Not only is breast best for baby, it is free and ready whenever baby wants it. This keeps my costs down really low for baby feeding. As I only stopped feeding my youngest daughter a couple of months ago (whilst I was pregnant) it means I still have all my nursing bras - very handy.
As a tip if you need cheap nursing bras, check out eBay! There are a number of sellers on there that specialise in surplus stock - I used to be one of them, LOL. However, I bought my M&S surplus stock nursing bras in a twin pack for £5 - and I still have them after nearly 3 years!
The only other essentials that I feel are necessary when breastfeeding are nursing shells (to use on the opposite breast when feeding as I leak a lot!) and nursing pads for when I'm not feeding because I also leak a lot then too. I always use washable pads, and this time I am intending to make my own.
I don't bother with a sterliser because they are bulky and for a couple of breast shells not really necessary. I don't keep the milk I leak and I don't feed breastmilk from a bottle.
When I start weaning the baby I usually hand-express the milk into the bowl I am using and mix whatever it is I am feeding, for example baby rice, straight into the fresh breast milk!
The only other things I will need for feeding will come at around 6 months old. High chair, bowls, weaning spoons and ice cube trays! The ice cube trays are useful for freezing pre-measured amounts of breast milk and baby food. Good News! During a clearout I found my old ice-cubes trays and a couple of weaning spoons. My mother also found a stack of tupperware bowls with lids, so no need to buy them anymore!
Spent to date £1.99
Boobs (mine) £0
Nursing bras (already own) £0
High Chair (Freecycle) £0
2 Dummies - just in case (Tesco) £1.99
Washable Breast Pads (homemade from fabric offcuts) £0
Ice Cube Trays (found in back of kitchen cupboard) £0
Weaning Spoons (found in my daughters toy box!) £0
Bowls (Mum) £0
One very thoroughly scrubbed high chair. Believe me it didn't look like this when we picked it up. It's taken over 24 hours of soaking and scrubbing to get it up to this state of cleanliness but boy was it worth it!
Washable breast pads
