Breast Pads, Nipple Cream and "The CODE"

Lansinoh Breast Pads - available in 24 or 60 count boxes

 

Everyone who has had a baby and breastfed has heard of Lansinoh Nipple Cream, the one in the purple tube.  Since starting work in the public health field and working with breastfeeding mothers, I have had access to Lansinoh nipple cream and given it out to get mothers through those first few weeks of nipple tenderness.  After attending a few breastfeeding conferences I also had access to many nursing pad samples.  In 2007 I attended the ILCA conference in San Diego, CA while pregnant and was given an assortment of pillows, pumping attachments, nipple creams and breast pads.  I've had success with Lansinoh, Ameda and Medela disposable nursing pads, not so much with Simplisse.  Since 2007, all four of these companies have had changes of ownership or run into trouble with how they measure up to the "Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes", so I have tried a number of different breast pads to find something that is both code compliant and great.  Hygeia fits that bill but is not available in the UK.  I have tried both Sainsbury's and Tesco's generic breast pads with little success.  They are smaller, thicker and less absorbant.  At the beginning of Ellie's life when I was leaking the most, they ended up a soggy mess by the morning, with a big wet patch on my pj's or bed sheet URGH!

I also received a number of different nipple creams at the conference and tried them all.  I found that the easier they were to spread, the more useful they were.  Medela has the TenderCare nipple cream which is a lot easier to spread and acts more like a lotion than the sticky original Medela nipple cream or Lansinoh nipple cream.  The Simplisse nipple cream comes in a pump and looks like a white moisturiser and spreads really nicely too.  Again, this comes back to availability and CODE compliance.  I have found it hard to find anything other than Lansinoh nipple cream in the UK, and anything other than the large sized tube which is super hard to squeeze and is really big, enough for three or four Mums to share if I'm honest.

So, what are the choices?  Nature Babycare has come out with a biodegradable disposable breast pad which I am interested in stocking but can be found online.  Natracare also have a biodegradable product available which I hope to try very soon, and I'll let you know how it goes.  Ofcourse, you must be thinking why am I not using washable breast pads, and you should be.  I have always meant to try them, but right now I can only just keep up with my cloth diapers (and my mother spends too much energy complaining about how Ellie looks so uncomfortable in them and uses the Nature Babycare instead), one thing at a time I guess.

If you want to find out more about the CODE and how it relates to breastfeeding products, you can google it, search on Baby Milk Action, WABA, or some of the bloggers do a great job such as Blacktating.

Comments on pads that you have used and nipple creams that worked for you would be really great.

New Playground in Kemsing - What took so long? updated

If you've visited Kemsing recreation grounds in the last 20+ years you'll recognise the fence and gate, everything else has been replaced with brand new equipment.  Since moving back to Kemsing 10 months ago, I have managed to avoid the playground as much as possible by going to better playgrounds.  To be honest, anywhere was better than Kemsing.  I think the last equipment was installed when I was a kid, and even back then I was bored with the equipment.  The swings were getting old, and a little broken. the climbing frame was a little bent from bigger kids hanging on it for the last twenty years, and the bouncy elephant was on his last legs.

Here are some photos of the equipment:

This is the smaller kids climbing frame/slide/tunnel.  Behind you can see a bouncy frog.

The swing set is pretty impressive, two big kids swing, 2 small kids swings and one of those circular swings, so everyone is covered.

This egg cup shaped ride is really popular.  These are Williams and Isla's hands hanging on as they spin around.  They weren't allowed on it today because someone had broken a bottle in it.  We did manage to get a dust pan and brush from the local nursery Bumble Bees and clean it out.  We called the Parish Council first, but they are closed anytime after 1pm.

The greatest thing about Kemsing Playground - The open space

My family returned to England for a couple of reasons, one being that we're now the proud parents of two children and wanted to be close to grandparents.  I didn't have kids back when I grew up in Sevenoaks, so I had absolutely no ideas about bringing up children here.  Now I'm getting around to knowing all the child friendly places to visit and where the best playgrounds are.  In actual fact, the best playgrounds are not in Sevenoaks, the best ones are everywhere but Sevenoaks.  I was very disappointed to visit the Swanley playground this Easter and Summer.  Don't get me wrong, it's beautiful.  Everything you could ever want in a playground all in one place, and it's run by Sevenoaks County Council.  Why does Sevenoaks not have an amazing playground like that with boating, a train, a paddling pool, sand pit..........  Then there is Tonbridge, another amazing playground with a million things to play on and a sandpit which William loves.

My husband favours Otford, and I like Wrotham.  Greatness is nice but has no shade, and Pontoise has the death-defying sand cliff.

But now Kemsing can finally compete.  The new equipment has actually had some thought gone into it.  There is equipment for all ages.  A climbing frame and slide for smaller kids, and one for larger kids.  Swings to suit all ages, and one of those egg cup round about things that Ellie just loves to lay in and get spun around in.

Well done Kemsing, I finally WANT to go to Kemsing Playground.

Anyone interested in going to play at Kemsing playground can give me a call.  All my info is on my website - BoobieMilk

Not old enough to use the slide at Wear'm'Out

My son was invited to a birthday party today at Wear'm'Out in Tonbridge.  It's a favourite of ours, a great place to go when the weather isn't too great or you want to go to an enclosed location without an escape route.

This is another indoor play area with soft play, slides and snacks.  I especially like that this location is nice and bright, you can walk around the entire play structure to look for your hiding child, and you can see your child from most anywhere in the adult seating area.

We have been to quite a few soft play centres in the area.  Some of them are really difficult to navigate, and some make it hard to keep track of your child while playing because they are so deep and dark.  The Wear'm'Out in Tonbridge is very adult friendly, I even managed to get around it eight months pregnant.

So, William was feeling a little bit shy today, he didn't know many people at the birthday party and asked me to accompany him into the play structure.  I was quite happy to go in, climb the stairs towards the slide but William was having other thoughts.  He took me towards the "slide of doom", a slide that is practically vertical from top to bottom.  While I tried to persuade him that we'd do much better on the slow bumpy slide I was lucky to be saved by the staff member keeping guard who pointed to a sign above the slide entrance which read "no adult to use slide without signing a waiver and getting their hand stamped" or something to that effect.  Apparently my son is able to go down the slide of doom as much as he likes because I signed a waiver at the door and he has his hand stamped, but me as a responsible adult cannot make that decision for myself without signing the same waiver at the door.

Thank You waiver!

and a big Thank You to Wear'm'Out for having my fliers at their front desk.  I know I posted a lot of fliers to local businesses and nurseries but it is nice when I see them out.

Nearly New Sales - What's the hurry?

I am a regular attendee at nearly new sales.  I became addicted to them in the US after having my first child, and have been attending them religiously ever since.  Why pay full price for something that is going to be worn 6 times or played with for ten minutes?

The US sales are a little bit more relaxed I think.  They take place over a number of days with thousands of items for sale, and the manager of the sale making a lot of money (40-50% of sale price).  The tags are printed online, and everything is computerised.  In the UK, there are two different types of nearly new sales.  There is the table top sale where the seller pays for a space to sell her items from, and there is the typical NCT sale where you tag your items and mix them in with everyone elses for a big rummage sale.

I don't know which works best, I do know that the Sevenoaks & Tonbridge sales do pretty well, and the table top versions are run by local businesses, so there's obviously money in it.

I volunteered for my first UK sale back in February.  The sale was taking place in April, and I was 8 months pregnant.  I organized for my husband to come home early to take care of William and went along to the school hall where I had volunteered to help set up the night before.  Well, I didn't actually get to do much.  Can you believe that the NCT wouldn't let an 8 month pregnant woman lift any chairs or any tables.  I directed the people who were allowed to move tables, hung a sign and helped put fliers in bags.

I wasn't much more helpful the following day when I arrived to help with the actual sale.  I took my mother along too so that she could at least be more helpful than me.  The NCT lets its volunteers shop before the general public gets in, and I think I carried more weight to the till than three tables put together!!  I was then put at the front door in a chair to take the entrance fee and make sure that the first customers were indeed members.  I also had to tag buggy's so that we knew they were not being stolen from the sale.  I must admit that I hadn't seen a queue this long since my days working at the Crown Point when crazy families would wait outside on Mothers Day for an hour before being let into the restaurant to then wait two hours for their food.  I still can't believe that people then actually paid for the food, but that's another story and 15 years ago.

The NCT nearly new sales are a great fundraising opportunity for the local chapters.  I have enjoyed attending and volunteering.  I do wish though, that they would extend the time of the events.  I hate to see the sellers taking home a lot of beautiful clothes and toys that just didn't sell because the time was up.  The sales usually last less than 2 hours, it really is quite frantic and rushed as everyone tries to find the best bargains before time is called.  

So, if you ever want to see 200 crazed pregnant women turnover a school hall filled with childrens clothing and toys in 30 minutes with their bewildered husbands standing looking on in awe, get yourself down to your local NCT nearly new sale.  It is a sight to behold.

Find links to other local and national resources for new Mums.  As an aside, I have not seen so many infants and young children carried in slings in the UK as I did at the recent Borough Green NCT Nearly New Sale on October 1st, 2011

It just hit me that I love living in England

I met my american husband at the University of East Anglia.  Once I graduated we moved to Boston so that he could finish his degree at UMASS, while I worked on an internship visa at Massachussetts General Hospital.  Two years later, we moved to Glasgow so that I could do my Masters at the University of  Glasgow and we married that year in England at Chiddingstone Castle (saw them use the castle for a photo shoot on that show about liking yourself naked).  We then moved back to the US to Maryland so that Ryan could do a PhD at Johns Hopkins University and we remained there for over 7 years.

We really loved living in Baltimore, it was a little daunting at first, Ryan moved there a few weeks before a big hurricane hit the State and flooded half of downtown.  Crime rates are also pretty high there, and if you have ever watched The Wire, it really is like that in some areas.  After we had lived in Baltimore for a while I landed my dream job working for the WIC program (Womens, Infants and Childrens Supplemental Nutrition & Breastfeeding Program) in Anne Arundel County, which really married my two interests in Nutrition and Breastfeeding really well, and I felt like I was really able to make a difference in people's lives.  I worked with some really amazing people (you know who you are), and got to go to some really amazing places and learn so much about the program, the government, nutrition and breastfeeding.  The last two came in handy when I had my first baby in 2008 when we had a few teething problems breastfeeding, but I had an amazing support network around me and we are still nursing to this day (well, I think he nursed twice this week).

I remember interviewing for the job and being asked where I wanted to be in five years time, and my answer was England.  I never really saw my self staying in Baltimore forever, and England seemed the logical choice to me.  Actually, I'm surprised that they still hired me, maybe they didn't believe me.  I spent almost six amazing years working for the Maryland WIC program in Anne Arundel County, and it wasn't an easy choice to make to move back to the UK.  I had a job I loved, my husband had a job offer that would have meant we could stay in the same house which we loved, and we had grown to love Maryland and all that it has to offer.  The one thing we were missing was family.  Ryans' family are spread all over the US, just nowhere near Maryland.  My closest friend in the States had just decided to move from Washington DC back to San Diego.  I think we had taken advantage of a babysitter one time by the time my son was 3 because it was so expensive, and hard to justify.  Ryan's friends gradually got married over the time we lived in Baltimore, and a few times grandparents had to fly in just so that we could attend.  When I put William in daycare at three months old, I had to ask my work colleagues to act as emergency contacts (which they were more than happy to do), but it wasn't ideal.

Fast forward to December 2010.  I said goodbye to my dream job, we sold our home and packed our belongings into 20 suitcases and boarded a plane for Heathrow.  On arriving at Heathrow, we lost William at baggage claim.  We searched everywhere for him, hoping he hadn't jumped on a conveyor belt and been whisked behind the scenes or fallen off and hurt himself.  After a good 30 minutes frantically looking for him, we heard word that he had made it through customs and walked out alone into the international arrivals area of the terminal.  I ran through customs to find him while Ryan collected our 20 bags, and found William happy as anything at the information booth.  I was so happy to see him that I made the biggest mistake and smiled (possibly grinned).  I say this was a mistake as I spent the next five minutes of my life being lectured to by a Heathrow policeman about how I should be ashamed of myself for taking my eyes of my son and having the audacity to look happy about it.  Apparently he was the perfect parent, and had never taken his eyes off his children for one second their whole entire lives.  I remember thinking "Did I make a mistake?", "Take me back to America!".

Yes, it was just about warm enough to go to the beach this year

We made it to my parents home in one piece (actually we forgot one piece of luggage), and we have been living at my childhood home ever since.  There have been times that I've wondered if we made the right choice when it gets a little crowded (we still haven't moved out and I've since given birth to a gorgeous baby girl), but a few days ago (Wednesday, September 14th 2011 I believe) it suddenly hit me, and made me smile.  I was driving on my way from dropping William at nursery going to Pembury to attend breastfeeding peer supporter training with Ellie.  I was running late and we were stuck behind a truck trying to pass a car in the narrow lanes between Kemsing and Seal.  Once the two vehicles had passed each other I noticed an even larger van coming towards me, so stopped to let it pass.  It was my Dad.  It made me smile so much because I never had that in Baltimore.  I'd never gone for a walk or a drive and seen anyone I knew.  Here in SevenoaksWeatherspoons in Sevenoaks on a Sunday, I'll probably bump into my parents long standing friends Graham and Pauline.  On Thursdays William attends the local pre-school, and we car pool with the neighbours, who also looked after William when I went into labour with Ellie.

You'd think he'd been doing it his whole life

(My Dad didn't meet William until he was 11 months old)

We now live in a village surrounded by fields.  We are close to London, close to the beach, close to France even, and close to family.  You just never know the importance of having family close by until you have children.  I think we made a very good decision to move close to family, and we may argue from time to time, but now I can't imagine not having them here.

William and Granny at Diggerland

I am sad that we cannot be close to all of our family, but it's getting harder and harder for families to live close by because so many people are traveling for work, and moving all over the globe.  It is a big reason why we so desperately need breastfeeding support groups and breastfeeding peer supporters, in a world where you can no longer rely on the wisdom of other family members to help us when we have questions, friends and peers take their place to provide the answers and guidance.

This is how I find the time to run the new business and write blogs

The NCT, NHS, WIC, La Leche League and ABM are among many organisations that provide breastfeeding support in your area.  Please find a support group near you before you have your baby so that you know exactly where to go and who to call.  I have a list of breastfeeding resources on my website.

 My Kiddies

William (January 2008) and Ellie (April 2011)

Emma-Jane 442 T-Shirt Nursing Bra

I have reviewed the Emma-Jane Seamless Nursing Bras 361 and 365, so I'm now going to move on to the Emma-Jane 442 t-shirt nursing bra.  The nursing bra is available in twelve sizes 32, 34, 36, 38 each in cup sizes B/C, D/DD, and E/F, and is available in black and skin colours.

As you can see, the Emma-Jane 442 T-Shirt Nursing Bra is very pretty with embroidered straps and scalloped detailing on the cups and a pretty flower between the cups.  The bra is made from microfibre and cotton and has a moulded cup with light padding.

I do not usually wear padded bras, not really since secondary school when WonderBras were really popular.  T-shirt bras with light padding were really popular in the US when I lived there, but I really wasn't interested in hiding my nipples and rarely wore tight t-shirts at that time.

I don't think you can really understand why a t-shirt bra can be so good until you have breastfed.  I think my nipples have quadrupled in size since I started nursing almost 4 years ago.  Is that true for everyone, I don't know?  It is really funny to think back to those first few days in the hospital after giving birth to my eldest.  He was suctioned deeply at the hospital immediately after birth and was refusing the breast.  One of the nurses tried to convince me that I had inverted nipples.  I just stared at her for the longest time.  Labour is tiring, and I was tired and frustrated that they wouldn't let us go home yet, and just remember thinking "SERIOUSLY!! Have you seen my nipples?".  They may look a bit weird and not at all alike, but they are definitely not inverted.

So, I do now see good reason for a little padding in a nursing bra.  The padding gives a smooth look for those endowed with larger nipples.  Or, if you are like me and need to wear a nursing pad for those pesky leaks during the day, the padding works equally well at hiding any wrinkles from a disposable pad, or circle lines from a thick washable nursing pad.  I plan to do more reviews in the future for nursing pads, so stay tuned.

There are only a couple of things I would mention for your consideration when looking at this nursing bra.  When nursing in this bra, you need to be aware that there is more material to keep out of the way when the cup is pulled down.  I usually tuck the cup material under my breast when nursing, which is really easy with the Emma-Jane 361 or 365.  Because the padding is pretty light and very flexible, getting it out of the way for nursing is much easier than with some other padded nursing bras, but you have to make more of an effort, so I think it is important to mention. 

I haven't been working with this nursing bra for very long, but I have found that the bra fits much better on the larger cup size.  So, if you take the B/C sized cup, a C sized breast fits much better than a B.

The 442 T-Shirt nursing bra is another great value bra from Emma-Jane.  It has a much lower price point than many other t-shirt style nursing bras available right now from companies such as HOTmilk and Cake, and it is a really comfortable and pretty bra.

Emma-Jane 365 Seamless Nursing Bra with Removable Pads

To continue my review of nursing bras I am now reviewing the Emma-Jane 365 Seamless Nursing Bra.  It could be easy to confuse this nursing bra with the previously reviewed Emma-Jane 361, but the 365 comes with a few more bells and whistles.  Both the 361 and 365 look very alike.  They also come in the same four sizes (32, 34, 36, 38 fitting B-F), and three colours (Black, White, Skin).

The Emma-Jane 365 Seamless Nursing Bra is more expensive than the 361 by approximately 50%, and there is good reason for this.  The 365 nursing bra has the added option of removable foam pads.  I have never used the pads in this nursing bra or the Bravado Bodysilk Seamless, so being removable is an added bonus for me.  The pads are provided to enable the wearer to have a smoother look when wearing tighter fitting clothing, acting like a t-shirt bra.  The pads also hide any wrinkles that might happen if wearing a nursing pad, and nipples that you may not want noticed by others.  The pads are removed or inserted very easily, and easily washed.

The other major difference that you'll notice between these bras is that the side sling in the 365 is much more substantial, and widens more at the bottom of the sling to give more support to the breast.  It is for this reason that I choose to wear the 365 over the 361 more often as I do prefer that little bit of extra support.  This bra washes and wears really easily, and is just as versatile as the 361.  The lack of seams makes it really comfortable to wear day or night, and because it fits a range of cup sizes, it really can be worn throughout pregnancy and breastfeeding.  I would still think about upgrading to a more expensive bra to find additional support for the larger cup sizes, support is definitely something you pay for with nursing bras.

Another great value nursing bra from Emma-Jane to add to your maternity and breastfeeding wardrobe.  Because I have found that seamless bras such as the Emma-Jane 365 are great to sleep in as well as wear any other time of day I have them listed in both the Emma-Jane Nursing Bra and Sleep Bra sections of the website.