Review of the Baby Buddha Pump
The Baby Buddha pump is a small, portable breast pump aimed at replicating the suction strength of a traditional, heavy duty wall pump, but in a much smaller package. It delivers on strength in a way that places this pump in a category of its own!
As a lactation consultant, I would place the Baby Buddha pump in the same conceptual category as Willow Gen 1, 2, and 3.0, the Zomee Z2, and the Unimom Minuet. These are all unique suction patterns with the capacity to be easily misused. These are the types of pumps you want to approach with a healthy sense of caution as they stand to improve your life as a pumping parent if you use them correctly, but are just as likely to cause issues if you use them incorrectly.
Why You Should Consider a Baby Buddha Pump
Strength in a small package: Many portable pint-sized pumps fail to deliver strength comparable to full size pumps. This pump can actually blow many full-sized pumps out of the water.
Noise level: The Baby Buddha is surprisingly quiet! It has a lower pitch than many other portable or wearable pumps, too, and it more easily blends into the background in a moderate noise situation. When testing it to see how noticeable it was if using while on the phone or a video chat, most people indicated they really didn’t notice it at all.
Easy to use: This pump is fairly straightforward to operate once you know how to use the rollerball.
Easy to carry around: Some portable pumps focus on design and size but lack an easy way to carry the pump around. The Baby Buddha comes with a lanyard for easy wear, and is often hacked with belt clips, pumping bags, and specially designed pump sleeves to make carrying this pump even easier.
Affordability: The Baby Buddha pump retails for $189.99 (or $170.99 with the CODE: GENUINELACTATION10). This is a very reasonable price for a portable breast pump!
Durability: This pump has been out for a while, and not only does it have a 2-year warranty in an industry where one measly year is the norm, it has a strong reputation for lasting!
Unique Mixed Mode Suction Pattern: This feature alone make the pump stand out. Mixed mode refers to the stimulation mode having a combination of short bursts, typically expected with standard pumps, with periodic, longer, stronger pulls. This pattern is known for being highly effective, and many people find they empty quickly with this suction pattern.
Customer service for this brand has a wonderful reputation: They go above and beyond to help their customers and have skilled troubleshooting available.
Drawbacks of the Baby Buddha Pump You Should Consider
The mixed mode suction has a long pull that is S-T-R-O-N-G: It’s 320 mmhg maximum suction on that pull exceeds the maximum suction of many heavy duty pumps, and it can cause nipple damage. You also need to consider mixed mode suction and its implications for your breastfeeding journey. ***Version 2 has less dramatic suction and is performing far better***
Flange sizing can be trickier than average pumps: Because that long pull means we have to really fine tune your sizing - not just with the size, but the shape and texture of the inserts/flanges that will work best for you, too.
Limited control over settings: Suction and speed are preset together in 14 different settings (5 stimulation, 9 expression). If you are someone who needs a different ratio of suction-to-strength than this pump offers, there isn’t a way to do that.
The unique design of the backflow protector: This design allows this pump to function as intended. When you start hacking parts, you can get wildly different suction outcomes than intended. This is a concern because the company only offers a 21, 24, 28 and 32 mm flange in 2 different styles. Based on my dataset and experience sizing flanges, this won’t work for a majority of pumping parents - so you will need to consider how the hack of your choice impacts suction.
Is this pump hard to switch to?
The unique strength and suction patterns of this pump have some pumping parents find that they have to learn to adjust to this pump in order to fully empty when they pump. There are some simple strategies to help you adjust to this pump so that you are pumping easily in no time!
YOUTUBE VIDEO ON ADJUSTING TO BABY BUDDHA- COMING SOON!
Check Sizing: Always start off with great sizing! You can download free nipple rulers, use the flange sizing calculator, and check out our free Genuine Lactation On-Demand Flange Sizing course to help get your started.
Reverse the settings: This one is not an intuitive strategy, but it is a highly effective strategy. Starting off on the expression mode when you are not used to this suction can be startling with the long pull. You may find that you adjust to the pump better starting in the expression mode on a level 1 or 2 until your nipples essentially warm up to pumping and you can work with the long pull in the stimulation mode.
Train your body method: The letdown reflex is a trained reflex, which means it is already trained to respond to your baby nursing or another pump. Use the Baby Buddha on one breast and your baby or another pump on the other. This allows your body to learn to respond to the new stimulation quickly by associating it with the known stimulation to encourage your milk to flow.
Pump Swap: Borrowing from a method of switching flange sizes or training with Willow Generation Pumps, you can opt to double pump with the Baby Buddha Pump for 15-20 minutes and follow with another pump that you are already responding well to while your body learns to adjust. Typically, with this method, we see an increase in milk with the Baby Buddha and a decrease in milk with the follow up pump over the course of a week when this method is used 2-3 times per day.
Settings Match: If the other methods previously described were considered basic, this method gets to the intermediate-advanced level. If you are using other pumps, there is a possibility that your old pump and the Baby Buddha pump may have similar settings in terms of speed/strength. The challenge here is that the flange set up and sizing play a huge role in how we “match” the settings. This is something you would want to schedule a pump consultation with me to review.
I heard the settings are backwards for this pump, is that true?
I’ve seen this idea float around quite a bit. It’s not particularly true though, or at least it is an oversimplification of how the pump operates.
Traditionally, pumps have two basic settings:
Stimulation- short, quick, low suction
Expression- longer, stronger, slower suction
Where people have gotten the idea that the settings are backwards is that stimulation mode on the Baby Buddha has the strong long pull, and the speed on the expression mode at the lower settings matches the speeds on some other pumps for stimulation mode.
The reverse suction method to adjust to the pump also reinforces this idea by making it seem on a basic level that the pump is designed backwards.
But all of that is to say, no, the settings aren’t backwards. It is just a non-conventional suction pattern that can be hard to explain. Once you understand, the pump the settings make sense.
What other portable pumps are comparable?
Pumpables Genie Advanced
Zomee z2
Medela Freestyle Flex
Unimom Minuet
Elvie Stride
What happens if it turns out my nipples are too sensitive for this pump?
That is certainly a risk with this pump. For me, personally, it took some time trialing different hacks to determine how to use this pump for my own journey. As it comes on with the lowest settings, it is a little too strong for me on stimulation when getting started. Expression I can handle Level 1 or 2. I was able to find flange setups that worked really well for me though!
If you find your nipples are a bit sensitive with this suction, you may need to trial a few hacks to see if you can find an option that suits your needs. Remember, the hacks seem to switch how the suction performs which means no one hack is guaranteed to work for everyone. Often, finding the best hack involves understanding how different options perform with this pump to determine which hack is most likely to meet your goals.
You will also want to consider the possibility that the pump and suction itself is not the root cause of your sensitivity. Oftentimes, the pump flanges are not optimally sized for your nipples and this particular pump, or there is an underlying issue that was going unnoticed until a strong suction pump is introduced. With a proper lactation evaluation and care, these issues are typically resolvable.
Overall thoughts:
This unique pump has been a game changer for a lot of my clients. They failed to respond to other portables, and they needed the strength of full-size pumps in the palm of their hands. The ease with which this pump is hacked makes it easy to use no matter what set-up you ultimately decide on.
The strength and the mixed mode suction give me reason to caution people to be aware of the risks here, but overall, this is a solid performing portable pump.
If you want to give it a try, I say double check your flange sizing, and give it a whirl! Many parents swear by this pump to support their pumping journeys, and it’s convenience is hard to beat!
