Supplementing the twins

[Adaline'sMama]

Hi ladies!

I've been trying so hard to make enough milk for these girls, and I am just spent. We are still supplementing with about 10 oz each (my girls are 8 weeks now) of Similac Organic. 

I was making enough milk when I was pumping to only supplement about 3 oz each per day, but it seems like now that they have increased how much they eat, Im just not making enough. After nursing all day, they scream and scream and scream at night and when I try to nurse them, they will nurse but they stop after about 10 minutes, and then wake and cry 20 minutes later. But, if I give them a bottle of formula (because, at this point, I have nothing left to be pumping when Ive been nursing all day) they will drink about  ounces and go to sleep for 4-5 hours. 

Did anyone have to supplement their twins? After a month of Fenugreek, and now 3 weeks of Reglan, Im still just not making enough milk. It seems like they are never ever full. 

[Gena 22]

I did have supply worries too, maybe everyone does?  Crazy as it sounds, I actually woke up at night to pump, when our girls were sleeping.  I did this so I'd have enough for an afternoon and morning bottle when I was a work.  We did manage without supplementing at all, but mostly because my mom brought to babes to me for a lunch time feed.

What I ultimately came to is the understanding that while i wasn't producing as much as I thought I should be, that was because my twins weren't putting the demand on me that I thought they would.  My girls grew just fine and were just light eaters - taking in something like 20ish oz a day.  Ours were born full term, and were always about 30-50-75% percentile. 

You've got to figure out what works for you and yours, and I understand that everybody's different.  And I only know my own experience.  But supplementation seems like a tricky thing.  I'd pump and pump some more.  Get a better pump.  Camp out on the couch and let the twins drink and nap and drink and nap.  Movie couch feeding marathons were very happy memories for us.

Hopefully other MoMs can chime in with advice on supplementing, but my comment is that as long as your twins are growing well, and have lots of access to the breast, they're likely setting their own amount.

Oh, I feel you on the worries though!  Good work so far, and best wishes with however you proceed from here.

 

[Katie063008]

My DD2 was smallish and had trouble gaining weight. She lost weight for a bit and almost went under 5lbs. I used to just keep her on me all the time and encourage her at every opportunity to eat. It was really hard. My DD1 was just 2yrs and her twin brother was a fussy, cranky baby. But DD2 would just sleep if I didn't make her eat. Other tricks I found - assign a breast to each twin and each baby eats only from that breast. This is just observational, but when I finally did this DD2 started gaining weight. Also don't nurse them together at first. DD2 would wait for her brother to get letdown going and drink a bit of watery fore-milk then fall asleep missing the fatty hind-milk. I think when they were assigned sides the milk production even out and she was able to nurse enough for let down and then keep going since there was not such a large quantity of milk, to get to the calorie dense milk. I will admit to being a bit lopsided looking since DS was a big eater. She started gaining after that, but we had to see a pediatrician at 6 months as she was still small. He recommended pediasure which she wouldn't drink. I started giving her food earlier than she was really ready for it (6 months) rich things like homemade rice pudding with extra olive oil and egg yolks. The Dr. also wanted us to put olive oil in her rice cereal. It was hard since with DD1 we did more child led weaning, but she just wasn't gaining.

I guess my point here is try as hard as you can, but if it's just not working you'll have to make sacrifices. Maybe that is a bit of supplementation as long as you keep feeding and pumping frequently to boost supply. Maybe you make it a bit farther like I did, but then have to feed solid meals, not just finger foods, earlier than you would like. I'm sure some people with twins never have to supplement or feed solids but raising twins is HARD and you need to do what you have to get through the next while.  Oh and DD2 is still small (unlike DD1 was, she's very tall and sturdy so it's hard to accept DD1's size without making comparisons) and not a great eater. She fits 18 month clothes at 2.5. sigh. But no one is worried about her anymore as she is who she is ( and her Dad is skinny too) and she tracks consistently on the 2nd percentile.

[Adaline'sMama]

Thanks guys :) 

I have a hospital pump, and Im still pumping whenever they get a bottle, to make sure im getting the stimulation. The problem is, when i pump (even with a medela symphony, lactation tea, fenugreek, breast massage, hot compresses and reglan) im only getting about 1.5 oz off of each breast, while they are both gulping down a 4 oz bottle. 

[mally]

My boys never learned to nurse, so I mostly fed them expressed breast milk. We did breast feeding training for their first 6 weeks, but they were still getting most of their milk from a bottle at that point, so I gave up for my own sanity. I pumped every feeding. At first it was twice every feeding - 10 minutes, then a 5 minute break, then another 5 minutes. That wasn't producing enough milk, so I had to supplement with formula. We were supplementing them with formula even when they were only a day or two old. Eventually I increased the pumping to twice for 10 minutes every feeding, and with a bigger break in between. This was only do-able once I could predict their nap schedules. When they started sleeping through the night at 2 months, I got up before them so I could pump while they were still sleeping. Pumping was the last thing I did before I went to bed and the first thing I did when I woke up every day for months and months. Eventually my milk supply increased and by the time they were 3 months old, I was making so much milk that I was able to freeze some! That only lasted for a month or so, when their demand increased and I couldn't keep up with it. And then I continued to pump and supplement them with formula until they were 9 months old (when we switched to formula and whole milk). I really wanted my babies to have only breast milk for their first year, but it just wasn't going to happen.

All this to say that yes, I had supply issues and yes I supplemented them with formula. It worked for us. When they were full and happy they slept better and it allowed me to relax and sleep better, which also helps with breast feeding.

 As the other mothers have said, everybody is different and what worked for us might not work for you. Good luck!

[star8kitten]

Oh I feel your pain!  I never made enough either for my twins.  I made enough for about 1.5 babies and never could get it to be enough.  I took domperidone but I don't know if it helped or the round the clock pumping was what finally got my body going to make milk.  I had to supplement until they were 6 months old.  At the most, they got about 12 ozs of formula a day and I nursed them the rest of the time.

After trying for three weeks to get them to latch and to get my body to make milk, my midwife suggested something drastic but IT WORKED.  She told me to stop trying to latch them and just pump and bottle feed.  Her theory is that they learned the boobs were not making milk for them and it was  abad assoication.  If I got my supply up and tried again in a month, they would latch because they would get milk.  It also took the pressure off me to teach angry hungry babies how to nurse and let myself recover a bit from the birth and c-sec and the sleep deprivation.  I tried to latch them back on around 2 months and it worked.  the little guys nursed like they never forgot how and from that point on I did not have to pump.  I did have to supplement with formula because they were not gaining the right amount with just my milk.

I made the decision at 6 months to start food.  I know that delayed food intro is best but given the choice of upping the formula or feeding the mashed avocado, I went with the avocado.  You might not have to supp forever.