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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

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Original poster

Is it possible to breast feed octuplets???????????

57 replies

yarrow5 · 27/01/2009 09:25

i've just read on yahoo news that someone has just given birth to octuplets and is planning on breast feeding them all. Is this really possible?! Surely not?!

OP posts:

llareggub · 27/01/2009 09:26

That would be lactastic!

sarah293 · 27/01/2009 09:27

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

purplemonkeydishwasher · 27/01/2009 09:28

well, your body will make the milk you need. the more a baby sucks the more milk you make, so yes it's possible.
extremely difficult, but absolutely possible.

kayzr · 27/01/2009 09:28

She will be able to do it with alot of expressing.

Pinchypants · 27/01/2009 09:31

I would have thought she'd be feeding non-stop - by the time she'd finished four pairs, the first pair would be ready for the next feed. When would you have time to express?? Or eat, or sleep? I think I'd try and get the colostrum into them and then rope in the entire family to bottle feed them, TBH. Hope the little mites are all OK.

sarah293 · 27/01/2009 09:32

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

Original poster

yarrow5 · 27/01/2009 09:33

the article said all 8 are ok, 2 needed help breathing. i failed trying to bf 1 i'm gobsmacked that anyone could even think of feeding 8. good on her tho if she manages it, she's one strong, brave lady!!

OP posts:

Penthesileia · 27/01/2009 09:34

I suppose there's no reason why, even if she can't exclusively bf them, she can't bf as if, say, exclusively bf-ing twins (ie. give them all 1/4 breastmilk, and the rest ff). If she has enough support to keep the other 6 occupied while she's at it!!

Amazing story! I hope they all survive.

kayzr · 27/01/2009 09:35

I thought that it would take too much time expressing but according to the news that is what she is doing.

belgo · 27/01/2009 09:36

No reason why she can't try! When dd1 was born I probably had about four times as much milk as she could drink.

OneLieIn · 27/01/2009 09:37

Maybe she will have a wet nurse or get some frozen milk?

Well done on her - what a massive achievement!

HeadFairy · 27/01/2009 09:38

She'd have to be really comfortable with co-sleeping as otherwise she'll never get a wink of sleep, but I'm fairly sure co-sleeping isnt' advised with premies. I think much better to keep feeding in rotation while awake, then make sure you get a decent kip, perhaps feed one pair at night to keep the milk supply going (not that I imagine she'll have much trouble with that!!!) They'll have to invent some fantastic rota to keep track of who had some boob that day!

ChairmumMiaow · 27/01/2009 09:39

Well with 8 babies she's never gonna lose her supply even if they only get a feed or two a day each!

Good luck to her!

WhereTheWildThingsWere · 27/01/2009 09:41

But if each baby took an hour to feed, then they would only get fed every eight hours? Or four if you used both boobs, but when would you sleep? Surely she means she will feed all of them breast milk but bottles as well?

belgo · 27/01/2009 09:42

I think with eight babies she can wave goodbye to sleep whether she bfs them or not!

Disenchanted3 · 27/01/2009 09:42

They are TINY ATM they will only be taking tiny amounts each!

WhereTheWildThingsWere · 27/01/2009 09:43

Yes, but never would be quite harsh.

wannaBe · 27/01/2009 09:46

she physically would not be able to exclusively bf eight babies - that is just madness.

And while of course it's great that all the babies have survived, I think it is absolutely wrong that anyone is given treatment that could enable them to conceive so many babies. Totally, totally wrong.

DumbledoresGirl · 27/01/2009 09:47

That is an unbelievable feat. I breastfed 4 babies (not all at once, I mean individually!) and know how much that took out of me, but it would be nothing to breastfeeding 8 babies all at once!

If I were her (and perhaps this is what she means) I would rotate the babies round, giving them breastmilk one feed and bottle feeding them the next time. I suppose this is going to sound silly, but I wonder how she will remember which ones had the breast last and how much of a feed each one had.

SamJamsmum · 27/01/2009 09:52

It's not at all madness. It hasn't been done before but there's no logical reason why it can't happen if she has the time, inclination and doesn't mind a lot of time spent breastfeeding. She'll also need to drink plenty and eat well and rest when she can. She may do little else other than breastfeed but it is possible.
If she wants to try - good for her!

I agree that giving birth to 8 babies may be pretty shocking but that's a different story.

It's not unusual for mums to feed triplets. It's not unusual for mums to feed babies and make sizeable donations to milk banks. It's about demand.

Her biggest problem is going to be routine and managing growth spurts and getting sleep but physically - in terms of her boobs - it's possible.

Piffle · 27/01/2009 09:52

tandem feed 2 At a time every 2 hours...
That every baby getting milk every 8 hrs. And mother getting no sleep. Nor father as he needs to do nappy changes
I am sure it will be mixed feeding and I say that as a passionate breastfeeder
Certainly as prems now shecan express and feed them all!!!

SamJamsmum · 27/01/2009 09:54

Oh and in days of yore a wet nurse often had several charges.

tittybangbang · 27/01/2009 10:37

I'm just so pleased that she has made her intention to bf them public. Hopefully it'll raise the profile of the importance of bf to preterm babies.

Hope she has teams of skilled lactation consultants working with her to help her get her milk into all those little babies.

whomovedmychocolate · 27/01/2009 10:41

Good for her I say! I know when I had DS and was also feeding DD I was producing about two pints a day (well I was expressing one and a half pints as well as feeding DD four times a day and DS every two hours.) So I suppose the amount of milk isn't a problem but the routine of feeding again and again may get wearing! She'll have to have a lot of support and long term be prepared to shift her expectations if it doesn't work out, but surely she wouldn't have had eight babies without thinking through the realities?

whomovedmychocolate · 27/01/2009 10:41

Oh and am I the only one who read that as 'is it possible to breastfeed octopuses' ?

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