Are you looking for tips on how to make your breastfeeding journey easier? This post is packed with some of the best breastfeeding hacks for new moms to survive those early days!
Is your 2 week old not sleeping between feeds? Breastfeeding is the most natural and healthy option for your baby, but it does come with its own set of challenges. From unexpected leaks during breastfeeding to being able to feed the baby full, there are numerous difficulties to overcome.
Luckily in this post, we will go through some of the best and helpful breastfeeding hacks that will make your life so much easier, and you will begin to enjoy your breastfeeding sessions with your little one all the more.
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Before going forward into the post, I would like to introduce you all to the Ultimate breastfeeding course by Milkology. I had personally taken this course at the start of my breastfeeding journey and had found it extremely useful. You can take this course from the comfort of your home as it’s online and it is packed with the necessary and all the required information that you would require to get started on your breastfeeding journey. And the best part is that it’s only for $19.
1. Buy a couple of nursing shirts
You will be surprised how many times you will have to change your shirts while breastfeeding. Due to breast engorgement and leakage during feedings, your shirt will often get wet. Hence having a stock of nursing shirts will be very helpful. One of the best nursing shirts to buy for nursing is the two-shirt found here. This has two shirts one on the outside and one on the inside. When you are breastfeeding you just need to pull the top shirt up and the bottom shirt will still cover your tummy! Great for those public breastfeeding sessions.
2. Carry an infinity scarf
Another great resource after the two shirts for breastfeeding is the infinity scarf. It is stylish, comes in many colors and when you want to breastfeed all you have to do is pull it open.
3. Set up a breastfeeding station at home
If you are a nursing mom, you would require a ton of things like a nursing scarf, water bottle, nipple cream, breast pump, and the list is endless. Having a fixed place to keep all this stuff can help you a lot in enjoying a stress-free breastfeeding session with your little one without having to run around looking for stuff. Some great ideas to organize your nursing supplies at home is to use an easy to carry nursery organizer like this one or you can also use a three-stack roller organizer to organize all your stuff. You can read more about how you set up a breastfeeding station at home here.
4. Keep hydrating yourself
Breastfeeding can make a mom really thirsty and hence having a water bottle close to you can be very helpful. I remember going through multiple rounds of my water bottle during one session of breastfeeding.
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5. Feed on demand
You would have often heard that you need to feed your baby as per a fixed schedule. But feeding as per demand can help you feed your baby to full as well as prevent breast engorgement concerns and untimely milk leakage. Also feeding your little one as they demand can also help you produce more milk. Babies in the early few months are being exposed to everything new and are slowly adapting to the new environment around them. Hence putting them on a feeding schedule from the early few weeks is not really a great idea. You can concentrate on other things like sleep training etc during this time.
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6. Keep a stock of breast pads
You will need them, and you will need a lot of them. Even after you have breastfed your baby, place a washable or disposable breast pad in your nursing bra to prevent your shirt from getting wet.
7. Use Milksavers
I wish I knew this earlier. There is no reason why you should let go of perfectly good milk to waste. Especially if you are a pumping mom or creating a freezer stash to be used up later, then the more milk you have will be helpful to you. These milksavers are amazing and can be easily inserted into your bra. They are great for the workplace and you can later empty the milk and store them in the breastmilk bags.
8. Invest in a haka
Another great way to collect the breastmilk and store it for later is via using a hakaa. Hakaa is a manually operated breast pump but it also comes with an excellent storage bottle that can easily collect all the breastmilk.
9. Use nursing bras
Besides the nursing shirt, having a few nursing bras in your closet can be very helpful. They make breastfeeding so much easier and are so easy to carry and provide the much-needed support to the breasts.
10. Store your frozen milk in unused cardboard boxes
This small hack can save you a lot of time from trying to figure out which milk bag is expiring soon or has already expired. You can use small unused cardboard boxes and cut them in half, and you can start organizing the milk neatly with the packets expiring soon to be placed earlier in the row. Also, as shown in this post you can use your old soda boxes to organize the milk.
11. Create a pump bag for work
If you are a nursing mom and going back to work soon, then organizing a pump bag for work is probably one of the first things you should do. It can help you have a stress-free pumping session at work, and you would have everything you need in one place. You can read my blog post on how to organize a pump bag for work here.
12. Get a hands-free pumping bra
As a new mom there is always a lot to be done and hence using your time wisely should always be your priority. Investing in a good hands-free pumping bra can make you more productive by helping you work on multiple tasks at the same time. Ideal for the workplace so that your hands are free to work on the computer.
13. Make your insurance pay for the breast pump
I did use my insurance to pay for my breast pump and it did save me some money. Most of your insurances do cover breast pump for free or pay up to some percent for it. if you are looking for a free breast pump, then you can get started here to learn more! There are many options for breast pumps available here.
14. Mark your frozen milk
Make sure to always mark the date and time of the milk stored using a black marker. Frozen breast milk can only be used up for up to six months and then they need to be discarded.
15. Use a baby nursing tracker on your phone
One of the first things that your doctor will tell you to monitor with a brand-new baby is the number of daytime feeds and night-time feeds as well the number of times the baby poops and pees. Keeping up with all this information is all too much, especially if you are sleep deprived. I found this breastfeeding app as a great tool to track all the breastfeeding sessions with my daughter hassle-free.
16. Always keep nipple care stuff handy
Some moms often go through sore nipples which can cause a lot of pain while breastfeeding if not treated in time. I found this nipple cream really helpful during my time and sometimes I would also use coconut oil or olive oil which was also able to provide a lot of relief. Also, this nipple butter has worked well with many moms too.
17. Eat milkmakers often to enhance breastmilk production
When you are breastfeeding you are burning double the calories. It is the most important for a nursing mom to take care of her diet and in turn that is what helps the milk come. I always use to keep a few quick oatmeal energy bars handy as well as milkmakers which can also help increase milk production. Also, you can try this breastmilk smoothie to increase milk production.
18. Get a teething necklace
I still remember when my daughter during our breastfeeding sessions would often dig her nails into my breasts and it would be extremely painful. Having a good teething necklace around your neck while you breastfeed your baby, can keep those little hands busy and you can enjoy a painless breastfeeding session.
19. Get breastmilk pacifiers for the teething baby
A teething baby would often want to nurse as breastfeeding soothes their pain. But breastfeeding often can feel overwhelming for a few moms as well as often feeding can also lead to sore nipples. Try these pacifiers with lids where you can freeze breastmilk and give it to your little one to suck on. Babies get the much-needed relief from these pacifiers and a mom can get her downtime. You can read more about this here.
20. Never let your sore nipples air dry
So important learning that I did get after a few painful experiences. Letting your sore nipples to air dry can make them more chapped which can be really painful for a new mom. Always use the nipple cream or the nipple butter to treat sore nipples as and when needed.
I hope all these tips were helpful to you and you all found what you were looking for. Breastfeeding is a beautiful journey that you and your little one can enjoy together, and you will cherish it for a really long time to come!
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