5 month old bf twins, both bad sleepers, hv advised to start on baby rice...

[Dotsie]

Not sure whether to start this in weaning or sleep tbh...
A friend of mine in rl has been advised to start weaning her girls on baby rice to "help them sleep". She thinks this is baloney, and was keen to do blw as she did with her son. Is she right to think the hv is talking cr*p? would it make any difference anyway? The girls are currently waking between 5 - 15 x per night each (she's a bit tired, understandably). any sensible suggestions to help them all have a good night's sleep gratefully received!

not sure how a bit of rice would be more filling than a big breastfeed.. and at 5 months, waking up to feed is normal.

were the twins prem?

some babies do not sleep through for the first year, so weaning is not some magic spell that will eradicate waking up in the night.

also, if she is exclusively breastfeeding, then feeding frequently is the best way to make sure supply and demand are in synch.

Its crap advice. Again.

Do the girls self settle to go to sleep ? Would something like the No Cry Sleep Solution help her ?

My BF DD was a terrible sleeper before she was weaned, and still was after she was weaned. She went through a dreadful growth spurt from 4-5 months but did get a lot better afterwards, with no changes to anything, except that she had grown out of it. Not sure if that's good news or bad news!

Weaning did nothing to my DD2's sleep patterns, I don't know why people have this idea that if a baby doesn't sleep well stuff them full of baby rice or veg seems crazy. Even when DD2 was having 3 full meals a day plus snacks plus BF on demand she still disn't sleep well. Only a milk strike at night did the trick when she was a year old.

I think you either get a good sleeper or you don't, your poor friend sounds like she is having a rough time of it and with twins as well.

I agree maybe the No Cry Sleep Solution might help (didn't for me though)

twins were about 38 weeks i think, not prem, anyway, and both over 6 lbs. one feeds really well most of the time, the other seems satisfied after about 3 mins, and my friend has to really try to get her to feed for longer. Both girls happy and healthy most of the time, although their weight gain is quite slow. afaik the girls don't usually self settle to sleep, although they may have done once or twice.

My twins did start waking up about this age...and it was because they were really hungry. I started weaning slightly earlier because I could tell they needed more than just milk, but I really didn't like baby rice it just really constipated my son and my daughter wouldn't touch it. I started with carrots, apple etc etc probably around 5 months or so...and once they were eating a bit more during the day they started sleeping better.

I do remember this time, after sleeping quite well, wakign for one or maybe two feeds all of a sudden they started waking up every couple hours...hungry and it was exhausting breastfeeding! I say trust your instincts...but even if you do start giving them a bit of food during the day it won't have an instant effect as it's such a little amount to start with.

is a hard time...but will be over soon!

yeahyeah is right, by the way. I think that I found that age to be one of the hardest, because you've already had 5 months of sleepless nights, and the effects are adding up, and just when you think that things are getting better, you're hit by a growth spurt!
But it really does get better.

yeahyeah they've always been bad sleepers [sad. did you bf or ff your twins? all the mums at my friend's twin group seem to be ff and keep suggesting bottles- she's resisted so far!

.

What is ff? sorry not very literate with these abbreviations. I breastfed at night, was so much easier...but ended up with them both in bed with me at this stage as was feeding so often, would just feed them half asleep lying down and then turn over! I did give them bottles...but usually the end of the day feed when I was run down and milk wasn't so plentiful. I found at this age they drank insane amounts! Not easy with two...I had to eat a lot to keep the milk coming.

I know exactly how you are feeling, I remember it so well I had all these plans of how I was going to get them on bottles, time feeds, etc...but really is just a very difficult stage...best to just go along with it and try to get more calories in them during the day...

Looking back I'm sure it's this hard time that led me to give up breastfeeding at 61/2 months, which I've always been a bit sad about

ff = formula feeding