3 Ways to Determine If You Need a Flange Fitting (QUIZ included)

If you are a pumping mom then you have probably heard the buzz about flange fitting. 

If you don't know what I am talking about, flange fitting is changing the size of your pump flanges to fit you better. 

TAKE THE FLANGE FITTING QUIZ HERE

What you may not know is Why you want to do that and HOW you know if you need that. 

In this week's blog post, I am going to give you 3 ways to know if you need to change your flange sizing. 

If you don't have time to read this, you can watch the YouTube video about this here

Let's jump right in. 

What are your flanges?

The flanges are the funnel part of the breast pump that connects to your pump on one end and attaches to your breast by way of the funnel looking part on the other. It is not the funnel part that is the concern. It is actually the size of the tunnel that causes the problems. Different sized flanges have different sized tunnels and this is where problems develop. 

Traditionally, breast pumps came with one or maybe two sizes of flanges in the pump kit. They were all usually a size 24 or 25mm  and maybe a size 27l28 mm which described the diameter of the tunnel. Pumping parents would start pumping with one size and if they had pain they would usually be told that they breasts or nipples were too large ( or too elastic, or - name it...) and it would be recommended to go up in size. 

Yet, many parents still struggled. 

How did Flange Sizing Come About? 

In recent years, breastfeeding professionals have begun to look more closely at how to improve pumping and looking at flange sizes became a focus. (hooray!). Watching moms pumps, lactation professionals noticed that the flanges were causing the difficulty and realized that the flange sizes actually needed to be smaller not larger. 

With much trial and error, sizing has been fine tuned. 

But, how would you know if your flanges are not fitting well? 

There are three criteria that I use to determine if a flange is fitting well. 

These criteria are Fit, Feel and Function. 

These are very likely at least one or more of the issues that you will be concerned about anyway. 

Let's discuss these individually. 

FIT

This is the way that the flanges fit your breasts. You want the nipple to move freely in the tunnel without a lot of space around the nipple and without the areola and breast tissue pulling into the tunnel with the nipple. You also want the flange shield fitting firmly against the breast without a lot of space between the breast and the shield. 

FEEL

You want the flanges to be comfortable. That means NO PAIN. Flanges should feel like a gentle tugging not like your nipple is being ripped off. If you feel like you are going to cry - something is not right. You also should not have any trauma to your nipple - no bruising, cracks, etc. 

FUNCTION

You should be able to get enough milk for you baby's needs with your pumping and pump that milk in a reasonable amount of time.  This is the part that I think a lot of people don't realize is related to their pump flanges. 

TAKE THE FLANGE FITTING QUIZ HERE 

But, here is the real question - HOW MUCH IS ENOUGH MILK? How much milk do you need to pump?

Many parents are very confused about how much is enough. Most parents think that they don't have enough milk based on how much milk they are pumping. (

I think in all the years of helping parents with breastfeeding, I have NEVER had a parent tell me that they have TOO much milk - EVEN when they have WAY too much milk. This is a reflection of seeing large bottles of milk parent's have pumped on social media. 

The amount of milk that you need is the amount of milk your baby needs from you for a feeding. If you are pumping instead of feeding your baby, you want to pump enough for that feeding. But, if you are pumping AFTER a feeding, then you should not expect to get that same amount of milk. 

The time it takes to pump that milk may vary depending on the type of pump and the pump settings you are using and your history, and when you pumped or fed last,  and the time of day, but you should be able to get that milk in less than 30 minutes - maybe less. If you are needing to pump for an hour each time to get the milk you need, then you need to some help with this. 

Also, if you cannot get the milk you need without using a high amount of suction to get that milk out, then that is a problem as well. Using a high amount of suction may be contributing to your pain and nipple trauma and this could cause damage to your breasts.Your flange size could be impacting your function. 

Now, could other issues be causing you pain, or decreasing your milk supply or causing you to have trouble getting your milk to let down or taking a long time to get enough milk? Absolutely. 

But, if you have other reasons but your flanges are not fitting, those other reasons will not improve, so fixing your flange sizing will make everything better. 

I recommend getting a flange fitting if you are ever in doubt of the cause of your pumping. troubles. 

I hope that you have found that this information has cleared up some issues for you. If you would like to look into your own issues a little more and see if a flange fitting will benefit you and see where you stand,

TAKE MY SHORT FLANGE FITTING QUIZ HERE

See if a flange fitting might help you and what the next steps might be to getting a better flange fit. Send me a message if you have concerns about flange fitting or want more information.