When my daughter was a baby, we had thrush for 10 months. I don't think it helps to wash everything in the house -- and you can make yourself completely crazy with that. Every time I touched a lightswitch, or my computer keyboard, or anything else, I'd worry that I was catching more yeast. What I think happens is that something in the body is out of balance and that's what's letting the yeast grow.

Also, there are new strains of yeast that are resistant to the usual prescription treatments (diflucan, nystatin, etc.).

What worked for us was a policy of containment, rather than trying to completely eradicate the yeast. We'd treat the baby and me with gentian violet, and that was enough to keep us comfortable for several weeks. Then we'd do gentian violet again. Gentian violet is an antibacterial/antifungal purple liquid that costs about $2 for a little bottle, and you don't need a prescription for it. It stains everything it touches. We used to call my daughter "the purple baby of happiness" when we had treated with gentian violet, because she would be so much more comfortable after we painted her mouth purple that she smiled purple smiles at everybody. It was pretty funny.

If you do use gentian violet, you should do some reading about how to do it safely, because it can be toxic if the baby swallows a lot of it.

It also helped me a lot to cut *all* refined sugar out of my diet and concentrate on eating a lot of healthy veggie-based foods.

Also: I've met people who swear by "Dr. Jack Newman's All Purpose Nipple Ointment." If you do a web search you should be able to find the recipe for that, and also plenty of thrush-treatment advice.

I wish good luck to your friend. Thrush is no fun.

-Valerie