Product review: must-have products for new working mums

We get several requests form manuafacturers to review their products, and a lot of them are not always of any great benefit to working mums in particular.

However, evey so often we get products that can make a working mum’s life a whole lot easier. Here are the latest findings.

Yoomi – the Feeding Bottle and Warmer in One

Every mother knows the military precision involved when planning to travel with a young baby. Nappies, check…wipes, check…nappy cream, check…clean bottles, check…flask with warm water, check, bottle warmer, check…my bag is busting just thinking about it.And it’s usually the bottles, warm water and a bottle warmer (in case your baby doesn’t finish the milk, but you know she’ll change her mind in 15 minutes or so, and it’s a waste to throw it out and make up more) that take up the most space in any baby bag.

That’s why we love the Yoomi (www.yoomi.com) bottle. It just makes sense – and it means that mums new and experienced can take some of the stress out of trying to get a feed ready when babies are screaming in hunger.

Yoomi is 100% BPA free and only takes a minute to warm up to the right temperature (breast milk temperature) for your baby. And it can be used in more ways than when you are going on long trips with your baby – you can use it for night feeds, going for a meal, when travelling back home after doing the nursery pickup etc. because it’s like the normal size of a wide feeding bottle, you’ll soon forget that your Yoomi is actually a lot smarter!

This is a must-have for all new mums – and will be a great gift at a baby shower, or when a friend or relative has a new baby. The Yoomi makes the perfect gift for new mums who seem to have everthing …they’ll certainly thank you for it a lot more than a cuddly toy!

Lanisoh Affinity Electric Breast Pump

Every mum wants to give their baby the very best start in life, and for most mums this means at least trying to breastfeed their newborn baby. When you go back to work, it doesn’t have to mean that has to change – not if you can express your milk.

Expressing milk can be a bit of a bore, and time consuming. Some handheld pumps really don’t do much to help, either – and they can be quite uncomfortable, too.

This is where the Lanisoh Double Electric Breast Pump (www.lanisoh.co.uk) comes in tops. It is comfortable, with soft cups that fit snuggly around the breasts, and the electric function means you can kick back and relax a little while the machine does all the work for you.

We’ve been sent quite a few breast pumps in the past and a lot of them come with so many parts that the prospect of washing them (which, of course, you have to!) can be a little daunting.

But the Lanisoh comes with only a handful of parts, and it’s all very logical and quite easy to figure out, so you can just get to the main task of expressing milk.

Munchkin Deluxe Bottle Brush

When I was contacted about this bottle brush, it didn’t really get me excited, I have to say! A brush if just a plain old brush,  , right?

Well, no…you see, bottle brushes don’t all work the same, and for me, storing them after washing can be a bit of a nightmare. I used to use a double ended bottle brush that has a big brush one end to wash the main bottle, and the small tip on the other end for washing the teats. And therein lay the problem – there was nothing to hang the bottle up on the rack with, and I didn’t want to put it with washed dishes – this is the brush that’s washing a new baby’s bottle, so you want to minimise exposure to the normal bugs and germs that you get in the kitchen (even by the sink!).

Munchin’s (www.munchkin.com) bottle brush has a suction end so you can stand the brush up, and if you want to use the small end to wash a teat, you just turn and out it pops.

Sometimes, it’s the small things that count – and this is definitely one of them!