Exclusive breastfeeding Twins

[butterflyexperience]

I feel like screaming

My twins are 21 weeks and both are below the 0.4 centile line.
Boy twin is deemed to be at a lower weight than girl by the charts and hv is recommending I give a formula bottle to help with weight

I really don't want to do this

I have worked so hard to get this far

I just don't know what to do

Any other ebf of twins out there? How'd you get on?

The consultant described it as like having a fresh cup of tea - just picks up their interest again. And whilst I know the foremilk/hind milk division is not strictly true, the last milk is definitely generally fattier (you can tell when expressing) so I think it will encourage them to get as much of that milk as possible.

Interesting...
High could I ask where you found your bf consultant from?

She was our NCT teacher for our first son.

If North Londonish can PM you recommendations.

Actually High has just reminded me that the reason I would only switch twins every 24 hrs was I realised twin2 had a very different feeding style. If I didn't let them have a side for a whole day it did seem to affect them, esp with cluster feeding.

butterfly One other thing worth trying is a nursing vacation (aka babymoon) - get dh or someone else to take care of everything except the twins (including cooking) then take them to bed for the day and keep them on the boob. If they squawk, boob. If they're awake, boob. Even if they only take a snack. Let them nap on you with nipple in mouth if it's comfortable for you. You can entertain yourself with tv, magazines, whatever you like to stay relaxed

The purpose is to kickstart your supply by preventing milk building up in the boobs - the more often milk is removed, the greater the signal to produce more. A day or two after your nursing vacation, your supply should be up, meaning more milk available for the babies.

Combined with breast compressions, it will help get more milk into your little ones.

Sorry I've not read the other replies but wanted to tell you I have twins now age 5 I breat fed until they were about 2 and exclusively until about 8 months. It is possible.
The more you feed them the more milk you will produce and the more you have the chance to sit around with your bra off cuddling the babies - make the most of it!!!

Do not introduce formula.
The key thing is not where they are on those lines the question is are they then growing at a consistent rate along the line. So long as they are not dropping to lower lines then all is good.
My twins were premature as most are, and they lost weight, were in scbu and took ages to return to birth weight.
My son was consistently growing but along the very bottom line in those little red books.
I thought he was going to be tiny and grow up to be a short man. When he was between 3 and 4 years of age he strated to jump up the charts and now at 5 years old he is at last above average height and weight for His age - which is normal in our family. My dad is tall, my husband is tall and my eldest child is a giant!

So now they are well establish on breadt milk and growing at a teady pace do not introduce formula - which you know is inferior - and rest assured that if he is supposed to be a big boy he will become one gradually.

Best wishes and feel free to PM if you want to.
Deb xxxx