The comments below reflect the personal experiences and opinions of readers and do not represent medical advice or the views of this website. The information shared has not been evaluated by the FDA and is not intended to diagnose, treat, or prevent any disease or health condition. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional for medical concerns.
Probiotics
Posted by Kareng (Sugarland, Texas, Usa) on 04/07/2011
★★★★★
I have not had thrush in my mouth but a friend gets it regularly. I finally persuaded her to begin an Acidopholis Therapy. Go to your local Healthfood Shop and look in the Refrigerated Section for a good Prebiotic/Probiotic/Acidopholis. Take twice the dose for about a week then follow dose on bottle, forever! You can change brands to get different strands. I use only one, but you have to get it from the company online. It is superior IMO. Caprylic Acid is also helpful. For quick relief you can find Candida drops in your Healthfood Shop. Also, White Oak Bark can be found in a Tincture or open the capsule and mix in distilled water to rinse the mouth. If you can get Raw Milk, rinsing with that will help as well. Good Luck!
Oil Pulling
Posted by Huepuchica (Houston, Tx) on 01/29/2011
I read on e-how that oil pulling with coconut oil is recommended for 20 minutes and then spitting it out, but no rinse. Forgot how long, maybe week. FYI, oil pulling is swishing oil in your mouth for 5 or more minutes and then spitting it out.
Apple Cider Vinegar
Posted by Melissa (Summit Point, West Virginia) on 01/23/2011
★☆☆☆☆
I had Thrush last year and the vinegar made it worse, very painful thing to deal with. I could only eat ice cream and yogurt.... Applesauce , it really burned my tongue and cheeks and gums.
Oil Pulling
Posted by Sorrokine (Vs, Ny, Usa) on 11/23/2010
★★★★☆
This is wonderful! I just tried the sesame oil OP and I already feel my sinuses opening. I Suffer from severe mold poisoning, and have gone the route of natural herbs to treat it with success. I am also suffering from a body candida infection from mold poisoning as well. This helped the thrush portion of the sickness I couldn't quite tame. I am being cured of the mold poisoning with great herbs and supplements. Learned the hard way that Doctors can't treat me for since they'll loose their license. Thank you Earth Clinic for your amazing group of people and their knowledge. I will post when I see more results.
Oil Pulling
Posted by Lara (Philadelphia, Pa) on 11/12/2010
What is the best oil to use for treating thrush??
Yogurt
Posted by Palesadot (Centurion, Gauteng, South Africa) on 10/28/2010
★★★★★
The suggested remedy worked for me!!! Almost immediately! I applied it last night and it stung a bit, but when I applied it this morning, I felt nothing! I don't have the uncontrollable need to scratch the outer area of my vagina!!! Peeing has never been so hassle-free!!! Thanks a mil!!
Yogurt
Posted by Jehnavi (Lake City, Florida , Usa ) on 10/23/2010
★★★★★
You can treat thrush with natural yoghurt ... I have loads thrush when I was actually pregnant a real pain! I used natural yoghurt, which I bought Sainsburys and helps ... I would say reduce the sex until it is investigated otherwise ur partner gets it and just keep pests and vice versa!
Urine
Posted by Aria (Port Huron, Mi) on 10/14/2010
I just stumbled upon this thread regarding urine being used in several pharmaceuticals. I went to a dermatologist a few months ago for some bumps on my shoulders and they gave me some samples of urea foam. I started laughing and made a rhetorical comment asking the nurse, "why don't I just go home and rub urine all over my shoulders?". She didn't find it funny and responded with defiance. I think something along the lines of it not being the same thing. Maybe not the same thing but all of the ingredients are there, eh? Just another example of ignorance in the field of medicine. Oh, and the foam did not work. Turns out it's not what they thought it was so I canceled my follow-up visit and treated it with suggestions from you guys. Worked like a charm!
Urine
Posted by David (Dallas, Texas) on 08/01/2010
Get over the stigma of urine being gross and nasty. Terminally ill people can survive and become well by drinking nothing but their own urine. It is not a waste product, it is a filtration of your blood and has very strong anti-biotic anti-viral and anti-fungal properties.... Do the research, many medicines are backwards engineered from urine.
Coconut Oil
Posted by Melanie (Rochester, Il) on 06/06/2010
★★★★★
Both myself and my infant suffered horribly from thrush. I breastfeed and had it on my breasts, baby had it on genital area. It was miserably itchy. I began consuming 1 TBSP coconut oil daily, as well as applying it topically to myself and my baby. I also would use tea tree oil/alternate 2-3 x daily,it also helped considerably to avoid sugar, and breads. A few things happened, I noticed right away my asthma improved and was able to go off my meds! I lost 8 lbs the first month, and a total of 30 in 5 months consuming the coconut oil. It took about 3 weeks, but the thrush was totally gone, with no reoccurances!
Yogurt
Posted by Debbie (Dublin, Ireland) on 01/26/2010
hi i was just wondering for vaginal thrush what do you do with the yoghurt?
Fennel
Posted by Pearl (Yorkton, Saskatchewan, Canada) on 11/07/2009
How much is a 'serving' of water to mix with the Fennel?
Apple Cider Vinegar
Posted by Marilyn (Oswego, Il) on 10/31/2009
★☆☆☆☆
I am in such pain with this thrush. My question is is it at all possible that the apple cider vinegar is making it worse?
Probiotics
Posted by Azg (Toronto, On) on 09/27/2009
★★★★★
I breastfed my son until he was 16 months old and we encountered thrush twice. The second time it actually gave him a diaper rash of yeast! My naturopath gave me a special blend of Acidophilus from the refridgerated section. It's a loose powder and I would cover my nipple in it before AND after breastfeeding. Before ensured he would get a dose of it into his mouth and after to ensure he didn't give the yeast back to me, and create a vicious cycle of cross contamination. I also dusted his bum with it at diaper changes. I am not exxagarating when I tell you he was cured of all symptoms of thrush within 2 days.
To encourage both our healing, I let him stay out of a diaper for a good 20 or 30 minutes at each diaper change ( the air helps dry and heal the yeast). I also avoided all processed sugar foods for myself as to starve the yeasties living in my body.
Good luck to you! Most health food stores have naturopaths or naturopathic students on staff. Please take their advice more seriously than any doctor's!!! Don't put scary chemicals/medicines into your tiny babies!
Gentian Violet
Posted by Michelle (Tracy, CA) on 07/04/2009
★★★★★
I delt with thrush and yeast rashes with both of my babies. I found the best thing to use was gentian violet. It was the only remidy that consistantly worked. The prescriptions and OTC's never even put a dent in clearing the problem yet, with gentian violet we saw results immediatly.
Yogurt
Posted by Suzanne (London, United Kingdom) on 06/04/2009
★★★★★
I've just been reminded of a remedy for vaginal thrush that my doctor recommended many years ago (he was into alternative remedies). It worked then and it works now as I can attest, having had another bout of thrush recently. The remedy is plain LIVE yogurt. Dip a tampon into the yogurt and insert into the vagina. For outside irritation place yogurt on a pad. It is so cooling and the relief is tremendous. It really does work especially when you are feeling raw and bleeding.
Shea Butter
Posted by Joanna (London, UK) on 05/11/2009
★★★★★
Hi, I just want to share with you a remedy for relief of vaginal thrush soreness/itching. I have been in terrible pain for just over a week now having tried lots of remedies, natural and conventional for thrush. Unfortunately, I got a bad bout of it after taking an emergency contraceptive pill a couple of weeks ago and nothing would sooth it. I was in my local organic grocery shop at the weekend and they were selling lumps of pure shea butter. I bought some and melted it in a glass bowl over a pan of hot water and mixed in a couple of tablespoons of virgin coconut oil and allowed it to cool. I actually made this for my severely dry legs and hands but I applied it over my entire body including all over my vaginal area before bed. The next morning not only is my entire body dry skin free it has healed all the soreness and itching from the thrush! I feel the first relief in ages. I also use garlic and yogurt internally which does help but it doesn't sooth the soreness enough on the outside. I tried VCO oil on it's own, ACV, yoghurt, lemon juice externally none of which helped me. Shea butter is easily available online or from independent Caribbean or health food shops. Also, I have found VCO is a great lubricator for sex as I find even the mildest ones can set off my thrush. Hope this helps someone and thanks for all the great advice on this site.
Yogurt
Posted by Keeza (Louisville, Kentucky) on 03/17/2009
★★★★★
When my brother was a baby he had thrush of the mouth so bad he could barely suck on a bottle.No matter what the doctor did it would not go away, A elderly lady at our church told my mother to use plain yogurt and dilute it with water until you are able to get it out of the nipple. About a week later it was gone.Yes yougurt does work really well!!!
Gentian Violet
Posted by Lori (McKinleyville, CA) on 03/16/2009
★★★★★
This is in response to the negative feedback for gentian violet and thrush. Look up the website in Canada and look up any possible name for gentian violet on wikipedia and you will find the person who left that feedback is misinformed. Gentian violet, or any of the other names it goes by, are not listed on the website the user mentions.
I used gentian violet--one time--for my baby's thrush. Painted my nipples and she sucked. Within a day, the white spots in my infant's mouth were gone and she was back to eating normally.
Apple Cider Vinegar
Posted by Janice (Coloma, Mi) on 03/12/2009
★★★★★
Have you tried Apple Cider Vinegar? When my last child was born, he had thrush in his mouth. I was nursing him at the time and got a cracked nipple. The Dr. told me I had to quit nursing as the baby and I would just pass the condition back and forth. An old woman told me that was nonsense and to dilute apple cider vinegar with a little water and put it on a q-tip and rub it around in the baby's mouth and to rub soome on my nipple as well. She told me it would be gone in a couple of days at the most. I tried it and it worked. I have since passed this information on many times and it always seems to work. So, it's a cheap and easy thing for you to try if you haven't tried it already.
Baking Soda
Posted by Judy (Meldrim, GA) on 03/07/2009
★★★★★
Baking soda quickly took care of a case of thrush my less-than-a-year-old son had. All it took was about one teaspoon of baking soda mixed in a small cup of water, swabbed inside baby's mouth 4 or 5 times a day with a Q-tip that i dipped into the mixture. It vanished in about 48 or fewer hours. It's been many years ago, but I think this is the amount of baking soda relative to water. I definitely remember that it worked very fast. This seems to be a simpler method than any of the others here.
The pediatrician (I've since learned to avoid such unnecessary licensed quacks :)) had recommended "a new drug" being used at the teaching hospital where she worked.
----Please be aware that teaching hospitals are notorious for using patients as guinea pigs: read the book, "Confessions of a Medical Heretic," to find out this and many other fascinating/horrifying facts about doctors. The physician who wrote it says to avoid doctors as much as you can!---- I called the local La Leche (breastfeeding support organization) to see if they knew something less toxic, and that is where the baking soda and water remedy came from.
Milk of Magnesia
Posted by pro8688 (Vincentown, NJ) on 01/27/2009
★★★★★
After a heart attack in 2007, I came home from hospital and quickly developed a very painful oral thrush. Eventually I discovered the value of magnesium in heart disease. That led me to search for other benefits magnesium might cure. I found this Milk of Magnesia remedy for thrush on Earth Clinic. I used about a tablespoon of Milk of Magnesia mixed with the same amount of water so I can swish, gargle and spit.
It was nearly instant relief of the oral pain... and the thrush itself was gone in about a day. God bless the folks at Earth Clinic.
Gentian Violet
Posted by Laurel (Lake Forest, California) on 01/22/2009
★★★★★
Gentian Violet is AMAZING! When my son was 2 months old he came down with thrush due to some antibiotics I was taking for complications of my C-section. Our lactation consultant said to use GENTIAN VIOLET 3 times a day and in about 2-3 days the baby's Thrush should be gone. It worked. just don't plan on going out for about a week. It stains the skin for several days. Your baby's face will be purple everywhere depending on how messy of an eater they are and the size of your nipples.
Tea Tree Oil
Posted by Laurel (Lake Forest, California) on 01/22/2009
★★★★★
My lactation consultant recommended using Tea Tree Oil in the dishwasher to kill the thrush bacteria from all the bottles and other items the bacteria may have been growing. It is fully pesticide free and though the smell is quite strong I think it really helped. I even like the smell now. I always think "clean" when I smell it. We used this in conjunction with GENTIAN VIOLET and my son's thrush went away within a week.
Urine
Posted by Emma (Melbourne, VIC Australia) on 01/14/2009
I know there's some stigma over using this-but quite a lot of skin creams contain urea-one of the major components of urine. I can tell you that getting a small amount of fresh urine on a cotton wool ball and applying it to styes, works a treat-your stye will be gone in a few hours-may need a couple of applications though.
Lemon Juice
Posted by Mel (Gloucester, UK ) on 01/12/2009
★★★★★
BV and Lemon Juice:
I've suffered with intermittent thrush in my teens and 20's. It would be brought on by:
i) non condom sex with some men. not all.
ii) using soap, bath oils etc.
I switched to pH balanced soap and discoverd that dilute lemon juice poured over my vulva would get rid of any little flare ups. The earlier you catch it (at the first sign of a prickle or an itch) the faster it disappears!
I'm 48 now haven't needed to buy an over the counter remedy for thrush (which I hardly ever get now due to soap avoidance) since I started using dilute lemon juice.
I started HRT about 3 months ago and to my horror my vulva started reeking of fish. Just looked it up and found out about BV.
I'm assuming that this is another "upset pH" problem which causes the wrong type of bacteria to flourish, so I have just started the lemon juice routine to see if it will also deal with BV as well as thrush.
Please try lemon juice (I use Jif diluted with equal water), girls - it might work!
Best wishes...
Urine
Posted by Jesse (San Luis Obispo, California) on 12/01/2008
I agree that urine can be safely used as a remedy. It is sterile but not necessarily non-toxic (bleach is sterile). In the diving world, it is often used to remove sea urchin spines.
Gentian Violet
Posted by Karen McSpadden (Virginia Beach, Virginia) on 11/29/2008
★★★★★
Natural Breastfeeding Thrush Remedy
In response to the issue of persistent thrush while breastfeeding, I would strongly recommend Gentian Violet. You can pick it up at most drugstores for a couple dollars and it's one of the most effective remedies in my own (frustrating and painful) personal experience with thrush. My daughter and I passed it back and forth for a while and Gentian Violet was the thing that cured it most efficiently.
You paint your nipples and the inside of the baby's mouth three times a day for three days. It's safe to use frequently. Be forewarned-- your nipples (and your baby's mouth) will be a very bright purple so plan to wear breast pads or an old t-shirt during the treatment. Also, I found that once my daughter was older-- over a year, I believe-- she wouldn't nurse from my breasts if they were purple. She didn't seem to be bothered by it when she was younger.
Whenever I have used this remedy, I have had relief from thrush and the accompanying nipple soreness.
Good luck!
Urine
Posted by Laraine (Glenside, PA) on 09/24/2008
Since urine is acidic (urea), vinegar would probably work just as well. I heard that vinegar works.