should i be worried about this? (long)

[Nancy54]

Hello, hoping i might be able to get some advice on this....

I have 14 week old twins. they are breast fed but dtb has a bottle of formula at bedtime and dtg used to until about three weeks ago when she started refusing it and i have just been breast feeding her instead. She has taken the bottle three times this week though.

I'm a little bit worried about dtg because up until about a week ago she would feed every two ish hours in the day (sometimes a little longer) for about 10 to 30 mins. On a good night, she would feed twice for about 10 mins. A bad night could be a lot more.

This week she has started only wanting to feed for five minutes during the day, every 3 to 4 hours. if i offer more, she refuses and sometimes ets upset. if i leave her, she's happy after the five min feed so has seemingly had enough.

She used to take a bottle really well and would wolf down 150ml of formula but as i said the last few weeks she has been refusing the bottle - sometimes she flat refuses and crys and others she just takes about 50ml and seems full. The last couple of nights she has taken 100ml. However, last night she took it well and then screamed afterwards.

last night she slept from 8 til 6:30 (woohoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! first time!!!) so i thought she would be ravenous when she woke up. She fed for five minutes, then for another 3 mins about ten minutes after that. She's now playing happily on the playmat.

She's still having wet nappies (not sure if they're as wet as before as i wasn't obsessing over her nappies before!) and generally does a poo every 3-4 days (this has always been the case), although this week she went 5 days.

She has been putting on weight very well but hasn't been weighed for a couple of weeks. i was thinking of getting her weighed this week to check she hasn't lost any weight. If she hasn't, is this a normal change in feeding habits? dtb is feeding longer and more regularly than she is.

thanks for any thoughts.

Wow - congrats on the twins and for BF them!

I don't know about all the issues ie. screaming after a bottle (maybe formula type, wind, teat too fast?) but just to say my DD was always an efficient eater but got even quicker about this age - just a few minutes (sometimes only one side, sometimes more) and would also go for longer stretches as yours so I wouldn't be overly worried about that on its own as long as appearing healthy in other respects.

Def keep an eye on the nappy situation and get to a docs if any hint of dehydration but if not she sounds like shes at the classic distractible baby stage. Feeds get much shorter as they become much more efficient at feeding and they also nurse less for comfort because theres lots of new discoveries to distract them. Never really had this with DD but DS was awful I used to have to feed him when he was half asleep or in darkened rooms! Well done you for BFing twins DD was 3 months prem and on 2 hourly feeds for months and that was tough enough with just her and a toddler.

Hi thanks for advice Lois and poppet and for being so nice about my bf twins.

I am hoping it is just a normal change. What are the signs of dehydration apart from less wet nappies?

thanks couscous! def lots of wet nappies today so hopefully i'm worrying over nothing! my mum said just be thankfuil at least one of them no longer wants to feed constantly! think i am so used to constant feeding it feels odd that so she is feeding so little.
i suppose we'll just have to see what the scales say.

if she feeds for 5 mins though, i wonder if she is getting the hind milk.

My dd1 fed quite quickly by around 3/4mnths, if she is content and nappies are normal, weight gain continues I wouldn't worry!

Well done on bfing twins, I'm bfing 18 day old dd2 and that seems overwhelming!

thanks state, i think bfing a newborn + having a toddler must be pretty hard too!!

it's funny you don't imagine that bfing will be hard before you give birth. well at least i didn't! thought i'd just pop them on the boob and voila!

Ok great thanks couscous, that's a relief.

She's just woken up, had a two minute feed, refused anymore (screamed when I tried to put her on boob) , having only fed once during the night at 4. She is now in the bouncy chair cooing happily.
I do think a two min feed first thing when I would have thought shed be hungry is odd though. Def need to keep an eye on it.

Has just fed for a further 7 mins an hour later. Looks like she'll just feed when she wants too and not when I want her to!

Yeah v annoying as I had them more or less feeding and so napping roughly at the same time but now madam has decided to change her feeding habits, it's all gone to pot! :)