twins on breast and formula - will it work?

[goldenoldie]

My milk is in and my twins (6 days old) are keen feeders but fall aslepp on the breast very quickly. Needless to say they are hungry again just over an hour later.

If I give them a bottle/formula after the breast they take about 1 - 2 oz before falling asleep on the bottle, but sleep for 3 - 4 hours before another feed.

I would like to exclusively breast feed, what am I doing wrong?, why won't they go the same amount of time between feeds on the breast as on the bottle?

yuou aren't doing anything "wrong" but if you want to exclusively breastfeed then stop the bottle!

your milk supply will only increase if the twins keep feeding...
stop the bottles and just keep feeding. even if you have to feed every hour... soon your supply will build up and the babies will take full feeeds from the boob

you're not doing anything wrong, that's what bf is like in the early days.

Formula is designed to keep babies full for longer - it takes much longer to digest than bm.

If you can keep exclusively bfing them, it will get much easier in a few weeks, and they'll start to stay awake during feeds too.

Good luck

formula is harder to digest - hence babies will often go for longer on a formula feed.

I agree with starlover - the only way to make sure you have enough milk is to keep feeding them yourself. Only keep the formula for when you really can't keep up and need a break for one feed. Don't use it too often otherwise your body will give up on milk.

If your babies are feeding well just try and stick with them and feed them when they are hungry. It will be hectic for a few weeks but will then settle down and probably be much easier than dealing with enough bottles for two each day !

If they fall asleep mid feed try changing their nappy to wake them up and then feed again.

also wanted to add... spend a couple of days doing nothing but feeding.
spend tons of time skin to skin with babies... let them feed whenever they want. in fact encourage them to feed lots.

soon enough they will fall into a pattern... but you need to get rid of the formula to give your milk a chance to build up! that;s what the couple of days doing nothing but feeding is for

Congratulations on the birth of your twins! I know of at least one mum on here who has breastfed twins successfully - you could try starting a thread for MarsLady or I'll point her in this direction if I see her later.

But if you want to breastfeed exclusively, I agree - don't give bottles. They're establishing your supply at the moment (the more they suck, the more milk you'll produce) and bottles will interfere with that. Feed as much as you can, do as much skin to skin as you can with them both. If they fall asleep, try changing their nappy to rouse them and relatching.