Do you buy special 'nursing' tops?

[Stillmonday]

I feel like I'm constantly spending a fortune on maternity wear as I get bigger, now I've seen 'nursing' tops. Are they necessary when BF? Or can you easily manage with normal clothes ?

I'm a new breast feeder only 5 weeks in but yes definitely I'm having to buy loads of nursing dresses and tops on eBay!

You can manage with normal clothes. A tip is to wear a vest or similar under a top then you can lift the outer top and push down the vest, revealing very little.

I never have. I always wear a light vest under my clothes so simply pull up my top and pull the vest down, that way my tummy is covered up too.

In the early days when your boobs are massive, you BF on demand, for a long time, and a lot, they are useful. Later on when it's less intense, not so much.

You can manage with normal clothes but I breastfed for a year and lived in my nursing tops and dresses. They were amazing, so useful. Don't have to cost the earth either, most of mine were H&M.

Yes, they help. Also stretchy vests.

I've been breastfeeding for 8 months and haven't bought one single nursing top. I either wear a lose top, with a vest under it. Or if it's too warm, I'll wear something that has 'boob access' and use a muslin to cover up if it's a bit expose-y. I would wait though, if you want to buy specific clothes until it's established as anything can happen and they aren't exactly cheap.

Nope, neither times have I bought nursing clothes. Sometimes I wear a vest underneath so I'm not exposing my stomach, but most of the time I just wear a top and lift it up.

It does mean I can't wear dresses (not that this bothers me much) though!

I didn't bother, mostly. I had a couple of vests with clippy straps from H&M but I found them cumbersome. So what I did was get a job lot of super stretchy spaghetti strap vests (again from H&M, £3 a shot) and wore one under my normal top. Top up, vest down, job's a good'un. I did make a point of looking out for things like shirts or tops with a few buttons, but not specific nursing ones, just ones I happened to like anyway.

I did have one maternity dress that was also a nursing dress but again, I just found it too fussy. If you ever need a nice dress for an occasion through, look at Closet London online. If you put breastfeeding into their search box, the website shows you all the things that would work. I got a lovely dress for a wedding that we attended when DS was 6 months old, and it was one I was happy to wear again at a wedding this year too.

Can I Breastfeed In It on Facebook is helpful too for ideas on clothes with boob access!

M&S do regular vest tops with stretchy straps so they're easy to pull down if you do wear a regular t shirt over the top. I think they're often on offer, 5 for £xx - lots of different colours!

I BF each of my little ones for a year and never had any nursing clothes, I really don’t see the point. They all look very fussy to use and frumpy.

I mainly wore the H&M vests with the clips under a top. If you’re small of boob you could just wear the vest instead of a bra.

In winter when it’s cold Uniqlo have long sleeve Heattech scoop neck tops which you can wear as a base layer. The neckline is low enough that you can get a boob out!

No. Found them a massive faff. Only useful if you want to wear a dress. Otherwise just pull your top up.

Most of my maternity tops are also nursing tops, likewise any bras and vests I’ve bought have been nursing instead of just maternity. I BF my first 2 DC for a year and intend to do the same this time. A friend just sent me a tip about wearing shirt/blouse and unbutton from the bottom up- that way your top half stays covered and if you have a vest on your tummy is also covered.

Absolutely no need, just some good nursing bras and breast pads. A lot of your maternity tops will be good for bf. I have always just worn a vest top underneath so you can do one up one down.

I don't know if it's different for others but I didn't find it that easy to just lift my tops up and fit baby under. Also a problem that dd didn't like to be covered so I did buy and use a handful of nursing tops. You can get away with some things but for convenience I wouldn't completely rule out clothes designed for the purpose.

I got lots of vests from Primark, £1.80. and wore with a cardigan, just slid down my vest and fed!

I never bought any maternity or nursing clothing just nursing bras, you can just wear normal things but with a vest under as PP have said if you want more coverage. I wouldn't waste my money on overpriced frumpy wrap tops you will never wear again, better to buy things you actually like and would wear again, just maybe get a size bigger for comfort while feeding.

They're not essential but they do make life easier and if you shop around you can find some really nice stuff that you'll be happy to wear even once you've stopped BF. H&M is a good place to look for basic tops. I also bought a lot of lovely breastfeeding clothes from asos, including dresses.

I'm on my fourth and have only needed the breastfeeding tank tops, which are great. You can then layer over cardigans in the early days when you need more access, and jumpers or ordinary tops once you've got the hang of it.

I've never liked that so many feeding tops are also maternity, so they're quite unflattering once your stomach goes back down, and also quite frumpy.
If you do want some, H&M is definitely the best as they are not maternity as well.