Which breast pump to buy

ronn

just wondering what breast pump people would recommend, Everthing we have is tommee tippee so I'm saying to for the same make,
Is there any difference between Philips tommee or medela breast pumps.
Any info be great thanks,

tinkerbell

dont get a manual pump anyway. Medela would be better. Is your baby here yet? Don't buy a pump unless you actually need it.

Sligo1

Imo Medela would be the superior brand of breast pump. I used tommee tippe bottles on my first. But used the Medella swing pump. It does not matter which bottles you use... The pump comes with its own pumping bottle you can pour into the others. Would definitely recommend the Medela swing if you only plan on pumping at most a couple times per day/week. If you plan on exclusively pumping you would probably need a hospital grade pump.

ronn

Oops how does a man answer this, ðŸ˜႒ðŸ˜႒
The baby girl is here already, we borrowed a pump but it's broken,
The wife wants to continue breast feeding but I want her to express so she can have a few extra hours off, while I bottle feed our daughter,

So we're looking to get a tried and tested pump,

Ps, I've probably skipped some of the important bits, go easy on me,
Thanks

Sligo1

Ok well firstly, general advice is not to pump until your supply is established (not in the first 6 weeks). But if your partner want to pumps I would say go ahead (I did). But make sure not to
Pump too much initially and it is best to pump at the same time everyday. I would always do it every morning after LOs breakfast feed so say 9am. If you do it different times and take different amounts on different days etc, your wife may develop blocked ducts or
Mastitis which can be very uncomfortable. If definitely go with the Medela swing pump if it's just to pump a bottle for you to feed the baby at night etc. congrats and good luck

ronn

Sligo1 wrote: »

Ok well firstly, general advice is not to pump until your supply is established (not in the first 6 weeks). But if your partner want to pumps I would say go ahead (I did). But make sure not to
Pump too much initially and it is best to pump at the same time everyday. I would always do it every morning after LOs breakfast feed so say 9am. If you do it different times and take different amounts on different days etc, your wife may develop blocked ducts or
Mastitis which can be very uncomfortable. If definitely go with the Medela swing pump if it's just to pump a bottle for you to feed the baby at night etc. congrats and good luck

Thanks we heard about the 6 week thing, My OH started breast feeding classes last week, We were with the doctors today the baby has a little reflux, The doctor said to work away with the pump (not for every Feed)

Thanks again for your help

Drdoc

Agree with all of the above.
I used the medela swing probably on average once per day for 10 months with no problems at all. As Sligo said, it comes with a bottle so just pour it into whatever bottles you have after.

Congratulations!

Sligo1

ronn wrote: »

Thanks we heard about the 6 week thing, My OH started breast feeding classes last week, We were with the doctors today the baby has a little reflux, The doctor said to work away with the pump (not for every Feed)

Thanks again for your help

Yea fire away so. If you want to start giving a bottle of EBM the sooner the better as once they hit the 2nd month they may decide they don't want to take a bottle and it can be very difficult to entice them. But make sure your OH pumps at the same time each day.

bp

I started pumping when babba was a week old and thankfully supply was never an issue. I did it in the morning post feed.

I had the manual one for the week and then sent my hubby to but the electronic swing - Pay more for the electronic one!

uck51js9zml2yt

We got a medela double pump and used it on 2 kids.
I bought it in a place in kilmacanogue for e400 4 1/2 years ago. It was just below medical grade.

Was the best thing I bought my wife.(so she says)
Breast and bottle fed number 1. Solely bottle fed number 2.

fro9etb8j5qsl2

I started pumping and freezing one feed a day when the baby was a week old. Started giving her one bottle of it a day this week (she is 3 weeks old) and have had no problems. With my last baby, I used a Mothercare Innosense pump and it was absolutely useless. I also had a Tommee Tippee manual pump but it broke after a few weeks. This time I'm using the Avent manual pump and I find it great, there's hardly any noise compared to an electric one and it takes 15-20 minutes for me to pump around 8oz. Bothof the manual pumps I got at halfprice because even though I find them good, there is no way I could justify paying €40-50 for them.

cbyrd

You can hire hospital grade pump from medicare in Wicklow for €96 per month double pump and you buy the accessories for €20-30 extra. Means she could pump a full feed in 20 mins!

pwurple

Hiring a hospital pump worked best for me, but honestly, it's not much of a break! Pumping is more than double the work of breastfeeding. You've to get all the gear together, sterilise, and pump.... and then someone (or yourself) has to do the feed.

tinkerbell

ronn wrote: »

Oops how does a man answer this, ðŸ˜႒ðŸ˜႒
The baby girl is here already, we borrowed a pump but it's broken,
The wife wants to continue breast feeding but I want her to express so she can have a few extra hours off, while I bottle feed our daughter,

So we're looking to get a tried and tested pump,

Ps, I've probably skipped some of the important bits, go easy on me,
Thanks

Does your wife actually want to express? Not trying to sound preachy but this is your wife's decision, not yours. If she wants to do so, fine, but expressing just so she can have a few hours off each day and so you can bottle feed is WAY more hassle than it's worth. It's a lot easier to just breastfeed after the initial couple of months.

Also you're not supposed to borrow pumps - it's not hygienic as the regular pumps are not closed systems.

Ginny

Yeah pumping can be soul destroying, due to medical issues we had to 50:50 ff:bf so I was pumping when I wasn't feeding. If your wife is happy breastfeeding then let her, pumping doesn't give her a break as such.

RentDayBlues

Anna Scruffy Hedgehog wrote: »

I started pumping and freezing one feed a day when the baby was a week old. Started giving her one bottle of it a day this week (she is 3 weeks old) and have had no problems. With my last baby, I used a Mothercare Innosense pump and it was absolutely useless. I also had a Tommee Tippee manual pump but it broke after a few weeks. This time I'm using the Avent manual pump and I find it great, there's hardly any noise compared to an electric one and it takes 15-20 minutes for me to pump around 8oz. Bothof the manual pumps I got at halfprice because even though I find them good, there is no way I could justify paying €40-50 for them.

Wow, 8oz! I would sometimes pump for 40 mins just to get 3-4oz!

Sligo1

RentDayBlues wrote: »

Wow, 8oz! I would sometimes pump for 40 mins just to get 3-4oz!

I'd usually get 200ml from 30min pumping abd that was straight after her morning feed. Lol. Pain in the arse to do it tho.

fro9etb8j5qsl2

RentDayBlues wrote: »

Wow, 8oz! I would sometimes pump for 40 mins just to get 3-4oz!

I should have clarified- if I'm pumping when a feed is due (if the baby is out with OH and getting a bottle), I'll get the 8oz. If I pump after a feed, I'll only get 4oz in the same amount of time. I'm bold because I don't pump or give the bottle at the same time every day. Also, I have fast letdown.

Tbh, I find it makes life so much easier giving 1 expressed bottle a day. It means I can really free up a few hours during the day where I'm not worrying about the next feed etc. My OH also enjoys giving the bottle. I exclusively expressed for a short while with my first baby and it was absolute torture in comparison. If I were to do this again, I would definitely rent the medela symphony. I have heard of women (who were exclusively expressing) getting up to 300ml in half an hour from it :eek:

pwurple

Medela symphony was the one we rented as well.

Still remember knocking over the bottle of pumped milk at 2am though...

Sligo1

Anna Scruffy Hedgehog wrote: »

I should have clarified- if I'm pumping when a feed is due (if the baby is out with OH and getting a bottle), I'll get the 8oz. If I pump after a feed, I'll only get 4oz in the same amount of time. I'm bold because I don't pump or give the bottle at the same time every day. Also, I have fast letdown.

Tbh, I find it makes life so much easier giving 1 expressed bottle a day. It means I can really free up a few hours during the day where I'm not worrying about the next feed etc. My OH also enjoys giving the bottle. I exclusively expressed for a short while with my first baby and it was absolute torture in comparison. If I were to do this again, I would definitely rent the medela symphony. I have heard of women (who were exclusively expressing) getting up to 300ml in half an hour from it :eek:

We started giving an expressed bottle every night aswell at about 4 months. Mainly because I was so afraid she would start refusing the bottle again if we didn't. God it was lovely tho to be able to make evening plans and maybe go out for dinner with the girls without having to worry .

RentDayBlues

pwurple wrote: »

Medela symphony was the one we rented as well.

Still remember knocking over the bottle of pumped milk at 2am though...

Been there, may have been some tears shed!

bp

I loved the expressed bottle as my OH took a night feed and I got 5-6 hours straight sleep which was wonderful and then back awake for the 2am one but still.....sleep!

cbyrd

I had to express from day one because of the birth, she was in special care for 9 days. I got to feed her for 3 days myself before I got a huge coldsore and was booted out of special care.
I love having the bit of freedom during the day too, I have 5 kids so getting stuff done around the house is important too.
I was at a family wedding 2 weeks ago and it was brilliant handing over the bottles. I pumped in the hotel nursery, that I had all to myself and sent that with my friend after she brought my little girl in to show her off to the extended family! it meant I got to 7am before I had to feed again, and the few drinks I had were worn off by that stage!
I was unfortunate that breastfeeding couldn't be established straight away and this affected my supply, it took weeks to get her weight up and I was feeding and expressing to build supply. I had the small medela pump, I could maybe get 10 mls in 20 mins? it was soul destroying. we had to supplement with a high calorie feed given to me by the hospital.
When I got the medical grade medela one it was a different story. I could pump a full feed in 20 mins. 120 mls. This was a huge achievement as it meant when we hit the weight the dietitian had aimed for, I can now reduce the formula and still pump and feed.
I managed to find a position that I could use the double pump and still have one free hand for drinking tea!lol

seventeen sheep

We got the Medela Swing. Breastfeeding wasn't working at all (he couldn't latch on), so we were offered the option to rent a Medela medical-grade pump (which I'd been using for a few days already in hospital), or to buy our own pump. I'd already done my research while pregnant and the Medela Swing was the most recommended so in the end I decided to buy that one.

I found it extremely easy to use, I got just as much milk out of it as I had been getting from the hospital pump, and it's so handy that it's so light and portable and easy to clean etc. As mentioned above, you can use absolutely any bottles with it. I've never used the Tommee Tippee pump, but from any reviews I've read, the Medela Swing always comes out on top.

However I was using mine for every single feed (as the latching issues weren't resolved) and these were large quantity feeds too, even at the start, so the motor burnt out (or something) after just three weeks. It coincided with me wanting to switch to formula full-time anyways.

So in your situation - for occasional feeds - that's the one I'd recommend ... however if anyone was in my position where they'd be pumping full time, I'd definitely go for renting the hospital-grade one. I knew that myself at the time, but was just overly optimistic that we'd get the latching issues resolved.

pwurple wrote: »

Hiring a hospital pump worked best for me, but honestly, it's not much of a break! Pumping is more than double the work of breastfeeding. You've to get all the gear together, sterilise, and pump.... and then someone (or yourself) has to do the feed.

God yes, this! Breastfeeding (when it works) is sooo much easier than pumping and all of the work involved.

You're not really giving your partner a break at all - her boobs will probably be full by the time the baby is due the feed anyways, so she'll end up having to pump around the same time you're giving the bottle. Which is actually just more work for her, rather than you giving her a break.

So if you do get one, I'd go for the Medela Swing ... but let it be your wife's decision, not yours.

snipey

anyone have priming issues with the Durco strap mounted pump

Plek Trum

I used Avent Comfort breast pump - very easy to use, effective and extremely comfortable too, you can lie any angle, you don't have to be upright with your boob sitting in it and it was very gentle too. Highly recommend (Im selling one too by the way!)