Since our feeding journey began, almost four months ago, their are a few items that have been essential to me for both nursing and bottle feeding with expressed milk. The following items are my current essentials that have helped us on our way.
Calma Teat – One of my favourite products to use alongside the Medela Swing pump is Calma, this has been perfect for introducing bottles to Taylor. The Calma teat means your baby still has to work for his food as they must suck the milk through a very small hole, this stops breastfed babies becoming lazy when it comes to feeding and refusing the breast as regular bottles flow much faster than the breast. It also has bobbles around the teat to give a similar feel to the breast.
It seems to be working really well for us! The Calma fits onto the expression bottles so you can feed directly after expressing without transferring your milk to another bottle.
Pump and Save Bags – The Pump and Save bags simply hook onto your pump using a sticky tab so you can express directly into a storage bag, zip lock it and freeze it. They’re fantastic! My only qualm is that it is harder to gage the amount you have expressed than when using the bottles.
Microwave Quick Clean Bags – These bags are brilliant if you’re exclusively breastfeeding and don’t require a steriliser. The bags are reusable for up to 20 uses and have a nifty tick chart so you can mark off each time you use it. Simply pop the parts in the bag after washing and rinsing, add water, then then zap them for the required time depending on your microwave. It’s as simple as that!
Purelan 100 – Medela Purelan 100 is a pure lanolin cream to repair the skin and has been a staple throughout our feeding journey, especially in the early days. If you’re new to nursing like myself you’re going to want a tube of this! One tube lasts such a long time, I’m 4 months in and still using my first tube.
For more on our breastfeeding experience so far see our previous posts ‘Hopes, Fears and Expectations of Breastfeeding‘ and ‘Nursing a Newborn – The Early Days‘ ‘Our thoughts on the Medela Swing and Harmony Breastpumps’
If you have any questions regarding our feeding journey or the products mentioned in this post just ask in the comments below.
