Nursing in the Cold

It snowed last night here in Pittsburgh. I wasn’t expecting an early November snowfall–I haven’t even gotten around to buying snow boots and snow pants for my 4 year old. More important, I wasn’t quite prepared for it to get so cold so quickly.

It’s important to me to be outdoors every day, unless it’s really precipitating. I like to take my boys for at least a walk, but more often we play in the back yard or tramp around the woods. Soon we’ll be sledding or ice skating! We all just have a better day if we’re outside.

My 18-month old still nurses pretty frequently when I’m around (which is most of the time!), and I haven’t yet felt I needed to set limits on his nursing. At some point, I’ll probably try to offer an alternative if he asks to nurse in public. With the way the mercury is dipping this week, I might start doing that very quickly.

I don’t mind nursing outdoors when it’s warm out. I really love it, actually. It’s so freeing most of the time, to just be in a park or sitting by a lake nursing a baby.

But in the winter? Oof! The thought of whipping out my boob in this frigid air makes my teeth chatter.

I have a fleece coat I like to wear that zippers from the top or the bottom, so this is always a nice option as I can zip up the bottom, pull up my shirt, and just have to unsnap my nursing tank. I’ve still got the nursing tank layer keeping my midriff warm, and there’s a minimal amount of skin exposed to the elements.

I really like this method because it keeps my upper chest warm–when I’m wearing any other sort of coat I always seem to have chilly collar bones no matter what sort of nursing shirt I’ve got on.

I’m thinking that I’ll be spending this frigid week distracting and offering a thermos of hot chamomile when Felix asks to nurse while we’re outside. But what do moms with younger babies do in winter months when you want to play outdoors?

Have you found a way to keep warm while nursing outdoors? Leave us a comment to share your best tricks!

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