Breast Pump Comparisons

What About Cheap Breast Pumps by Evenflo, The First Years, Gerber and Nuk?

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See also Breast Pump Adverse Events Reported to the FDA.

When you get ready for the birth of your newborn you will discover yourself expending your family resources for a large amount of gear. Of course, you are going to endeavor to lower your costs and scrimp everywhere that you may, but what about a breast pump for the mother who intends to nurse her baby? When there are very many low-cost or cheap breast pumps to be obtained for under USD 100, why would anyone spend much more?

Mothers like yourself have had the following to say of cheap breast pumps:

• Painful
• Caused injury to the breast
• Not very much milk could be removed with it
• Too little or too much suction
• Needed to stop pumping to fix some problem all the time
• Noisy
• Pump motor stopped working only shortly after purchase
• A waste of money!

A typical review of a cheap breast pump will sound like this:

"I am baffled why this pump failed to function as I anticipated. I really could not get very much breast milk out and I assumed my body must not be making sufficient. I lost confidence in my ability to nurse my infant and very quickly discovered myself supplementing with infant formula. At a friend's advice I tried a Medela (or Ameda or Avent) electric powered pump and it was a wholly new experience. In ten minutes I pumped a decent four oz."

Even worse than the inadequate cheap breast pump is one that does harm:

"Pumping was so uncomfortable it took serious willpower to continue with the attempt! Then I discovered I had wounded my nipples, as they quite simply ended up bleeding. I really could not nurse at all as I healed and my infant had to rely on infant formula. I never went back to breastfeeding."

Given the experiences above, even if you receive one of these devices as a gift you may want to think twice before trying it.

Summary of Evenflo, The First Years and Gerber Breast Pump Reviews

Breast Pumps by Evenflo
Of 350 reviews found on the internet for Evenflo breast pumps the average number of stars was 2 out of 5, with most reviewers giving only 1 star.

• Elan or Elan Dual
• Comfort Select or Dual or Performance
• Comfort Ease or Comfort Care
• Evenflo SimplyGo Manual or Dual

Breast Pumps by Gerber
Of 80 reviews found for Gerber breast pumps the average number of stars awarded was 2 out of 5. The old Gerber pumps are being phased out for the new Gerber Massaging Manual Breast Pump, which has few reviews at this time. It is a particular disappointment that Gerber breast pumps have not delivered on the expectation that Gerber’s baby feeding reputation raises.

Breast Pumps by The First Years
Of 250 reviews found for The First Years Breast Pumps the average number of stars awarded was 2.5 out of 5. As a manufacturer, The First Years is continually changing packaging, names and model numbers, but without significant improvement in performance.

• Easy Comfort Manual 1169
• Natural Comfort Single Electric/Battery 1075
• Natural Comfort Double Electric/Battery 1068
• Easy Comfort Single Electric/Battery 1189
• Easy Comfort Double Electric/Battery 1190
• Natural Transitions Single Electric/Battery Y4478A1
• miPump Double Electric Breast Pump

About Breast Pump Reviews

Stars are awarded on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the best. With few exceptions most of the reviewers award 1 star to a cheap breast pump with only the occasional reviewer giving 3, 4, or 5 stars to raise the average overall. By contrast the Medela Pump In Style and Ameda Purely Yours breast pumps have received 300 reviews with 4.5 stars average.

Recommendations

Acquiring a low priced breast pump is a risk. If you are one who is committed to nursing your baby you should stay away from these pumps. It is far better to purchase your child's apparel along with other equipment at yard sales and baby consignment sales and put your hard earned dollars towards a highly-reviewed device. Also, if making a choice between pumping and using formula, look carefully at the cost of formula. Consider also the immune protection your baby is provided with from your breast milk as well as at least one hundred other advantages. There exists a price to losing time at work or sleep caused by an unwell infant on formula. It could be that buying a cheap product is a fake way to economize and that the higher priced ones are affordable after all.

Consider buying your device online. Shipping is free with many orders over $25 at Amazon, and you will be able to have just as great a selection as you see at the store, including sets that include carryalls, storage bags and feeding bottles as well as all the specific info and reviews you need to read to help you make up your mind. Amazon also has spare parts such as extra funnels, tubing, diaphragms, bottles and other parts you may want to have spares of.

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