Pumpmate questions

[shp]

I've heard aboug pumpmate, but I am not sure how it really works. Has anyone here used it? I am wondering if the liner would fit any kinds of bottles. If not, what specific brands of bottles would fit? In addition, I assume the liners disposable. Are they expensive? As I started sending my daughter to day care, I found I might need a more convinient way to pump, and store my EBM. So I'd like to know what other people thing of the pumpmate and then decide whether I will buy it. TIA!


Shu-Hua
Mom to Jacqueline, 3/20/04

[quikeye]

Hi! I've used the pumpmate system-- it's very easy but can be expensive! They're very simple actually-- they're just drop in liners with caps to seal the liners that fit into wide mouth disposable bottles. Pumpmate makes their own bottles, but you can use any wide mouth disp. bottle you like (I used playtex's & had good luck w/ my bf'd DS & the "natural-latch" nipples). Playtex sells a "starter kit" with bottles and one each of their nipples-- we were able to figure out which nipples ds liked this way (without having to buy a bunch of them & not use them).

I love how simple it is-- I've used drop in liners since DS was born & I have to tell you it's a luxury not to wash bottles! :) Just pump into the liner, seal w/ a nipple or a cap, and that's it! The pump adapter is washed with the other pump parts, not a big deal. Freeze or refrigerate the liner, and toss when used.

The whole "system" starter kit includes adapters for yout pump that screw on, and then the bottles attach to the pump. It also includes a disposable bottle & a stand for the bm to stand upright in the fridge/carrying it (I haven't had it happen to me, but another mom here has used the pumpmate system & had leaks when the liners were laid on their sides).

I find it very convenient, but not really much more than the playtex drop-in liners. The plus with the pumpmates are that they can be easily frozen and come with the snap-in caps for that purpose (where the playtex liners have nohing to seal with and are thinner plastic than the pumpmate).

What I do is I have bought the pumpmates & also platex drop ins, and when I pump to FREEZE I use the pumpmate, and when I pump for fresh supply I use the playtex. I use the stand from the pumpmate system for both sets of liners (I only have like 4 bottles, so I don't have to use a bunch of bottles to store the milk in the fridge with the stand-- but it's not necessary).

A great tip I got from the boards here-- reuse the pumpmate lids when using playtex liners! They're really the only thing seperating the playtex from the pumpmate liners (excpet thickness, that's why I still only freeze in the PM)-- and they fit into the playtex liners! So, you can send liners full of milk and a disp. bottle, instead of sending a bunch of bottles. Have the daycare save the lids for you and just chuck the liners when done. I've also heard of moms freezing in the playtex liners with the pumpmate caps/stand, I haven't done it since I still have a bunch of the PM liners, but when I run out I'll probably try it :) Another good reason to hold onto those caps!

I know they're not meant to be reused :) but it's something I do. At about $20 for 60 liners from PM, and $5 for 100 from playtex, it was an easy decision (and one I made when my son was no longer a "newborn" either).

Another thing-- I don't know if they still offer it, but pumpmate has a "special offer" online where you buy one set of liners (newborn or regular 8 oz size) and get a starter kit for free. So, I did it and just bought one extra adapter for my double pump (Ameda PY), and the whole startup was about 24$ or so (70 liners, stand, 2 adapters, bottle, 70 caps). Enter " fk8 " (no quotation marks) in the coupon field after you've put both the starter kit & a 3-pack of liners in your cart-- it should take off 24.99 for the price of the starter kit (it used to!)

Best of luck!

ETA: Another tip if you use the PM system-- be sure to squeeze some of the air out of the liner when capping with the PM cap. Otherwise it's impossible to put on and will pop off when frozen (expanding liquid when frozen + trapped air). It's easy to do (somewhat), but important! Another great tip I got from stillplayswithbarbies-- another mom who's used PM.

[shp]

Thank you so much for your detailed explanation on how the PM and playtex systems work. I really really appreciate it!! Now it makes a lot more sense to me on how to use these to make life easier with pumping BM. Also, thank you for the tip on how to get the speical offer from PM. I think I might go ahead and give it a try!! :)

Shu-Hua
Mom to Jacqueline, 3/20/04

[stillplayswithbarbies]

I only have two things to add to what Aija said. :)

1. I froze in the Playtex dropins and in the WalMart brand. I honestly did not see a difference. I put them in a big ziploc freezer bag first because their lids are not airtight at all. I did reuse the lids. You can't really reuse the liners since they don't wash well at all.

2. Don't buy the kit. Go to http://www.pumpmate.com and go to the online store and find just the blue adapter and buy one (or two if you are double pumping). That plus the refills is really all you need. I just used extra bottles to hold it upright in my cooler and the freezer until it was frozen. You don't really need their special stand and their bottle and nipple. Once you have one set of refills, you can just keep using the lids with any brand of drop in liner.

And yes, I found that they did leak if I did not keep them upright while transporting. I could fit two Playtex bottles in a lunch size cooler that is meant to hold the sandwich (it zips onto the bottom of a lunch bag style cooler if you know what I mean). I was able to put that in my backpack next to my laptop and it stayed upright as long as I didn't lay the backpack down.


...Karen
DS Jake Feb 91, DD Logan Mar 03
http://members.aol.com/khowe14494/superpower.gif http://members.aol.com/khowe14494/bo...breastfed2.gif

[shp]

Thank you both so much for sharing your experiences. I have a few more followup questions regarding the liners.

(1) Which kind of Playtex liner should I be using? I checked out Playtex website and found 2 different liners, (See the link: http://www.playtexbaby.com/bottlesan...#dropinsliners). I suppose that the Pumpmate adapter can be used with Playtex "Drop-Ins® Pre-Formed Soft Bottle Liners". So my guess is you both use the "Drop-Ins® Pre-Formed Soft Bottle Liners" instead of the "Original Soft Bottle Liners". Am I right? BTW, where can I get the best deals on the liners?

(2) Would you recommend getting the 4-oz or 8-oz size of liners from either Playtex or Pumpmate? DD is about 6 months old. She doesn't take a bottle very well. She used to be able to take a 4-oz bottle of EBM at around 3-4 months old. However, DH and I got lazy in giving her a bottle consistently. Now she would take at most 1 oz of EBM from a bottle. So I actually have no clue how much I should prepare for each feeding.

Edited: Two more questions:
(3) Karen, I am not so sure what kind of lunch size cooler you were talking about. :P Do you have a picture to show me?

(4) Aija, I am not so sure which starter kit you used to identify the nipples that your son would take. Since DD does not like taking EBM from a bottle, I'd like to experiment with different types of nipples to see which one would work. The starter kit with different kinds of nipples seems like a good idea. I searched on the internet and found this one available at Target. http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html...sin=B000056HM5 Is this the starter kit you mentioned?


Thanks again in advance!!


Shu-Hua
Mom to Jacqueline, 3/20/04

[quikeye]

Hi!

The "pre formed" liners by playtex are the ones comparable to the pumpmates-- the others (original) are more of a bag style I believe-- that perhaps seals like a ziploc and you roll over the edge of the bottle's lip (not really sure; I think they were phasing them out & I have only seen preformed liners when I shop now. But that may just the store I shop at).

I'm not really sure about the liner size, unfortunately! We've been lazy w. the bottles as well and I'm just now finishing up my stash of 4 oz frozen liners-- DS still won't take much from a bottle, but I'm pretty sure he'll take more than that from the breast by now (he's 7+ mos). Karen will probably be able to answer that one more specifically :)

The starter kit was more like this one: http://www.playtexbaby.com/bottlesan...serstartersets
(The "original" nursing starter set, not the premium). The premium I think only has one type of nipple-- the natural-latch (I think this is the one my son uses now, but he started to prefer the orthodontic one early on). But the "original" set has 3 different nipples in both silicone & rubber-- DS prefered silicone but I guess some babes like rubber instead. I got it @ target, when I was out trying to find what a disposable bottle was :)

I don't know of any great current deals for liners; I generally have DH pick mine up @ target since he works close to one.

Good luck! :)

[stillplayswithbarbies]

>
>Edited: Two more questions:
>(3) Karen, I am not so sure what kind of lunch size cooler
>you were talking about. :P Do you have a picture to show
>me?


http://images.overstock.com/f/102/31...ts/P917246.jpg

The cooler I found had a separate section that zipped off the bottom. It looks like this one does not come apart, but it's the same idea. Two playtex bottles with retainer rings screwed in place but not the nipples will fit in there, along with a ice pack.

I put the pumpmate lid on the liner, slid it into the bottle, and screwed the retainer ring on to hold the pumpmate cap on.

...Karen
DS Jake Feb 91, DD Logan Mar 03
http://members.aol.com/khowe14494/superpower.gif http://members.aol.com/khowe14494/bo...breastfed2.gif