Breast shells - fantastic!

[Levanna]

When breastfeeding DD1 I barely realised breast shells existed - I wish I had as in hindsight I probably wasted pints and pints of viable milk on breast pads! I'm collecting between 5 and 10 oz of 'spare' milk from leakage alone, per day. It's not all foremilk as when tiny DD swaps sides I put the shell the side she's finished with to gather some of the hindmilk too. I know not everyone leaks as copiously as I do, but I've also found my nipples are in much better shape this time, partially due I'm sure to being dryer through using the shells, rather than sitting in sodden pads throughout feeds.
I found catching all the various drips and gushes and soggy leaky pads such a problem last time....I don't know why I didn't think of these before!

Lol, yeah but they look so ridiculous don't they?

That said, they were a godsend for me too when I was b/fing. I leaked loads too.

Levanna.....breast shells encourage leaking, though.

Do they? How's that then? I'm curious!

Create a vacuum which then sucks the milk out IIRC.

Do I go to the top of the class? Do I? Do I?

I personally used shells to catch milk as well. I do not think they were in mny bra long enough to create a vacuum. A few times I just held a bottle underneath the other breast and milk flowed into it so it is not all down to suction. Not casting aspertions on the increasing leakage theory, but I found them invaluable.

8/10 motherinferior

An A * to motherinferior.....wearing them just occasionally for convenience won't make much difference, but some women who wear them for longer periods certainly find they create the problem they are there to solve!

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I would twigglet. You can 'catch' loads of milk during a feed. They should be sterilised and you make sure you put them inside your bra with the little 'lip' upwards otherwise the milk pours down your tummy . I did that once very stupidly. Anyway, what I did was pop a shell in my bra when feeding from the other side. I drained the shell into a sterile bottle then popped it into the other side when I switched over. As Levanna said, you get a mixture of fore and hind milk. It probably is mainly foremilk but that really doesn't matter IMO when you are banking milk for future use in the freezer. All EBM is liquid gold. You shouldn't wear them all day collecting milk because of the reasons motherinferior and ticktock gave. I have remarked your paper MI - 91/2 /10 (lack of adequate detail)

motherinferior - swot award of the day, I think!!

Seriously though - this sounds like a brilliant tip and I am eager to try it out on sproglet no. 2 (due in March). I gushed milk like a fountain in the early months with dd, and then when I went back to work spent hours squeezing drops of milk out with the breast pump. What a shame all that milk originally went to waste!

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I use these too and I get around 3oz a time from my udders. I have forgotten that I am wearing them and bent over to change a nappy and wondered where the wet feeling was coming from

avent do them in eg bigger boots, mothercare

and avent themselves do mailorder. brilliant at eg sending spare parts for breast pump when overuse caused stress fractures..

I got mine in Boots. You do have to take them out carefully and not tip the milk down your front. Also do remember to remove from your bra before answering the door, as they don't half increase your already augmented breastfeeding bosoms.

Hello MI

That's interesting tiktok, but like Mears I can collect similar ammounts by holding a container underneath, though I find the shells much more convenient .

I use the avent ones and got them at mothercare but I'm sure there are loads of different ones. I've found these fine to use though .

Loved em, and it was useful as in Germany the Midwives recommend putting breastmilk on every little problem spot or whatever on the baby, so it was a good way to collect, not that I actually leaked that much. And comfortable. Great when starting out and also when I got thrush.

Mine were Medela.