Please help me with my twins

[PeasPlease]

My boy / girl twins are now 9 weeks old and fully breast fed, with a bottle of expressed milk used at night.

However, this week I had a medical appointment and they had bottles of expressed milk for most of the day. Expressing while I was away obviously wasn't enough though and I quickly developed horrendous mastitis symptoms for which I'm on antibiotics. Since then I have been feeding off that side but they were not emptying it fully so I have also been expressing and feeding what I get off it in a bottle.

From all this chaos the result is two babies who wont latch on properly make clicking or lip smacking noises when feeding, and who then go mental when the milk flow slows and pull off crying and kicking. Every feeding session is a fight and ends with me expressing and topping up with a bottle.

Can anyone help me? I want to breastfeed for as long as they want but we will soon be using bottles more than breast and I'm so desperately anxious about this.

I'm afraid I've got no useful advice, but have put a link to your thread on the regular multiples thread here for one of the breastfeeding experts, who I hope will be along soon.

Sorry I can't be more helpful, but hope things improve very soon.

Hi Peas.

Firstly, don't panic.

How are your breasts before you start? If they are engorged then try hand expressing a little to soften them making it easier for the babies to latch.

If they're clicking it may be that they are not milking the breast effectively. It's a different action to using a bottle, so try taking a step back and almost starting from the beginning. Keep a careful eye on the latch, make sure they are well positioned and that they are fully on to the breast and using their tongues well.

It sounds like they don't have proper suction, but you've gotten them to 9 weeks, you know how it should feel, so slowly do what you have always done.

I'm sure it will be fixed quickly for you. You will be back to only one expressed bottle soon I'm sure.

oh and despite TK's lovely words... I'm no expert lol!

Thanks Mars and tk.

I would love to get it back to basics but the tikes damn well wont open their mouths wide. Or if the do latch on they pull off screaming because the milk is not instantly there.

If I express first so the milk is there they drink until the flow slows then start pulling off and crying and then there is no going back.

If it was one child I could sit in bed all day practising but with two I just can't. The mastitis is still there too so I feel it is important to keep emptying that side which at the moment means expressing all time. I've sent an email to a local lactation consultant, not sure what that will do, her clinic is not till wednesday.

God this is really getting me down today, we got 3 hours sleep last night and now DD1 is being horrid and making me and DH is working all day.

Do you have other children?

Yes sorry, DD1 (the one being horrid) is 3. I fed her for 15 months so feel relatively confident about breastfeeding and can see that there is now something hugely wrong

It's not hugely wrong. It just needs patience and a tweek! Honestly. Does DD go to nursery at all? Or could someone take her out a little to give you the space you need for the DTs?

If you look onDr Jack Newman's site you can watch his breast compression video. That may help with the coming off the breast before they are finished.

I do think you can do it. I breastfed mine and I had three older ones that (fortunately) were at school, but it meant I had to be out of the house at set times.

If you want to email me off board my email is lovelymarslady at aol dot com.

Thanks you lovely MarsLady

I will try the compression when they wake for a feed.

How's it going?

It got worse... DS would not latch on at all, was just screaming in hunger and frustration. God it was awful. I eventually coaxed him back by lying down with him.

I saw a lactation consultant at the hospital yesterday who says they have thrush (I am still on antibiotics for mastitis) and showed me that the way I latch them on was a bit crap. They both fed beautifully while we were there but it has kind of gone back to how it was now we are back at home. I need the nice breastfeeding lady here with me full time!!!

Oh sweetheart, I'm sorry. Could she come back?

I really hope it is getting better now.

The clisking is a classic thrush sign.

You both need to be treated. See here for some good details www.breastfeedingnetwork.org.uk/pdfs/BfN_Thrush_leaflet_Feb_2009.pdf

It sounds like you need to get someone to come to your house. Could you afford an independent lactation consultant (google it).

You are doing INCREDIBLY WELL to BF twins and have a three year old. My hat off to you. x

peasplease, where in the country are you? i know some lovely lactation consultants in the south east, and our local LLL groups are brilliant too

My twins are eight months old today and I breast fed them both at every feed but with top ups of bottles - I seem to remember it all going a bit wobley around nine weeks I think its a growth spurt time of something - I can understand you want to breast feed and congrats for doing it with previous children but twins are a whole new ball game - and having bottles did not put them off breast feeding - in fact I have only just stopped as they are doing so well on solids

Well done for breastfeeding twins. Try taking acidophillus tablets or probiotic type drinks, will help you fight off thrush so that you won't transfer to them from your nipples which could also be carrying thrush. GP can give you something for their mouths, but will probably improve once you have finished the course of antibiotics. Try to keep your nipples clean and dry after each feed, you could try washing in a very very dilute solution of tea tree or try citricidal (natural anti-fungal made of grapefruit seeds), but wipe off nipples before feeds as they may not take to the smell/taste. If they have oral thrush would explain their reluctance to feed, I had it after CS with DD because of the strong antibiotics I was on, can be very sore.

You are all correct about the thrush! We are all using Daktarin for it. I was expecting it because of the abs I am on for mastitis. sunshineandshowers I had no idea the clicking was a sign of thrush! Is it because their tongues are sore?

We are topping up after every feed with EBM now which isn't ideal but makes the babies more settled which then lowers my stress levels

thisisyesterday I am in north wales, home of a fantastic lactation consultant Sharon Breward. I will contact her again on monday with my progress and hopefully will see her again.

Allsheepwhite I too had abs during labour and the babies went on to get thrush. I was cross that nobody warned me it was highly likely to happen.