introducing night bottle feed for twins

10 replies

twinthing · 27/02/2006 22:40

hi all-
i am breast feeding my twins who are 11 wks old. It's a tough slog...and have sometimes been tempted to give up- but due to the advice of ppl around me and the still continuing sleepless nights and having a 2 yr old toddler i'm trying to introduce a late night bottle feed (formula) and using the avent bottles- the twins don't seem to like it much. The one night they did take it they slept through for 5 hrs- i'm really worried this will have a knock on effect on my milk supply- does anyone have any tips?

OP posts:

redstarfalling · 28/02/2006 08:08

Not an expert but bumping for you. Absoloutly brilliant though that you've made it this far. Especially with a toddler I take my hat off to you My friend bf twins for 6 months and that was hard enough. Hope you get the replies you need xx

rickman · 28/02/2006 22:20

lazycow · 01/03/2006 11:29

Wow - bfing twins and a 2yr old toddler - Respect ! twinthing.

Sorry you haven't had much advice and I don't know much about this but I would persevere with the one bottle at night if you can. Does dh or someone else give this bottle? or does it need two people to do this?

Many women give one bottle of formula a day without it affecting their milk supply. It seems like you have so much on this would be worth continuing with it though some may disagree.

LucyJu · 01/03/2006 11:38

BFing twins! Respect!
Just to add that my dd started sleeping through for about 10 hours at 10 weeks, and although I was worried about it (the long sleep)affecting my supply, it doesn't seem to have caused any problems. Still exclusively bfing 6 weeks later.
Don't know too much about bottle feeding, but I believe some bf babies seem to prefer the MAM teat which (I think) should fit avent bottles.
HTH.

Pootle1 · 01/03/2006 20:57

Hi there

I am new to mumsnet and would like to respond to twinthing's question. Firstly congratulations for breast feeding for 11 weeks. I breast-fed my twins for 6 weeks and introduced 2 bottles of formula during the night firstly to give me a rest but also so hubby could get involved. I have recently switched to bottle feeding (formula and expressed milk) as my two boys would be feeding for up to 1-2hrs on the breast and then want topping up with formula, my milk just wasn't sustaining them.

However, in answer to your question introducing a late night bottle shouldn't effect your milk supply as when the milk is taken the breast will will replace what has been taken so the milk will be replenished ready for the next feed. It's supply and demand. If a baby increases it's feeding time on the breast the breast will make more milk for this demand.

Hope this helps,

Kelly1978 · 01/03/2006 21:04

Hi,
I think you should do whatever is best for you. When my dts were born I had a 2yo and a 4yo and so I actually expressed all my milk for my dts and bottle fed it to them and gave them formula before bedtime to help them sleep at night, for much needed rest. If you perservere they will get used to the bottle. I wouldn't keep changing teats as they will jsut get more confused. I managed to express feed mine for 4 months, but putting them on the bottle didn't make much difference - they are now starting to sleep through at 11 months! I found it didn't affect my supply neither as I found that I had much more milk anyway with twins due to the extra hormones. I don't think 5 hours is too long.

MarsOnLife · 01/03/2006 21:17

hi twinthing.

1 bottle in the night isn't going to affect your supply. Do you give that bottle or does your DP? I know that when I introduced a night bottle (my DTs are now 2) I made sure that their father gave it so that I could get the sleep ready to get through the next day.

Well done for getting this far with the breast feeding. What I remember is that the first 3 months are incredibly exhausting, the next 3 merely exhausting and then things kinda got easier. I don't say that to scare you but to give you hope. There are lots of twin mums on this site, you're welcome to join our grumps and groans and joys on \link{http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk?topicid=1216&threadid=70919&stamp=060301200900\this thread}

congratulations on the birth of the DTs

Pootle1 · 01/03/2006 21:22

Hi again,

I use a special teat by NUK when I bottle feed. NUK make teats and dummys which are shaped as close to the nipple as possible rather than conventional teats which are straight in shape. If you type NUK into Google there is a website called Baby Supplies but I think Boots online sell them.

mykidsmum · 01/03/2006 21:28

I agree with Mars, breastfeeding twins does actually get easier. I don't think it will diminish your supply, I used orthodontic teats when I gave my twins a bottle feed, but if this is your intention I would do it now. when i returned to work p/t at three months, my twins hadn't had a bottle at all and it was really difficult getting them to take one.

MarsOnLife · 01/03/2006 21:30

you can get NUK teats at ordinary chemists. I used them for the DTs. Wonderful things

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