Nursing Newborn Twins: Help needed for a friend please

I have no advice on the twin thing since I never did that, but I have
had to supplement with a syringe because the baby lost over 10% of
weight and was dehydrated, so I will comment.

IMHO 1oz after each feed is excessive and will probably kill bf. On
my first baby I did the 1 oz after every feed and it didn't work out.
There were lots of other issues, so I can't solely blame the 1 oz
after every feed, but I have read that you supply is ruined with that,
but since the babies keep going after the breast constantly even given
the 1 oz all the time, certainly irreperable damage has not been done
yet. On this baby which I got bf to work with, despite the poor
initial start, I only supplemented her once a day, but as much as she
would take. That kept her hungry the rest of the day to keep her on
the breast stimulating it.

Since the babies are already taking presumably many oz a day (adding
up all those 1 oz after every feed), she may not want to go cold
turkey off the formula. I think dropping 2 oz of formula a day would
be all that was advisable.

Having a lactation consultant look at the latches of the babies would
be a good idea at this point since she is complaining of pain. Bad
latches could be causing the pain and poor supply.

Fenugreek may help her to catch up with their needs. If she cannot
get off the formula without getting poor diaper counts, then she could
consider domperidone to up her supply, but making sure there is a good
latch is very important before taking meds to up supply because the
supply problems won't be fixed by the meds if there is a bad latch.

I feel for your friend with the around the clock nursing of new twins
and 2 toddlers besides. She must be exausted.

KC

"newfy" wrote in message ...
Hi everyone. I haven't posted here in a while but I have a friend who needs
a little help. Just a little background: She just had a c-section for breech
twins born 38+ weeks and both 6+ pounds! She has two older children age 3
and 2. She tried bf #1, but he was born 32 weeks and didn't have much
support. I don't know if she tried with #2, but she really wants to be
successful with the twins. They were born a week ago tomorrow so she's one
week in. She gave me permission to post her email here. If anyone could
offer suggestions, resources, please either post here or feel free to email
me. Thanks.

JennP. (email to follow)
How's your vacation going up there? This is the first time I've had ONE
MINUTE to get on my computer. I am having trouble with the breastfeeding!
First of all my nipples are absolutely killing me, to the point where I
dread the next feeding. I sent Steve to get some Lansinoh cream. But the
main thing is that these babies want to be at the breast all the time! And I
mean, 15 minutes after they come off they are crying to get back on, and
nothing else will soothe them! Any ideas? I was told not to use a pacifier
but am coming so close to doing it, because we just can't get any relief.
They won't sleep unless they are on the breast, even if they just had a
30minute feed. I do believe my milk is in - breasts are heavy and when I
squeeze I can see the white milk, no longer the colostrum. Steve and I got
one hour of sleep last night. Please tell me it will get better!



Also, my pediatrician has them being supplemented with 1 oz. of formula
after each breast feeding - they were in danger of losing 10% of birth
weight, so we had to do this. I hope that isn't going to complicate things.
I am using a syringe to do this - not a bottle - but it does take forever as
each syringe holds only 3cc and one full ounce is 30cc, so we have to fill
them 10 times. At what point would you suggest introducing a bottle (and for
that matter a pacifier)? I heard Avent are the best to use?

Sorry I have to cut this short but someone is crying to get on my breast of
course, since he hasn't been there for a whole 5 minutes. Any advice you can
give me would be greatly appreciated!!!

Hi, Jenn.

If you want, you can give your friend my email address and I'll answer
her questions to the best of my abilities.

--
Brigitte aa #2145
edd #3 February 15, 2004
http://www.babiesonline.com/babies/j/joshuaandkaterina/

"Readers are plentiful; thinkers are rare."
~ Harriet Martineau

Truffles wrote:
Hi, Jenn.

If you want, you can give your friend my email address and I'll answer
her questions to the best of my abilities.


Jenn,
Ditto that for me. Remove the no.spam. from the above.
--Barbara, mother to two healthy BF'd twins ;-)