you can systemically get rid of it instead of continually passing it back and forth - goodluck!!!

I can totally relate! After my first baby, I my nipples were cracked and bleeding and I developed a breast ductal yeast infection. I also had shooting pains in my breast in between feeds as well as horrible pain while nursing. I tried the Diflucan, nystatin for me and babe, eliminating all sugar from my diet. The only thing that finally worked was the gentian violet. I wore old bras because the staining is permanent on clothes. I put some vaseline around baby's mouth to limit the amount of staining but she did have a bright purple tongue and lips! My husband refused to take her out in public. Anyway, this cleared things up for both of us. I used a Q tip to swab her tongue and mouth and painted my breasts with a Q tip too. Good luck!

I had such a bad case of thrush when my daughter was born that I had to use Gentian Violet, and it worked. I did Diflucan, and it didn't work, the genetian violet is messy. Plan on putting it on in the bathroom, and wearing a shirt you plan to throw away, but it did the trick, so I would highly recommend trying it if you haven't had success with anything else yet. T. Cota, Local Childcare Coordinator Cultural Care Au Pair. ###-###-####. Call me if you want to talk further. I am in LA too.

I haven't used GV (nowhere around had it in stock when I needed it), but my mom did when all the prescriptions failed with my sister. My understanding is that the risk to the liver is that it's usually in an alcohol base, although if you search around a bit you should be able to find one that has a different base. My mom would dip a q-tip in the GV and let my sister suck on it till her whole mouth was coated, then nurse her which would transfer it onto my mom's nipples, somewhat minimizing the staining of other stuff.

You mentioned using acidophilus... did you just take capsules, or did you apply it externally as well? When I couldn't find GV, my local health food store recommended probiotics - I got some capsules for myself, and also an infant formulation that came in powder form. I took the capsules, and would mix a little of the powder with a little water and both apply that directly to my nipples and let air dry and squirt some in my son's mouth. It helped things clear up very quickly.

Just like everything else, it has worked for some of my friends and not at all for others. One aspect that EVERYONE forgets, is that it is transmitted between lovers and babies/moms. If you are treating yourself for candida, your husband, sig other, etc HAS to do it too....as well as the baby. So, here's my suggestion:

Not all probiotics are the same...so I use PB8 and it's best to split up the daily dosages at least 2 times each day

You:
4 PB8 each day along with low yeast/sugar/dairy diet
4 Oil of Oregano

Baby:
open the PB8 and dump 1/4 to 1/2 2x/day in his/her mouth just before breastfeeding and do this until a week or longer after all of you are asymptomatic.

Dad:
2-4 PB8 each day (best to split it up) for at least 2 weeks. Intercourse can have you sharing it. He may have NO symptoms and yet, you are doing your hardest work and seeing no results.

If bowels on all accounts get too loose, then decrease, but don't stop.

Feel free to contact me if you need anything further.

Any antibitoics in labor or postpartum can cause the thrush.

It worked for me when nothing else did!!!!

http://www.webmd.com/oral-health/tc/thrush-topic-overview

I hope this will help

My baby girl got thrush about three or four weeks ago and I read up all about it on tons of info sites and peoples comments and found that gv worked for everyone who tried it and faster than anything else. So I set out to get some and found that nobody sells it anymore. This one company stopped producing it. Couldn't find anything! Then I was complaining to my friend about it and she just happened to have an extra bottle she bought a few years ago when she had her first baby. I used it even though it was expired. Our thrush was gone in two days!!
I applied it in the morning and at night before bed, it stains like the dickens but oxyclean gets it off of anything if you do a soak, even the sink. Babys mouth was purple for a couple of days, it wasn't so bad. Looked like she was wearing lipstick!!

Be aware, after I used it my hubby read something online about it being poisonous, so you should look into it more if you are going to use it and if you happen to find some.

Good luck, thrush sucks and gv saved my life!!

Tips for using gentian violet: apply it in the tub that way you don't have to worry about staining any of the baby's clothing. Also, put vaseline around the baby's mouth before applying that way if you do get some on her face it will easily wipe off and won't stain. Now how to get the baby to open wide and allow you to swab the inside of her mouth, that's up to you! = )

Hey A.,

sounds as if you;ve got some good adivce trails to follow --so now-- when you've wiped up the purple and gotten your life back, could you tell me about your business?

(" founder/head writer of In a Word, a Los Angeles (Mar Vista) based copywriting boutique...")

what is a copywriting boutique?

Thanks!
L.

Hi! I had a daughter at age 40 and then another at age 42 (after my husbands vasectomy!!!!) and my first daughter had thrush alot. We treated her with Nystatin several times and also my breasts and then we treated her with the Gentian Violet 3 or 4 times. My breast turned purple, too. It stained her mouth for just a day or two from what I remember. She is 13 now! It finally went away--I never had to use Diflucan.
Good luck--the joys of motherhood!
K.
wwww.karen4betterhealth.com

I had a similar experience and what worked was high quality probiotics--can buy them at Whole Foods. Both for you and baby. Good luck. It is a miserable thing to go through! But now I barely remember it.

I used GV for about a month. I didn't have thrush, but they thought I might have another type of bacterial infection in my breast. My infection cleared up within a few weeks. DD never got thrush.

It was a little messy. I just used a Q-tip to swab it on right before breastfeeding. I never did swab my DD's mouth directly with it because she got a healthy coating of it just from breastfeeding immediately after I swabbed it on. I always wore breastpads, so my clothes and bras never got stained. I just made sure to wipe up any drops from DD's face and my breasts immediately after breastfeeding.

I'd say the purple mouth, tongue, and spots on DD's cheek cleared up after just a couple of weeks from when I stopped using GV. It took my breasts a couple of weeks longer to no longer be purple.

DD is also a thumbsucker so her thumbs were purple the whole time too.

I'd say to go for it since you know the Diflucan doesn't work for you. It doesn't hurt you or baby. My Lactation Consultant recommended that I try it BEFORE I try the Diflucan since she knew I am a "try the natural way first Mom".

I found my GV through Amazon.com, but I've heard you can find it at Walmart in the bandaid/first aid section. My Walmart was totally out the day I went, so I ordered it from Amazon and got it two days later.

Dang! If you had posted this just one week earlier, I could have sent you a brand new bottle that I never used for free! But I gave it away already. I only ended up using about half a bottle for the whole month I used it, so definitely just buy the smallest bottle you can find.

Gentian Violet is what my mom had me use all through my childhood when I had an outbreak of cold sores (which was pretty much any time I had a cold.) It worked great, but it does stain and is very noticable. Expect the stains to be dark for 3 or 4 days and linger after a week has passed. (I have vivid memories of hoping they'd faded before I was in my big sister's wedding party; they did.)

OMG i went through the very same thing until my midwife suggested using Gentian Violet. I used it on my nipples and also swabbed my baby's mouth with it. Baby will gag so make sure you lay her on her side and in something you don't mind getting stained purple. It worked so well but you have to throw everything related to the thrush away. Nipples, pacifiers, bottles, and wash everything (Bras,nursing tops,bedding,clothing,stuffed animals etc). I sterilized everything and thought we were good until it came back. Rule of thumb is you can ONLY use this treatment once and not again until all the purple has completely faded away.(about two days) If you use it for consecutive days, it might cause blisters. My daughter nor I responded to any other medications but this one did the trick. Neither one of us has had this problem again to this day and she is already 2 and a half.My nipples and areola's thanked me for this and I was able to keep breastfeeding till my baby was a year and a half. It is incredibly messy so be prepared and use rubber gloves. Also if you would rather swab your nipples,air dry and let baby suckle till her mouth is all purple that works too. Use it, I know it will work. =)

With my first born, I had terrible stabbing pains everytime he nursed and I waited for a long time before I did anyting.

I did try the purple stuff and cannot recommend it. It is messy, stained clothing, blankets permanently, mouths, cheeks and boobs for weeks, and it did not really help. I felt especially sad when I heard after the fact that it could also cause liver damage in your baby.

I am a "natural" mom and won't do meds if I don't absolutely have to, or if there is any way to avoid them. In this case it is more important that you nurse your baby than not take meds.

My doctor prescribed nystatin, For me and my baby. We took the liquid form and was better 3 days into the meds.
For later you can get it in cream form which you apply to the nipples to keep the yeast from entering into your glands . It is ok for the baby to latch on with it still there.

Then it is also important that you cut back on sugar, white flour and alcohol. Most people don't think about this part. Sugar will feed your yeast and make it explode in your system. Start taking some acidophilus to get your good bacteria count up so your body can keep the yeast in check.

good luck for you and your baby!! And Happy Breastfeeding!!
-C.

Oh A. I so sorry your going through this. My cousin said the Violet worked like magic. Why not just give it a try it sounds better than your other option anyhow. You could see a homeopath I know this gal...www.theartofcure.net. I also know a Dr. on the west side her website is www.drfeder.com she takes insurance and is a homeopath too. I say go for it and wait on the diflucan. The stains I saw on my cousins baby were honestly kinda cute and purple:)) I wouldn't give it a second thought

V. Gentian Violet is safe and effective. it will work to drive the thrush out. the color will stay until all surface cells exposed to it go through the natural cycle of gradual "shedding". now GV will work with this problem, but your body may be in need for natural boost to balance that in MHO only homeopathic remedy can provide. find a classical homeopath (should not be hard in LA to do) not the MD - they usually have only a "surface" usage of homeopathy, you need someone with classical homeopathy credentials, ideally CCH.
Good Luck
V.