Baby Registry - Feeding & Nursing

Joe: Hi! My name is Joe, today we are teaching you about what items to put on your baby registry. In this segment, I am going to go over breast pumps and breast pump accessories. Of course, we are going to start with your breast pump.

One of the smartest ideas to rent a breast pump from the hospital or some retail stores for the first month or so. These are given an option before you even leave the hospital. The reason why you might want to consider this is because this will allow you to figure out if you are going to pump for a certain period of time, or if you can just ran it for the first two months and then you will switch to formula.

If you don't feel comfortable renting a our breast pump from the hospital, there is many, many different kinds of breast pump that you can register for by yourself. Before you even come in we have to have a good understanding whether you are going to pump occasionally, or pump daily. If you pump occasionally, typically you are a stay home mom, who has greater access to the child and will breastfeed more than she pumps.

If your pump more than you breastfeed, if you go back to work or have the child in a daycare we might need something a little bigger with an engine that doesn't say occasionally use. Occasionally used pumps are not daily, that's may be three times a week at max.

There are manual pumps and electric pumps. Manual pumps are a little bit more frustrating to use but they are okay to be use for the occasional use. They also tend to cause a little bit more irritation since they don't mimic the exact way a child breastfeeds. If you need a pump that's for daily use we have to upgrade the one that's -- the one that have bigger engines.

The ones that have bigger engines, there is many different companies out there some even take it a step further and mimic the exact way a child breast feeds that cuts down irritation on mom. With the pumps some are individual pumps that pump one breast at a time, others like these allow you to pump both breast at the same time that way you are not spending so much time pumping. With the same pump a lot of manufactures who actually give you different options in bags.

Now the pump or the engine remains the same. The prices increased because more of a designer bag, a little bit more fashionable, there are some accessories like a little board that you can lay down on your lap if you are in your car, that do come in these. But most of the price increase reflects the bag.

Now that I have talked to you a little bit about picking out breast pump, we need to go over some of the accessories to register for your breast pump. Like, disposable bra pads and washable bra pads. It's good to register for one or two packs of washables because they are 100% cotton and they don't irritate you as much as the disposable ones. However, if we are not having a lot of irritation, our favorite ones are the disposable ones because you just get throw out of the way when you are done.

Some disposable bra pads are pre-medicated others are not. It's up to you whether or not you want to go with the ones that are pre-medicated but I would always recommend registering for one or two packs of the washable 100% cotton bra pads.

In the same category, is nipple cream. Nipple cream is very important especially for the moms that are having a very hard time breastfeeding and chapping, it's very irritating, it's cracking. Nipple cream can be applied to the nipple before breastfeeding it's very soothing, very comfortable, and it's very fast acting.

Now we are going to talk about storage containers. When you pump, you are going to need a pump and stored in something. You have two concepts for that. You have a bottle storage container and you have a bag storage container. You can stored here in the bag like shown in the picture, the bag will actually connect over top of the breast pump itself or the breast shield and you will be able to pump the milk directly into the bag.

One of the advantages of the newer bags is that, they stand up on there own. That way they don't fall over you don't need a box to put in the freezer. The bottles are also a very, very good options. The bottles make it a little bit easier so you can pump, store and then feed. In this case, you are going to have to transfer the milk into a bottle. Now that we have covered your storage containers, it's also good to register for shawls.

Shawls are used to cover yourself up when breastfeeding in public. It is best to have a shawl that allows you to see down to see if the child latched on properly. So I would recommend one that has an opening. So the nursing shawl covers yourself up when breastfeeding in public. I do recommend that you register for one or two of these, they come in multiple colors, so that you can make it stylish to match your outfit.

Now that we have talked about that, I am very strict about sterilizing these products. Since this has direct contact with your child's mouth and there is a lot of chance of bacteria and things like that. I do recommend that you sterilize these either on a daily basis or once every other day. There is a handful of ways that you can sterilize, one of which is using sterilizing wipes. As soon as you are finished with the breast pump you can actually wipe over top of the breast shield and other parts of the breast pump to sterilize them. There are sterilized bags that you can buy, you can put the items in the bag, put a little bit of water in the bag and throw in the microwave. The microwave heats the water to a steam and sterilizes whatever is inside. But I would recommend that you sterilize these as often as possible. Now that we have pretty much cover the breast pumps and the breast pump accessories, we should take about breastfeeding pillows. Breastfeeding pillows, there are so many different options out there.

One of the more popular breastfeeding pillows is just one that simply goes around your waist. It gives you enough leverage and support so the child raised up and you don't have to close the gap by leaning forward.

One of the other things that helps us do this, are nursing stools. Nursing stools are put on the floor and what they do is angle your knees to push the baby and the pillow up so again moms not leaning forward.

Now regarding the breastfeeding pillow, there are some companies that attach the pillow around your waist so it doesn't slide out. Since we have covered all your breastfeeding and your breastfeeding related items. Next, I am going to introduce and talk to you about bottles.