What is the best oral thrush treatment?

November 7, 2008 | By Karis Dillon | In Questions, Remedy Review

Oral thrush can affect anyone from newborn babies to adults. However, there are two distinct categories of oral thrush sufferers when it comes to treatment.

Oral thrush treatment for babies

For babies and breastfeeding mothers the oral thrush treatment for the baby will involve treating the mother’s nipples as well as the yeast infection can pass back and forth between them creating recurrent oral thrush in the baby and recurrent yeast infection of the nipple in Mom.

Any treatment of thrush involves use of anti-fungal agents so, whether it is a home or prescription method for treating oral thrush you are aiming to kill the unwanted fungus (candida) and encourage growth of “healthy bacteria” to prevent its return.
A common home remedy for baby thrush (infants’ oral thrush) is gentian violet. Alternatively, a prescription oral thrush treatment that is commonly used is nystatin suspension (for baby) and nystatin ointment for Mom’s nipples.
Whether you use an home remedy or a prescription remedy for yeast infection, it is important to get the guidance or your doctor as infant oral thrush is painful and will affect your baby’s feeding and subsequent weight gain. It will also become very painful for the breast feeding mother if left untreated.

Treating oral thrush in children and adults

The most common prescription method for treating oral thrush is anti-fungal lozenges or anti-fungal suspension. These aim to bathe the affected area in candida killing agents and so relieve oral thrush symptoms. This type of treatment normally last 10 to 14 days. If it is needing to go on longer, don’t be surprised if your doctor asks you to have blood tests there is a slight possibility that the liver will be affected by long term use.
For this reason, many people feel more comfortable with home remedies for oral thrush. These include, garlic, onions, yogurt and drinking buttermilk.

Prevention means avoiding future oral thrush treatment

As with all yeast infections, what you need to be asking yourself is why did you get oral thrush in the first place? If you have a compromised immune system then you are at higher risk of recurrent yeast infection….so you need to avoid that by addressing the causes of oral thrush. Yeast Infection Helpdesk thoroughly recommends Linda Allen’s book, Yeast Infection No More as a comprehensive resource explaining the causes of your outbreak of oral thrush as well as outlining a range of home oral thrush treatments. She is personally committed to your successful oral thrush treatment and makes herself available by email to ensure the misery of this unpleasant yeast infection is ended. I have had personal success using her methods and cannot recommend the book enough.