More on Nystatin

Thanks for the great thoughts and suggestions regarding Baby E's sore mouth, everyone.

I did think of thrush, but since the underside of her tongue (where the reflux medicine pools when we give it to her) is red and sore too, I'm thinking it may be something related to irritation from the medicine. She doesn't have white elsewhere in her mouth, and it looks more like a canker sore than like thrush to me.

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I'm wondering if her beloved potato chips are irritating her mouth. We're taking her off hard crunchy things for a few days to let her mouth heal.

The nystatin liquid we are taking is compounded with stevia. The naturopath said she checked it out and there were no corn or soy ingredients, but I e-mailed her today to ask to double-check that there was no glycerine or alcohol in the extract.

Baby E is taking a probiotic with acidophilus and some other beneficial organisms, but it's been in the refrigerator for quite some time, so I'm not sure it still has full potency. We've just about used it up, anyway. She is also eating small amounts of plain yogurt from grass-fed cows, made with nothing but milk and active cultures. That's the only dairy product she gets.

I found one at the health food store yesterday that says it's soy-, dairy-, and corn-free. However, it has FOS in it and with Baby E's fruit allergies I'm a bit worried about giving her that. The wikipedia page on Fructooligosaccharide says that it can be extracted from bananas, among other things. Since Baby E is allergic to apples and bananas, anything extracted from unspecified fruit makes me nervous. If we can find a good probiotic we can tolerate, I will of course be taking it too.

In the area of grains, Baby E eats almost exclusively brown rice and spelt. I offer her amaranth and alternatives like quinoa and buckwheat fairly frequently, but she doesn't like them and since she has so many grain allergies I don't want to try to force a grain she's refusing.

We aren't eating oats, corn or barley because of allergies (I seem to be mildly allergic to barley, and it was one of the things I tested borderline on). We are also currently avoiding all legumes, nuts, seafood and eggs. I'm thinking we're going to have to cut out white potatoes and other nightshades again, too, at least for a few days to see if that might be one of the problems for both Baby E and me. I felt very sick after eating some "safe" potato chips this afternoon, and that's not the first time this has happened after eating them.

The main fruit we eat is pear, which the naturopath said would probably be okay since it's fairly low in sugar. I am, however, mixing tiny amounts of pomegranate juice in with her tapioca-thickened water. I don't really know what do to besides mixing juice in, since the plain thickened water is unpleasant to drink by itself and I don't want her to get dehydrated. She really prefers orange juice, but I don't want to give her that because of the reflux. I'm avoiding grape juice because of the candida, too. I do have some cherry juice . . . I wonder if that would be better than the pomegranate juice even though she doesn't like it much?

I'm sure the tapioca starch isn't the best for the candida either, but if I give her plain water she chokes on it because of the aspiration issue. She hates the taste and texture of arrowroot, and she dislikes stevia which is the only safe sweetener that would be okay for the candida diet.

I grew stevia a year or two ago and had to stop using it because I was getting mouth irritation from it. For that reason I want to be especially cautious with it and keep an eye on how it affects us, although an extract may not have the same effect as the whole fresh leaf. I did find an extract yesterday that is just water, stevia leaf and grapeseed extract that I thought would be worth a try. I'll probably try that in Baby E's drink tonight instead of juice, and see if she'll drink it.

I know from experience that she is not an easy "she'll eat whatever she's offered when she gets hungry" case. She can go a week or more eating almost nothing, and will just nurse a lot to make up for it. It's all such a catch-22.

We do have some florastor in the cupboard. I'll have to check and see if it's outdated or not, and what's in it. The hard part is finding a probiotic (or anything else, for that matter) that is free of dairy, soy, corn, and the rest of our allergens.

Purple_Kangaroo, allergic to coconut, avocado, milk, blackberry leaves, latex, many environmentals (mold, dust mites, pollen, cats, etc.) and most antibiotics.
. . . Mom to 3 girls, including Baby E who is allergic to corn, soy, oats, kidney beans, apples, banana, mushrooms, mold and ???