Yeast and Thrush, a Mommy Nightmare

Acidophilus naturally fights yeast
in the digestive tract

There have been a few inquiries lately on what to do about baby thrush and yeast infections. Thrush is a type of yeast infection, and doctor's will normally prescribe Gentian Violet for this. It is messy and stains, and I prefer to use acidophilus as my first resort. Acidophilus is a bacteria naturally in your intestines which aids in digestion. It also fights the natural yeast population also present in your digestive tract.
When there is an overgrowth of yeast, supplementing a little acidophilus in your diet is a good way to fight it. For a child one year and over, this is as simple as feeding them some yogurt, which is also good (if the thrush is in their mouth) to get that good bacteria swirling over the affected area to clear it up quickly. If it is on their bottom, it will still help. You could also apply some over the counter clotrimazole cream, a cream typically used to fight athlete's foot, to their bottom to help speed up the healing.

1. Mix acidophilus and water

2. Administer mixture orally

A yeast infection can rarely stand up against an onslaught of supplemented digestive bacterias, found in your local grocery store's pharmacy or health supplement section. For babies under a year old, I suggest buying the kind in capsules that you can pull apart. Sprinkle just a little into a small container (a medicine measuring cup works well) and then add a few drops of water. Draw the mixture up with a medicine dropper, and put it in baby's mouth and try to have them swallow it. You could also sprinkle a little onto a spoonful of food if they are old enough to eat solids. Do not worry about the taste, I give it to my child in a dropper and on a spoonful of food and he's never noticed or complained so I imagine the taste must not be too bad or strong.
If they don't swallow it, it will still clear up any thrush in the mouth, and stray bits stuck in their mouth will still be swallowed. But you will want to try again later or the next day to get a good dose in them to clear up yeast on their bottom. Continue these small doses for 2-3 days, you should see vast improvement by then. If you want, instead of applying clotrimazole cream, you can simple sprinkle the rest of the acidophilus powder from the capsule into their diaper and over their bottom, and fight it from both ends! This has worked for me as well.

I have heard the suggestion that you can use yogurt to spread on a yeast infection on your baby's bottom. This is true because it contains acidophilus, but ONLY if you use plain yogurt. For heaven's sake, do not buy blueberry or vanilla yogurt and put it on your baby's yeast infection! The yeast will eat up all the sugar in that yogurt and thank you for it, and it will not help a bit. If you are going to use yogurt instead of straight acidophilus, buy the plain kind with no sweeteners or flavorings!