Oversupply with twins...any suggestions to help.

[MerryMarigold]

Hi. I have 11week old twins. Ds2 has quite bad colic, dd has reflux - it's tiring to say the least! A lady from my postnatal thread who knows a lot about breastfeeding has suggested that their problems may be made worse by my oversupply and overactive letdown. She has similar problems with her baby. She feeds him 3x in a row off the same boob and it has helped. I am not sure how I could make this work with twins. Has anyone had this problem and any advice which worked?

At the moment they each get 1 boob for 24 hours (it's difficult to remember to keep swapping, and also this way I don't have to keep cleaning nipples!) ie. dd on the right for 24 hours, ds2 on the left and then they swap over.

I will also post on breastfeeding thread.
Thankyou!

I have 6wk old twins and think I may have similar problem, I wouldn't say my babies are too colicky, but very windy and bums sore from soo much pooing. And tandem feeding them is very difficult.

I've had contradictory advice, la leche league counsellor said demand feeding best have had other advice about spacing feeds out - don't rteally know what to do. Have tried both with no improvemet yet. Told it can start settle down from 3 to 5 months so things may start to improve naturally for you soon.

Do your babies symptoms fit the list in this article on lactose overload - sadly the advice only really works for feeding one baby. www.babycareadvice.com/babycare/general_help/article.php?id=18
If you find out anything useful would love to know. Good luck.

Frangi thanks for the link. Yes, the symptoms mostly match. I think they are getting too much foremilk/ lactose overload, but not sure what to do about it apart from expressing it off, which can increase supply even more and is a pain in the bum. I have also posted on the breastfeeding topic so check there, I see there are a few responses, but not looked yet...

Try to leave them on as long as possible until they come off on their own. This means they will be getting all the fatty hind milk. Even when they are doing that 'fluttering' type feeding at the end of the feed, try to leave them on (unless your desperate for the loo!!) Don't be afraid to put them back on the same breast if they're feeding tandem.

If your feeding separately, offer both breasts to twins one, then start with the second breast with twin 2 and offer the first breast again after. Does that make sense?

Breastfed babies should be fed ROUGHLY every 3 hours, though this may vary at different times of the day. they cluster feed in the evening and quite often have a longer gap in the morning or afternonn (and hopefully at night!!)

Remember, they should be growing out of it soon!!

Kathryn - have I understood correctly - you're suggesting that you offer one twin both breasts in the same feed, would that not mean they would get a lot of foremilk and then the second twin to feed would get much more hind milk from each breast?
When I'm tandem feeding it's really hard to get them to feed for much more than 10mins, and then when I feed them seperately there's just not the time to feed them for as long as they might want to stay on (I have toddler that wants my time and attention as well) I need a maid and a full time nanny!!

frang, have you been to my thread in bfing topic. some good advice.

i'm going to try feeding both off same boob. swap who goes first each time and if second baby needs more then can go to other boob. arghhhh it's all pain in the bum, but if it helps stop indigestion, and fill them up for longer, it will be worth it in the end!

I'll check out other thread.
I tried feeding both of same breast, but my over supply wasn't enough of an over supply to make that work. I ended up with a hungry babies and one boob that was empty the other bursting with lots of watery foremilk. Whilst both of them were screaming I was trying to express off some milk from the full side so I wouldn't drown them in milk! Hope it works better for you! I think my supply is beginning to calm down a little, babies are a little less windy and pooey, but feeding sessions are still quite fraught with a bit of choking and milk squirting everywhere at the start. We'll get there in the end.

Hi MerryMarigold
How are things going? Situation improving? Here are a couple of links that you might find interesting - will post it on both the threads you've started about oversupply incase you don't check both.

www.colief.com/about.htm
babycolic-explained.org/

I thought I might give colief or lactase enzymes ago to see if it might remedy the situation.