Breast feeding is so not cheaper

[Bodicea]

So breastfeeding my little one. Love it and wouldn't change for the world first of all.

Just pondering the costs of all the breastfeeding parephenalia I have had to fork out for and starting to think that the argument that is is significantly cheaper unless you plan to do it for a seriously significant amount of time is rubbish.

So I am three and a half months in and so far have bought a breast pump, four nursing bras, two ridiculously overpriced nursing tops, other clothes that make breastfeeding easier as most of my wardrobe was not suitable, three packs reusable breast pads, three boxes of disposable pads, all the bottle and storage parephenalia for my expressed milk, nipple shields, breast shells, nipple cream, expensive breast feeding supplements, a breast feeding scarf and now some formula too for mixed feeding.

Granted that not everyone is going to buy everything on that list but even so, That is a fair amount of money to spend on formula.

Hoping to make it to 6 months. And like I say wouldn't change it for the world but still think it is a bit of a false argument that it is cheaper.

I don't know about other people, but I was told by various other mothers that breastfeeding cost practically nothing. Which is true if you find it easy, but if you don't and need help and equipment the cost can suddenly rack up surprisingly.
I had no idea that it was possible to be using 5 breast pads a day six months later. The washable ones lasted about 10 minutes. Or that the nearest lactation expert who could help would be a 2-hour journey away costing 10 a time - I live in London ffs! If I hadn't bought an electric pump I'd have had to give up from pain.

It did make me more determined to recoup costs by feeding longer, once it stopped hurting. Second child was lots easier, partly because bf groups had caught on and there were two in easy reach.

There was a thread on Chat I think the other day about this - saying was the fact that BF was 'free' your primary motivation to try it.

I would agree absolutely that BF is cheaper than FF but I have a real issue with health professionals or anyone else stating it is 'free'. Because it isn't.

Of course some people will end up spending far more than others but even posters saying 'well I only bought one nursing bra' will have spent money on said nursing bra...

And different people have different issues/needs/physical challenges. I had to wear breastpads right up until I stopped BF, for example, simply because without them I leaked and was hugely uncomfortable. Hated the reusables and found disposables far better. So far more outlay than the lucky people who could happily make do with one set of reusables for the first month only and then stop using them.

Similar with Lansinoh, I spent £50 on Lansinoh with my first baby alone due to major pain from poor positioning / poor latching etc. Hugely envious of anyone who never needed to buy any!

And, for me personally, a BF cushion was absolutely essential in the early days. And I never understood the MN obsession with 'just wear a vest under a normal top' advice for BF. Maybe I'm completely cack-handed (or cack-boobed ) but I could never get the hang of that. And got far too hot wearing two tops at a time! So I bought BF tops, because without them I'd never have had the confidence to BF in public.

The posts saying 'but you didn't need half of that' sound horribly smug and self righteous to me. What might seem pointless to one BF mother might be an absolute essential to another.

All you really need is breast pads and nursing bras. I just wore stretchy vests (from Zara) that I already owned under normal clothes.

Had a manual breast pump but never used it.

I got nursing bras from NCT. I have huge norks and they were still dead cheap. I have about 6 and I've worn one every day since DS was born in 2011.

I live in primark vests under my clothes.

BF was more expensive first time around as we had more issues - nipple shields, bottles, pump. With DD I've bought lots of disposable breast pads but that's all. Already had the bras and vests :)