Philips Avent Breastfeeding Solutions Set

[brillopads]

Seen this in the John Lewis catalogue;

www.johnlewis.com/230965084/Product.aspx

and just wondering if it'll be any good? Do I need all this stuff?? (33wks pg, first baby) The convenience of getting it all bundled as a set is appealing but is £60 too much to be paying for it all... & will still need a steriliser right ??

No, you don't need any of that stuff or a steriliser if you breastfeed, I would save the £60.

Congratulations on your pending baby :)

Well the pump is £16 in John Lewis, you can get bottles & bottle brushes from the pound shop (my local one also do NUK teats), breast pads are fairly inexpensive depending on where you get them (Savers sell them!), and I wouldn't trust the DVD further than you can throw it. So you could easily spend £25 rather than £60.

If you don't want to pay out loads on a steriliser you can use sterilising fluid/tablets in a large tupperware type box and do cold water sterilising or for a very low cost method you can boil bottles/pump parts up in a saucepan on the hob for 5 minutes (good if you ever have the misfortune to get have thrush as cold water won't kill thrush spores).

Dr Jack Newman has some great videos here and Dr Suzanne Colson has some too here if you want some thing to watch to prepare for your baby breastfeeding.

Good luck and congratulations

phillips Avent microwave steriliser with 4 free bottles about a tenner in asda etc.
wait to see how breast feeding goes before you buy a pump
im ebf my 4 week old and this is my advice after no 3

why not just wait and see how you get on?

The ONLY real essentials for BFing IMO are some cushions, some Lansinoh ointment and loads of cake. Stuff like this is just a ploy to extract money from hormone-addled panicking new mums

Anything else you may need will be easy to get in a chemist or online as and when it becomes necessary.

I easily spent £60 on cake with each of mine

I'd buy a breastpump in advance but keep it sealed with the receipt.

Had to send my DH out to buy one in addled sleep-deprived state when DS tiny.

You don't need anything else, your MW will be able to provide you with an oral syringe if necessary (if your baby has trouble latching on etc they will probably reccommend this instead of a bottle)

Hopefully you won't need the pump for ages, or you will never need it and can take it back.

chibi well last night we were just chilling out watching rubbish TV (A repeat of "The Cube" I tell you!) and DH starts asking me about when I'm going to get all the stuff I need; bottles, steriliser etc and I'm like... ???

I've been reading "The Food of Love" & in that I'm sure there was something about if yr BFing then don't introduce bottles? (of breastmilk) until BFing is established ??

I'm confused, he's even more confused/ hasn't got a clue(!), sigh

Nah. You don't need anything if you breastfeed. Lansinoh is useful if you have trouble with the latch early on but if you don't need it for that it does work brilliantly as a lip balm.

Just ordinary cushions will support you fine (get baby positioned and attached properly before slipping one underneath for support) and after a few weeks you probably won't need it anymore.

Cake or chocolate is an essential ingredient to breastfeeding success, as is bottles of water placed strategically around the house (breastfeeding a newborn is thirsty work) as are plenty of box sets/location subscription

I bought an expensive electric pump butDS has been a bottle refused from the word go. All my expressed milk ended up filling a freezer drawer and going to waste in the end . I would wait and see about getting one and if you really need to express and don't have one you could always hand express (your midwife or local peer support could show you how)

Location should read LoveFilm

Perhaps he's just thinking "baby = bottle" and not really registering that if you're exclusively breastfeeding you don't need that stuff :) I'm sure he didn't mean it to be undermining.

I think the advice to buy a pump but keep it sealed is good. That way you can research which one you want, shop around for good deals etc, but if you end up not using it you can return it or sell on ebay etc.

I never bothered with sterilising either. I think I did milton once and then never did again because I was using the stuff straight away anyway and breastmilk isn't going to be contaminated, unless you're keeping it around for days.

sorry, "baby = bottle, and bottles = steriliser"

You don't need it. :)

You might want to introduce bottles later but I would just concentrate on breastfeeding to begin with. Milk comes out a bottle more easily than from a boob and the teat is different in their mouth than a nipple, so they can get confused / lazy.

Some people need to get them used to a bottle if they are going back to work soon but its a lot of faff if you don't need to.

Unless you live in the middle of nowhere you can get bottles etc everywhere. You can also offer milk from a cup, syringe. If its just the odd bottle later steriliser is not really worth the money imo. And I found expressing sore and did not get much - hand expressing deffo best.

Also found normal cushions better. You can rub breast milk on your nipples if they get sore but I did find lansinoh and softest breast pads useful to begin with.

I breastfed both of mine but have bottles etc that were passed on to me by a friend who did mixed feeding that I've never used. I'm just waiting for a friend of my Mum's to let me know if she wants them but if she doesn't they will be looking for a new home...so, if you decide you would like to have bottles, steriliser etc just PM me and I'll send them to you. Might have a pump going too (if I can find it).

Thanks for all the advise guys; every so often I have days of sheer panic about what we've gotten ourselves into ! We're the first out of all our friends to have a baby so no-one to consult there... just reading loads of books & the (conflicting?) info in there can tend to get a bit jumbled in my brain.

E.g for my maternity booking-in appointment, many moons ago the MW handed over to the Student MW to tell me about the "benefits" of BFing ... as if I wasn't going to even try it or consider it in the first place

minimarmite too kind! Think I'll adapt the "let them eat cake" approach tho

Ugh, it makes me so angry that there's literally an entire industry 'milking' us women/ parents into thinking they NEED all this STUFF for babies; I'd also been looking about nursing pillows- Widgey, Boppy blah blah blah- are these also a waste of ££s ? (& do they all have such stupid names)

Again I'd wait and see if you need a cushion - I didn't, but friends found theirs invaluable. You can always use a pillow from your bed at first :) Or if you see one cheap in TK max it's probably worth it as you can lie the baby in it or on it too for hands free time/tummy time.

I never got round to buying a nursing pillow (DS was born at 38w6) and I had been planning to do a last shopping with my mum. But as she arrived as I went into labour, it didn't happen) and never ended up needing it. Using a normal, firm-ish pillow from my own bed was fine in the first few weeks and I stopped needing one at all around 4 weeks anyway.

Wait and see if you REALLY need one and you can always get one off amazon on next day delivery n

I found my nursing cushion bloody annoying! A firm pillow worked better for us so I wish I hadn't wasted money.

The only issue with buying a steriliser and keeping it sealed with the receipt is that you may only have 28days to return it, so won't get round to it with a newborn! I would decide now which one you would like to get in what circumstances, make a note and then you can get your OH to order it with next day delivery if needed. But the pump you'd need for a very occasional pump for convenience is not going the be the same pump you'd need if you end up doing lots of ebm top-ups. I spent a lot on a Medela Swing and while it's fine, I used a Medela double in hospital when DD was in SCBU and needed to borrow a double pump when home for top-ups. The old Ameda Lactaline I borrowed was far better than my expensive Medela!

Some good breast pads (I like Lansinoh's ones) and some Lansinoh are all that is really needed. I also got nipple shields just in case and found them good to get me through a bad night.

I agree with Japhrimel I hated my feeding cushion, just get a few more cushions for the sofa.

Make sure you have a ready supply of cake, breastfeeding support lines and a supportive DH.

Another no vote, and another vote for just getting the stuff you need after LO is born. If you need to express I, like japhrimel I found an Ameda Lactaline great and I bought it 2nd hand for £10.

Instead just make sure you get the phone numbers for any local Bfing Counsellor and put those, along with the phone numbers for the Helplines in your phone and go along to your local Bfing Support Group before Lo is born.

Congratulations too.