Saving my nips & my bfing journey
I bought these following a work trip where I pumped exclusively vs my regular 3x/day. My nips were sore for weeks after, I wasn’t expressing as much milk as my LO needed, and I was so distraught. It took a couple weeks of experimenting, but these have been so wonderful! Pros/cons/tips:<br /><br />Pros:<br />- I like that they came in a set cuz I do use diff sizes sometimes. 90% of the time it’s the blue XS ones, but it took a couple weeks to settle on that size.<br />- The silicone (S & XS) is a lot nicer than the rigid plastic IMO<br />- The downward angle means less pooling around the breast, so I don’t need to “scrape” the flange up at the end to ensure I get all the milk. I also think it better replicates the angle LO nurses from, which my breasts are used to, but this may be feeling vs fact.<br /><br />Cons (reflected in Clean & Use stars):<br />- It took a couple weeks of trying sizes to settle on the XS—evaluating comfort at EOD/EOW and average milk expression.<br />- It took a couple weeks to get the hang of centering them well—and it still takes a couple tries<br />- The additional collar pieces for the silicone flanges are unfortunate. 2 more pieces to clean and keep track of! :( And they trap milk between collar and the Medela tubing/bottle/flange connector piece. I wish the silicone was simply thicker at the end.<br />- I do wish they were sold as 1-offs cuz I’d buy additional XS ones for home<br /><br />Tips:<br />- Takes a bit of practice to get the hang of folding back the silicone to get the nipple both in the “tunnel” and centered well. Keep practicing!<br />- My IBCLC always made a big point of not letting the nipple rub the flange sides, so when this happened with the XS ones I worried. But again, after experimenting for a couple weeks, I found that the rubbing didn’t bother them at all! After a little condensation and milk gets in there there’s sufficient lubrication. YMMV here, but it’s working for me. (To be clear: the nipples still move freely, but they rub a bit at full suction/extension. If the flange isn’t centered it compresses the nipple and it doesn’t move freely, which isn’t what I’m describing here.)<br />- I haven’t had any issues with massaging my breasts and pumping with these at the same time. (There was another reviewer who had issues with this and I was worried about it.)<br /><br />Heading into month 8 of breastfeeding and still going strong thanks to the comfort this product brought to my journey. Thank you!
Rating: 5 stars