Dr. Brown’s Breastfeeding Essentials
Breastfeeding is natural, but it’s not easy (no matter how easy the movies make it seem). Depending on the baby and the mom, the first few weeks of breastfeeding can either go smoothly or be very rough and stressful. Don’t give up! Seek out support from friends, family and lactation consultants to get you through. After getting a good latch and a bit of a routine, breastfeeding does get easier! Dr. Brown’s makes the essentials to help you in your breastfeeding adventure!
Nipple cream!
Dr. Brown’s lanolin-free nipple cream is soothing and healing to sore or cracked nipples. Thankfully, it doesn’t have to be washed off before feeding! And it works! I’ve used lanolin cream and this lanolin-free cream and haven’t noticed the difference between them, both help sooth sore nipples. They aren’t instant-healing-never-hurt-again by any means, but they do help.
Cooling gel breast pads
The Dr. Brown’s HydroGel soothing pads are a concept I had never heard of before now but they are awesome! They are little gel pads that are instantly cold and soothing on sore breasts. They are re-usable if you stick them back on the blue backing for up to 24 hours. The only catch is you do have to wash off the breast before nursing. It’s way better than trying to inconspicuously put an ice pack in your bra!
Manual Breast Pump
If you are going to breastfeed and every be away from baby (go on a date longer than 2 hours, go back to work, etc), you are going to need a pump. I’ve used electric and manual and actually like manual better, other than that I can’t do both sides at once. For work, electric is faster, but for occasional use, manual works awesome and is way cheaper.
The Dr. Brown’s manual breast pump is the best I’ve used so far. It’s soft, pliable surface is easy on breast skin . Plus, it’s easy to operate (just pump) and has little “tags” built into it so the pressure doesn’t get too high. It’s also easy to take apart to clean and the instruction manual provides thorough information.
The only problem I have with the Dr. Brown’s manual pump is that the cloudiness of the surface makes it hard to position on the first try, but I got the hang of where to place it after just a few times.
Breast Milk Storage bags
With pumping, you are going to need breast milk bags to keep the milk in the fridge or freezer until use (use the 6 rule – milk is good for 6 hours at room temperature, 6 days in the fridge, or 6 months in deep freeze). All storage bags are fairly similar, but some do leak or can be difficult to open. The Dr. Brown’s breast milk storage bags are easy to open, can stand upright when milk is in them, have a spot to write the date and amount on, and I’ve never had trouble with them springing leaks. Yay!
Nursing Pillow!
For comfortable nursing, especially with a tiny newborn AND as baby gets bigger and heavier, a nursing pillow is awesome. Check out my review of Dr. Brown’s Gia pillow from when Micah was littler. Regular pillows work, but the Dr. Brown’s nursing pillow is angled for mom’s comfort and baby’s positioning. I love my Gia pillow! I use it with Emersyn now and definitely notice it helps prevent lower back pain and arm tiredness.
Check out Dr. Brown’s online, as well as on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest!
Dr. Brown’s products are available online at BuyBuy Baby, or in stores like WalMart, Target, Babies ‘R Us, Baby Depot at Burlington and more.
Dr. Brown’s provided me with the products described above. As always, opinions are 100% my own and not influenced by compensation.
Yes, moms definitely need to know that breastfeeding is not easy! At least, not at first. I’m so glad that I endured the first 6 weeks or so, and it got easier after that.
These are great recommendations. I think the pillow is most important because your arms and shoulders really get sore. Also, have water next to you because as soon as you sit down to feed the baby you will be thirsty!
As a soon to be FTM, I have read that although breastfeeding is natural, it is not easy for everyone. It really is important to stick to it during those hard days/weeks because it is so great for your baby!!! Before getting pregnant I didn’t know that there were other nursing pillows besides the Boppy. I, too, have never heard about the cooling breast pads, but since then, I have read that are amazing!
i didnt know dr browns carried these items. they look really nice and so helpful for a breastfeeding mama
Hey There. I discovered your blog using msn. That is a really neatly written article. I will make sure to bookmark it and come back to learn more of your helpful information. Thanks for the post. I will definitely return.
hi!,I like your writing very much! share we communicate more about your article on AOL? I require an expert on this area to solve my problem. Maybe that’s you! Looking forward to see you.
Thank you for the sensible critique. Me & my neighbor were just preparing to do a little research on this. We got a grab a book from our area library but I think I learned more from this post. I am very glad to see such great information being shared freely out there.
Hi there, simply changed into aware of your weblog thru Google, and found that it’s really informative. I’m going to be careful for brussels. I will be grateful if you happen to proceed this in future. Numerous other people shall be benefited from your writing. Cheers!
Have you ever considered creating an e-book or guest authoring on other blogs? I have a blog based on the same subjects you discuss and would really like to have you share some stories/information. I know my audience would enjoy your work. If you’re even remotely interested, feel free to shoot me an e mail.
Wonderful items from you, man. I’ve have in mind your stuff prior to and you’re simply extremely wonderful. I really like what you have received here, certainly like what you are stating and the way in which wherein you assert it. You’re making it entertaining and you continue to care for to keep it sensible. I cant wait to learn much more from you. That is really a wonderful website.