All About Reusable Breastpads

Hi All! Caitlin here, mom of two here to talk all about breastpads!

As you may know I have a two and a half year old and a four month old, so I’ve spent about 16 months of my last 30 breastfeeding. It is a blessing and a challenge at the same time.

Breastfeeding is demanding and can even be physically painful. After going through the struggle myself, I recommend Lil Helper Hera Breast Pads to all my mama friends. We want the best products for our babies, but we need to take care of ourselves too. Lil Helper Hera Breast pads are the best for that for a bunch of reasons.

Ditching Disposables

With my first, I came home from the hospital with disposable breast pads. Almost immediately knew there had to be a better product out there. Disposable breast pads become hard when soaked, and will stick to any cracks or damage on your nipples. This can can cause more pain and even bleeding when removed.

I was flying through them, and not loving them. Like lots of parents, I care about using safe, affordable, and environmentally friendly products for my family. Disposable breastpads felt wasteful, ineffective, and uncomfortable. I was quickly on the search for a more natural, reusable option on Amazon.

Not all Breastpads are Created Equal

I eventually settled on a set of bamboo breastpads I found online. They are super absorbent, but left an obvious, round outline on my shirt. They also feel wet. So after several let downs, I needed to change them during my oversupply stage. Putting a wet, cold breastpads back on after a feed is super uncomfortable. And it was easy to soak through them too.

I was thrilled when Lil Helper released their stay dry breastpads, I knew they’d be super absorbent since I was already in love with all their absorbing products (diapers and change mats and bibs oh my!)

All about Lil Helper Hera Breastpads

The difference with Lil Helper is the stay dry lining material. Just like their reusable diaper liners, the material against your body on the breastpads pulls moisture in. The outer blue material feels dry to the touch. These breastpads are made of three layers. The bamboo stay dry material keeps the pad dry against your skin. The inner bamboo terry absorbs a crazy amount of liquid. How much? Check this out!

The last layer is a waterproof PUL to keep your shirt dry.

The other great thing about the Lil Helper Hera breast pads is how discrete they are. Many other breastpads have an unnatural, round shape and little to no contour. Lil Helper breastpads have a unique shape that contours to your breast, which helps keep them in place without leaving strange lines on your shirt. They are also super thin for all their absorbency. This unique design is perfect and leaves no visible seams, lumps, or bumps, because those things are never in style.

Want to know more about the unique design that makes these breastpads the absolute best? Just in need of a good giggle? Check out our CEO Mohammed awkwardly explaining them here! This guy cares a lot about making great products for moms, even when it means he has to make awkward breastpad demonstrations using fruit!

More Breastfeeding Gear

My one critique? As a new Lil Helper customer I found the discreet design moved in my sleep and couldn’t keep up with my oversupply when babe would randomly sleep through the night. But this tiny problem only led me to learn one more thing about Lil Helper - they truly are a great company who cares about their customers.

All About Hera Overnight Breastpads

I contacted the delight team to suggest they create a larger breastpad for overnight use and within several weeks they were sending me a prototype to try! I was thrilled with not only the customer service receiving my feedback but how seriously they took it - Lil Helper is just always looking for ways to help make parents’ lives a little easier!

Now, I use my overnight breastpads every night and though I may wake up like a hot mess mombie (mom zombie) I catch way more ZZZ’s knowing my Lil Helper Overnight Breastpads will stay in place and protect my mattress from leaks all night long.

The Lifesaver Mat

But before I use overnight breastpads, I use another trick in the early days of breastfeeding. I don’t like to sleep in a bra as my milk regulates, when engorgement is a regular experience. Instead, I sleep on a lifesaver mat, so I can stay as comfortable as possible and still never worry about waking up in a puddle. The lifesaver mat covers a large area, feels dry to the touch, and also has that PUL backing to protect from pesky leaks.

Mesh Laundry Bags & Storage

But what about the extra laundry? This is the question that comes up when I talk to parents about reusable/cloth options for lots of things. The truth is, there is no extra laundry when choosing cloth breastpads over disposable, as they can be thrown in with your regular laundry. They are however, small and easily lost in the load (like your missing sock’s crazy cousin, these guys really will disappear in a flash). Be sure to use a Lil Helper mesh Laundry bag to keep them together in your machine.

Clean, dry breastpads are kept in a small wetbag in my bathroom. This way they are always handy when I get out of the shower (a time when a strong let down is likely). I also keep a couple spare sets in my diaper bag, just in case.

Wet, used breastpads get tossed in my mesh laundry bag by my hamper and wait for laundry day.

Wet, clean breastpads I lay flat to dry on the mesh shelf on my drying rack. Because they are so absorbent and have that waterproof PUL backing they do take some time to dry and I find having the air flow underneath helps speed the process faster than leaving them to dry say on top of the dryer. If I don’t have my mesh drying space, I simply try to remember to flip them over part way through drying as well. In a pinch, they can also go in the dryer on low.

Ok, so why are they called Hera Breast Pads?

So you might be wondering why we call them Hera Breast Pads. What’s with the name Hera? In Greek mythology, it was the queen-goddess Hera who breastfed Heracles (by feeding the child, the goddess unwittingly gave him divine strength). Until one day he bit her nipple, upon which she pushed him away, spilling her milk across the sky which led to the formation of the Milky Way. Just as we were inspired by Hypatia in creating our reusable Hyps menstrual pads, we felt our breastpads deserved a similar namesake.

So there you have it. Leaky boobs are no fun but Lil Helper is here to save the day and your shirt! Now that you know all about Hera Breastpads and how to use and care from them, you’re ready to feed that babe, stay comfortable, rock your fashion, and save the environment. You go, Mama!