Accidentally breastfeeding friendly clothes

[FruitPoppet]

I'm a FTM and just about out of the newborn trenches and ready to face actually getting dressed and not wearing tracksuit bottoms everyday!

Obviously my body is totally different pp but I'm mostly struggling with the fact that very few of my pre-pregnacy are now breastfeeding friendly. I've tried to adapt to a lot of stuff but wearing vest tops underneath, but am looking for recommendations for a few staple bits to see me through my time breastfeeding.

Ideally I would be able to get on vinted!

I’m not sure if it still exists but there used to be a good Facebook group called “can I breastfeed in it?” Where people used to post pics of clothes that are easy to breastfeed in.

I had some good jumpsuits that you could zip down the front.

i also had lots of breastfeeding vest tops from H&M which you wear under anything.

I used to wear a thin vest top (spaghetti straps) under a tshirt. Pull the tshirt up and the vest down and away you go.

I just wore loosish tops that I could pull up and feed baby underneath.

Button down dresses

Im living in button down dresses. Perfect for summer loads cheap on vinted like nobodys child etc. I have some little wraps that ill sometimes bring to help with modesty or wear a vest underneath but i'm also at the point where if the boob has to come out, it has to come out, baby has to eat.

Breastfeeding vest/tank tops from H&M are great. (No bra needed as super supportive) They have a clasp you can undo and unleash the boob discreetly. Those coupled with long cardigans or slouchy tips work great. The cardigan and vest combo is great for summer. I also used to use oversized short sleeved linen type tops over the vests.

Juno Jacks do lovely dresses and tops with zips, but that I'll definitely wear after breastfeeding as well afterwards as it's not at all obvious! A dress is about £40 new but I've got loads on vinted. I included a photo of my current favourite!

I also went to a wedding yesterday and got a gorgeous Lyla and Leche dress of you're looking for something more formal!

Other than that I've been living in Lucy and Yak Alexa trousers as they're comfy and waist is high, and can comfortably just pull normal tee shirts etc up to feed without completely exposing myself!

Surely the only thing not breastfeeding friendly are long dresses or super tight structured tops? Literally everything else can be pulled up or down to feed.

I've got several h&m linen strappy dresses with buttons which I wear with a tshirt under. DS was born just before the April heat wave and I was soaked in sweat in my winter maternity clothes! I've got a couple of shirt dresses and some over sized shirts too. My mum bought me some Frugi dresses which are practical and easy to feed in but are rather frumpy.

I'm 2-3 dress sizes larger than this time last year and suddenly have (widely spaced) breasts on a wide shouldered swimmer's frame so am feeling rather stout. I don't even have cleavage because they're too far apart and unwired bras aren't comfortable

Not very stylish but I just bought t shirts and vest tops from the same shop so they’d be a colour match. It’s too much of a head wrecker to try and find vests to match existing tops. But you can get lucky and find nicer tops.

I’m a huge proponent of second hand clothing, but this is one case where shopping new collections is worthwhile to get that colour match because it just made everything more discreet.

I bought myself a new summer dress the other day and was super excited to wear it to the zoo, I got dressed on said day and just burst out laughing. My OH asked what was so funny and I said "this will be me feeding later on" and hiked the dress all the way up to reveal my boob, knickers, tummy, everything was out 🤣 definitely didn't think that one through haha

I agree with PP, thin strap ppt vest under whatever you want works well, so that vest goes down, top goes up and you can feed without feeling too exposed. You can use normal vest tops as well as nursing ones if they’re stretchy. I also got a few blouses in various styles with buttons, but it did mean they got weaker with the buttons being undone so often and ended up popping open by themselves so even when I’d stopped bfing I couldn’t wear them any more.

Tshirts. I live in them. Also bear in mind by 7 months your baby is on solids and you can take food with you rather than bf in public (many babies are too distracted to bf in public at that age anyway) so the time you need nice bf friendly clothes is quite short, in my experience.

Sort of. And by about 6mo I was also just in this mindset, as baby was now able to position themselves. But before that, I needed to be able to see baby / nipple in order to guide baby onto it.

So that meant bulky jumpers were out (got in the way and I couldn't see anything) as was anything with material too structured for the same reason. I don't like bf in shirts as I feel very exposed when unbuttoned.

I bought a few cheap breastfeeding t-shirts from Amazon (crossover design rather than side hole), which I lived in initially, then loose thin t-shirts as I got more proficient. I didn't like anything with zips/gaps at the side as it felt awkward to post my boob sideways out of the hole and I could never do it discreetly in public 😂

I agree with you! With my first, I remember wearing a lot of shirts. Now (third baby is eight weeks old), I can’t really remember why I did that as I had to get quite a lot of skin out in order to feed. Also, it generated a lot of ironing! As long as I avoid dresses, I find that any normal clothes are fine. Tend to stick to lighter colours to blend with all the posset, but that’s a separate issue! 😂

Thanks for all the replies and recommendations

I have quite large boobs pre breastfeeding so I need clear access with good visibility to make sure my LO has good latch and nose freedom, I felt I was quite exposed feeding in a lot of my old clothes, hence the asking for recommendations of styles/brands that work for others. I ofc wear the stuff from before that gives easy access while maintaining a little bit of modesty.

I second all the recommendations to wear a strappy vest under something loose. Means you’re covered other than the boob but also, the vest itself provides useful extra support when pulled down underneath, so you’re not holding boob in position so much.

I bought some clothes on Etsy from a steamstress in Poland. The quality is ok (not great) but I really like the style and I still wear them, one year after weaning. I even wore the Lydia top at a job interview.
www.etsy.com/shop/AlmaCollectioClothes?ref=yr_purchases

I had one of those feeding apron things and just took that everyone. Not only did it mean that I didn’t have to worry about accidental exposure but, when you baby gets a bit older and suddenly finds the world much more interesting than their meal, they can’t get distracted. Otherwise, I had some wrap tops & dresses but, like others, mainly went for the strappy top under a t-shirt approach.

Yet another vote for the H&M breastfeeding tops. Some of the Mountain Warehouse mock-wrap dresses actually have a popper at the 'wrap' point, so very breastfeeding friendly. And they have pockets.

Honestly, I just do separate top and bottoms and hitch up the top when she wants to feed. I have BF tops but frankly they just seemed to confuse her. The only ones I've kept wearing are smallshow tanks but mainly because I like the fit - I don't actually use the nursing entry often!

I wore normal shirt dresses and blouses, plus one specific breastfeeding tank to. The t-shirts with zips are wayyyy too fiddly.

Similar here really. I have a few Hot Mama vests which are great for the summer, and a few dresses from Juno Jack's, H&M etc for 'nicer' occasions. Otherwise I just wear my normal pre-pregnancy clothes which was/is mostly just t-shirts and jumpers/sweatshirts/hoodies etc. I just lift up, but I do usually wear quite loose ones so it's easy to keep mostly covered. My baby (third) is 8mo now though and will lift up my clothes, start doing gymnastics mid feed diving over me, latch and unlatch and look around etc so it's not really possible to keep well covered anymore unfortunately but I do try (out of personal preference - not that anyone should need to try particularly).

Update for anyone reading this in the future for advise.

I bought a beyond nine jumpsuit on vinted and live in it. Other combos that work well for me are high waisted trousers or skirts and cropped tops, easy boob access with little torso on show. Also if you must wear a dress wear bike shorts underneath so you can pull the whole thing up to feed (not a preference of mine but sometimes you need to wear a floaty cool dress!)

I got some amazing breastfeeding dresses and tops from www.milkymoon.co.uk