My Favorite Nursing Accessories

+J.M.J.+

I nurse. A lot. In fact, I have nursed every single day since Philomena was born two and a half years ago. (And yes, my toddler does still have a quick nurse before nap and bedtime. This is kind of culturally taboo in America, and something I chat about in this post here.)

I have never pumped before, so I can’t be helpful with all of the accessories related to that, but there are a few things that I find invaluable when it comes to nursing my girls.

First of all is this glass water bottle found here on Amazon. Nursing makes me soooo thirsty. Your body is putting out a ton of liquid; you need to replenish it. Also, I got tired of having glasses around the house because I needed to constantly refill them, and Philomena loves to test out the forces of gravity with cups, if you know what I mean.

I love this Contigo bottle because it holds plenty of water, it doesn’t leak, you can lock the straw down when the cap is closed if you want, the glass means I’m not having water leaching chemicals out of plastic, and it is easy to drink out of. (I can’t stand how hard you need to bite down on a Camelback mouthpiece to get the water out, it actually gives me a tension headache using one over and over all day.)

(Pro-tip, use these Munchkin straw cleaners on your water bottles and sippy cups to get the mold and gunk out of them!)

Next are these reusable organic cloth bra lining pads. I only needed these for a couple months postpartum with Philomena, but they were so helpful while I was leaking all over the place as my supply was balancing out. If you’re soon to be postpartum, or leaky in general, these are great ones to try. They are thin enough that they don’t show beneath your shirt, but thick and absorbent enough to take care of leaking.

Next up is this Natural Nipple Butter by Earth Mama Angel Baby. Kind of like the bra liners above, I don’t need this constantly for nursing, but it is so helpful when you are first starting to nurse, as well as when baby gets teeth. (You occasionally get bit as they are figuring out sucking with their new mouth gear!)

This has clean ingredients to soothe sore, chapped skin, without any nasty chemicals to wash off before baby feeds next. It can also be used on dry skin and lips. It smells *amazing,* and a tiny jar lasts a loooong time.

Finally, I need to mention the real MVP of my nursing line-up – this simple, single layer linen ring sling by Sakura Bloom. This allows me to nurse (almost) hands free aaaaaanywhere.

I am talking about nursing while washing dishes, picking up the house, reading to Philomena, taking walks, at Mass, and while pushing a cart and grabbing groceries at Trader Joes.

It really saves your back from having to support all of baby’s weight while you walk and nurse, and if you don’t walk and nurse… then you’re probably frustrated with how much time you need to spend sitting down to feed baby.

(And this isn’t to say that we always should feed baby on the go. We definitely need quiet bonding time with baby and time to rest and recharge ourselves every day. But if your kids nurse on demand like mine have…. you just can’t get done what you need to if you don’t nurse on the go some too!)

I love this sling because it is buttery soft and easy to work with new out of the box, unlike some other slings that can take a long time to break the fabric in. It is supportive, comfortable, and breathable.

I want to hear from you, what nursing accessories do you love? Have you tried any from my list before? Happy feeding!