Planning on breastfeeding and would like to express but am so confused over what to buy, help!

[LittlePebble]

Hi, I'm planning on breastfeeding and would like to express so that DP can give the LO a bottle on occasion, but am so confused over what to buy, do I need an electric breast pump or manual? What make is best? How many bottles? Argh it's so confusing!

I wouldn't buy anything expensive. Although I breastfed all four of my DC, I miserably failed to express - I tried with every child, and never managed to express more than 1 ounce.

I had an Avent Manual one and found it fine. It comes with small wide necked bottles and I think I used them for one of the DC. Other one preferred narrow bottles though.

Hi, I went for a middle of the road manual pump, can't remember the name now. I didn't get to use it much, found it was much easier to get my baby to do the job :) but when I did use it was sufficient. I certianly wouldn't but athg expensive if I were you. Good luck

I bf DS for 7 months but also expressed for the same reasons, DH could give DS a bottle from time to time if I needed to sleep, or wanted to go out etc. I bought an Avent electric one which was brilliant. It was quick and required no effort on my part whatsoever. Friends who bought manuals said it made their hands ache after a while hence I went straight for electric, although I know others have said they had no problems. If you're only planning on giving the odd bottle here and there, two or three will be plenty. Check you have teats for newborns, which you may need to change as baby gets older and can manage a faster flow. I didn't realise you could get different flow rates until DS was about 6 months old and was still giving him newborn ones which I think have one or two holes rather than three of four.

If you are planning to express the odd bottle then a manual is fine. I got an Avent Manual off eBay - all bits of it can be sterilised so there's no problem in getting a second-hand one. 3-4 bottles should be all you need at the very most (you could probably get by with two to be honest).

I would say, hang off expressing until after 6 weeks for a couple of reasons 1) introducing a bottle before then can cause nipple confusion, 2) you want to make sure you supply is well established and you and baby know what you are doing. Also in the early weeks, although it might sound fine to give daddy the night-time feed, you'll need to get up an express then anyway.

Re teats, I stuck with newborn teats until the garklet stopped bottles at a year. Because bottle feeding is easier and less work for baby, too fast a flow could mean that they get impatient at the breast when they go back to it.

If you are looking to express when back at work then definitely go for an electric dual pump, but for one off bottles they are complete overkill.

Thank you everyone! It all makes a bit more sense now... issy think you're right and I've realised I don't need to buy this yet if it's best to wait for everything to get established!

Another vote for Avent manual here-bf my two for 9 mths and 13mths and used the same breast pump to express with both. Likewise the advice about newborn teats, my 2 used them formthe duration of bottle feeding.

One piece of advice I'd add is a mistake I made with baby number 2-we got into a lovely routine with our first, whereby hubbie would give a bottle at about 7/8pm and I'd have a long bath (this was a time that didn't really matter to my supply, as middle of night or morning would have), and meant that when I did want to nip out he was used to a bottle. However, probably because we had a toddler to look after too, my 2nd son didn't have a bottle very often, which made it harder the times I did want to leave him, like he was learning again each time. So try to express often and get someone to give a bottle even if you're there, rather than just use it for times when you need to be away from baby.

Just try not to get obsessed like I did-I used to get really excited at seeing all the bags of frozen milk in the freezer, and hubbie used to get updates as to how much I'd expressed, like it was a major achievement!