One twin likes nursing, but other only wants the bottle...

[austinbabe]

My twin girl likes nursing, but her twin brother refuses and will only take the bottle. They are about two months old. We had to use mainly bottles at first since I had a rough c section recovery.
How can I get my twin boy to like nursing too?

[Barefoot Farmer]

Keep offering the real deal. Real nipple first, then if needed artificial. Not sure how he (or you) would feel about a nipple shield, but that might be one way to move him closer to the breast and then wean him off the artificial nipple. I would contact LLL for other ideas. Good luck!

[queenofchaos]

Just keep trying!  I have girls and while they initially nursed like pros, about 24 hrs old, one started having trouble with her latch, 'gnawing' instead of sucking, and pulling off alot while trying to establish a latch.  After a couple of days and her urine output being too low, I did give her a bottle a couple times a day and she really seemed to prefer the bottle.  But I just kept offering the breast and eventually we got on the right track.  The only other thing I did is tandem. I almost always nurse them together, and always have.  I don't know if that would help or hinder for you.  But it seemed like it helped because the one 'good' nurser would get things flowing quickly and would help the other with her impatience.

I wish I had some better advice, but just keep trying.  Hang in there, it will come together! 

[~Adorkable~]

you can try things a few differnt ways, maybe bottle first to cut the hunger, maybe nipple first but not for long enough to get him to flustered.  and yeah i nipple shield may be helpful to be a inbetween version.  in the end keep up hope and stick with it, i have a whole stream of little issues including random refusal of my nipple, but low and behold at 6 months they suddenly took to the breast like a set of pros and never looked back, so it is never too late

[j.e.n]

I had preemie twins - and I had a similar scenario except both of my babies had trouble nursing. I would concur with what some of the other gals mentioned. I was bound and determined to wean them off bottles because I was losing my sanity having to pump and wash everything! :o) I spoke with a LLL leader and her suggestion was to really push the breast for every feeding - which did work for us after about a week. But that is just my experience. ;-) I would agree with the mom that said the one that's good at nursing can help with let down so that the other baby will start sucking/swallowing. I always nursed first... then would wait and nurse again... and if desperate would offer a bottle. I don't know if it would help at all to get a different kind of nipple for the bottles that would slow the flow down so that nursing almost seems more productive? We had preemie nipples that I never upgraded because I didn't want them to get used to faster flow with less effort.

I hope that things improve for you. I know how frustrating it can be!! Don't give up. Stay positive. I struggled with that a few times when I felt like we would never wean from bottles and I felt like a complete failure. You're doing great. Your babies are lucky that you are their mama!! :o)

Hugs!