Cheerful Frugality Nurses Well
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It's later than late. The house is dark. I'm up with the baby, feeling just a little bit trapped by his all-night nursing demands.
It's at times like these that I need to remind myself that breastfeeding saves me a LOT of money! Like most frugal pursuits, I'm choosing effort over expenditure.
(And truly, how much effort is lifting up my shirt and lying on the sofa?)
Breastfeeding is not without associated costs. Here are a few tricks for making it even less expensive:
- Meijer stores give women free prenatal vitamins with prescription.
- Make your own nursing pads by recycling what you already have.
- Stretchy, no-wire bras can be pulled down for access, in lieu of nursing bras.
- Gain extra coverage for less by layering a long tank beneath your top.
- Skip bottles altogether. If you don't have to work, you can get by with a minimum of bottles and a quality hand pump.
Should you experience difficulty, a GOOD lactation consultant is worth every penny (and often covered by insurance). Solving breastfeeding problems early quickly pays for itself!
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6 Responses to “Cheerful Frugality Nurses Well”
November 10th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
I like to keep a candy bar on hand for those late night nursing sessions. The very concrete example of how lovely those extra 300 calories a day you get can be quite nice at 3 am.
November 10th, 2008 at 3:49 pm
I had no idea just how much I was saving until Christian had to stop nursing at 8 months and we started buying formula for the first time. Oh my word. I will never again feel like I’m being unproductive by just laying around!
Next time I plan on getting a netflex membership so I can watch something more worthwhile than the food network (although I did learn some handy tips). Of course the best way to spend some of that time is staring at that precious baby and remembering just how short that time really is.
November 10th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
Don’t forget the wonderful resources provided entirely for free by the La Leche League! Support meetings, lactation consulting, equipment rental (useful if you discover that you need a powerful breast pump for a short period of time – for oversupply or undersupply issues), a lending library and more.
November 11th, 2008 at 10:09 am
I’m newly pregnant with my 3rd, and after initially freaking out and wondering how we’re going to afford it, I realized “Hey, it really won’t cost anything to feed it!” Since I work at home now, I plan on exclusively breast feeding this one, so all I really need to do now is find a cheap hand pump to help with engorgement and to leave a bottle with daddy when I occasionally leave the house. It’s a relief to know that I won’t have to worry about that expense (unless I have some real issues, and to that end, our local hospital has excellent lactation consultants at no extra charge).
November 11th, 2008 at 10:23 am
Nursing can be expensive, as I found out with my baby. He was in a unique position, however, so it was more expensive for us that most people. He had cleft palate and was unable to suck at all. So, I had to pump for EVERY feeding. Normal pumps couldn’t handle that volume and would break down (which gets very expensive every time!), so we had to rent a hospital grade one. We even had the NICU discount and it was still more than formula now. Plus we had to use special needs bottles (still do that, though) and some medicine and vitamins. I did it for a while, but we eventually switched. Now I get sleep (wow! isn’t that worth some $$?) and he’s doing great. Sometimes you just have to think outside the box.
July 28th, 2009 at 8:58 am
Years ago when I was nursing, for nursing pads, I took cloth diapers, and cut round circles in layers and sewed them together, more helpful if you find the cloth diaper that is thick in the middle and use the thiner outside for the top and bottom layer.
A pump can be got for free from your local heath dept., they usually and hospital have on staff, a lady that specializes in breast feeding and will help you with all your needs. My daughter’s, Mother in law is one of the breast feeding specialist.
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