Open water swimming and breastfeeding

[Keggles36]

Hi all

Bit of an odd one. I am an avid open water swimmer, and am now 4 months pp and wanting to get back into it.

When I swim at my local lake I'll be able to head home afterwards and have a good shower before breastfeeding. However, in the summer of I go in the sea etc and need to breast feed before getting home I am worried about infection from the water to my baby (it's always on the news about water quality!). There often aren't showers.

My husband reckons I can just baby wipe my boobs afterwards, but I'm not sure this would get rid of bugs. Was thinking I could take some hand wash and some clean water - not bothered about looking weird!

Any other ideas?

I would bring a cloth and some clean water and just wash them a bit … maybe just express a little too and use that to clean around as BM has antibacterial properties I think but honestly don’t worry about it

I used to sea swim a lot when mine were babies-I just baby wiped before feeding. Sometimes. But I did love sitting in the sea and feeding…..

@KoalaPineapple breast milk is such a great and simple idea!

Goodness, I wouldn’t - and didn’t - give this a second thought. Never baby wiped breast - how disgusting would that taste?? None of my lot ever ill from whatever lingered on my skin after swimming. It’ll be fine!

@finallysomesunshine I know. We recently had a bit of a scare and she caught STEC along with some other babies, so I feel hyper vigilant. But she's older now and that was very bad luck! And I miss outdoor swimming!

I did swim serpentine when my little one was 4 months and just rinsed my boobs under the tap/showers after, sure people must have wondered what I was upto! I didn’t give it much thought just gave a quick rinse after swimming in my local lake and all was ok but maybe take a bag with a damp flannel and give a proper wipe?

I would just take a bottle of water and a bit of mild soap (like dr bronner unscented, they do small bottles)
I do that anyway to wash my hands after swimming as immunocompromised (it’s a compromise, I’m not willing to quit wild swimming!)

I would do this too. I do horse riding and stared riding again after 2 weeks pp, mine was born in the summer and I got terrible skin rashes from wearing bf bras with thick bands and riding. I went to the doctor and they prescribed some cream and said it’s due to excess moisture, so I started washing with soap and water afterwards and drying thoroughly with a towel, didn’t use the cream and it went away. I was glad to clean all the sweat and dust etc off for baby to feed too