Review: Philips Avent Breast Shells and Innosense Breast Sheild

First of all, do not confuse breast SHELLS and breast SHEILDS..They have a totally different structure and uses in breastfeeding.

This breast SHELL is a total blessing for me as I have 3 kids who are fully breastfed for more than a year. I find this totally helpful during my breastfeeding times and it is multifunctional too.

Packaging:

I love that the front shell is plastic and the back shell is silicone. Soft for our breast and hard in front for support. It also has a drain structure on the front shell so you'll easily drain the milk out or for pouring straight into a bottle.

It comes in two shells in each set. One set with holes on top and the other set is without holes.

This is the one with holes on top

Uses:

1) Relieve Breast Engorgement

Few days after delivery, when milk starts to come in, we start leaking milk and our breast gets engorged due to excessive milk production. This is the time to pump and build up your milk supply. But to those who dont have a pump or just want to relieve the engorgement, this shell is the BEST thing. It removes just the right amount of milk to stop breast engorgement. 

If you use the set without holes, you can save this milk for later, pour them into a bottle and keep it in the fridge. 

If you use the set with holes, you have to THROW them out due to contamination with the air.

I also use them when I'm away from baby for a few hours. You know the feeling when your away then during feeding time it starts to leak itself. It prevents you from getting your shirt wet.

2) Alternative to breast pads

We all know how expensive disposable breast pads are. This is a cheaper alternative to breast pads. You can wash and sterilize them too. All you need to do is wear them on the side that you are not breastfeeding and it will catch the leaking milk. Same rule goes to the set with holes and without. 

3) Soothing a cracked, sore nipple

Oh the pain of a sore nipple you cant imagine. Its as sensitive as a penis, no bones but suppperrrr sensitive. This happens mostly right around when baby starts teething and thinks our breast are the best thing to chew. Wear the set with holes to air out the nipples and preventing the wound from sticking to the bra.

Breast sheild

This breast sheild, as the name says it" breast SHEILD". This is most useful when you have to feed baby but cant due to intense bleeding and cracking of nipples. It acts as a sheild to your breast so baby can still feed without touching your nipples. This sheild is made up of silicone and it prevents the baby from chewing the nipples. Just imagine a bottle but our breast is behind the bottle nipple.

It is also useful if you have an inverted nipple or a small nipple and nipple wont fit into babys mouth. This sheild help the process for easy feeding.

I have used the one from Innosense Mothercare once when my nipple was bleeding and it has a deep cut that I cant feed my baby. It helps during the healing process.

Once the nipple recovered, this things is quite useless. So cant really say much on this.