Thrush

Thrush (or yeast infection of the mouth) is uncommon in full term, healthy infants who are exclusively breastfed.  It is more common in immunosuppressed infants (for example, very early babies in the NICU).  Even if your pediatrician diagnoses or suspects thrush in your infant’s mouth, it is not contagious (the way vaginal yeast infections are not contagious) and so you do not need to treat yourself.  The vast majority of the time suspected “thrush” is in fact just breastmilk on the tongue (“milk tongue”) of an infant.