Homemade Nursing Pads for Breastfeeding Moms

Let's face it if you are a nursing mom or a soon to be nursing mom, you potentially will need nursing pads. There are a two options available at the store, disposable and washable.

I will go through my thoughts on the two before we get into how to make a washable nursing pad. If you do not feel like listening to me rant a little, then just skip the next few paragraphs.

The money savings, if you were to use disposable nursing pads exclusively, are HUGE. Most of the disposable nursing pads I have seen in the stores are around eight to nine dollars for a box of sixty pads. One will use two pads at a time (typically you will be changing nursing pads at the same time, sometimes you may not, but for the sake of argument, we will assume that you change both nursing pads every time you leak or feed.) Considering you feed a newborn baby eight to twelve times within a twenty four hour period, that means you will be changing nursing pads at least eight to twelve times a day. Not to mention the times in between feedings when you just happen to leak. We will say you need to change three times a day in between feedings, just so our math works out. Who really knows how many times you may need to change.

This brings our total use of nursing pads, assuming you feed ten times a day (the middle road for the average) and change three times a day in between feedings, to twenty six nursing pads a day. That box of 60 will not last long if that is the case!

In addition to the cost, think about all of these nursing pads showing up in landfills across the country. I think we have enough trash everyday that we really need to think of ways to limit our garbage.

As for the washable nursing pads that you can buy in the store, they typically cost about twenty dollars a pair. You will need more than one pair, and I will let you figure out how many you need based on how often you want to do laundry. They do sell wool nursing pads that I hear are easy to rinse, dry, and reuse without having to launder them, but they cost significantly more than the other types of reusable nursing pads.

All of this brings us to my latest project, homemade nursing pads. I did a quick google search to figure out what materials to use, and how thick to make the nursing pads. Then I went to work on gathering my supplies.

According to my research, flannel is the most recommended material to use for homemade nursing pads. If you do not have any old flannel lying around, any material that is 100% cotton will work. You could also go to the local thrift store and look for some inexpensive flannel sheets, or even buy some at the store.

I could not find an old pair of flannel anything at home that I was willing to cut up, so I raided the old T-shirt stash that was meant to become rags. I found enough 100% cotton T-shirts to make what I feel will be enough nursing pads for my need.

After gathering the material, I used an old CD as the template for my circle. You could use a disposable nursing pad or a store bought washable nursing pad as a template, too, or anything that will give you the right size and shape to cover properly. The CD looks like it will work.

I then traced circles onto the fabric using the CD and a highlighter. I am sure a marking pen used for sewing would work better, but I did not have one. After the circles are traced, cut them out with a good pair of scissors. Mine were a little dull as hubby was using them to cut flooring, of all things.

Now that we have our circles cut, we want to put four circles together to create one nursing pad. Sew these four circles together using a sewing machine or hand sew if you would like. I have been hand sewing mine as I have yet to convince hubby of the need for a sewing machine. I use the oversewing stitch, and I have washed a few to make sure they will not fray. It works wonderfully! It takes me about twenty minutes to hand sew one, but I am a slow mover. I am sure it would be a quick task on the sewing machine.

I hope you have found this information useful, and happy sewing!