Breastfeeding Twins/milk Supply

Hi A.: I successfully nursed my older two children for 18 months and then got pregnant with twins. (My kids are now 9, 7, 3, 3) I never used formula, had no idea how to prepare a bottle... when my twins came home I just assumed I would nurse them as well (figuring that's why I had two boobs!) I have to say it was just too much for me - I nursed the twins for a month before calling it quits. I didn't feel full/let down either and just could not handle the worry along with being a mom to 4 kids. I wish you the very best of luck and hope that nursing your twins works out - but you have to keep in mind what's best for you. Pumping will increase your supply and believe it or not a beer in the evening is good for increasing supply. Good luck!

Hi A.,

One way of increasing your milk supply is adding Alfalfa supplements to you diet. You can e-mail me at ____@____.com and I can give you more information.

Mieke

Hi A.,
I've only had one child so far and I'm breastfeeding him. I never felt let down and very rarely leaked. I also only occasionally felt full. In the beginning he ate about every 2 hours. He has grown well. He's was in the 95% for weight & 50th for height until he was 6 months. Now he is in the 75th percentile for both.
As long as they are growing & having wet diapers, don't worry that you feel different.
Good luck dealing with all those boys!

Hi A.,

Congratulations on your twins!! That is so exciting. It sounds like you are doing everything right! As long as your babies are having wet diapers and are gaining weight (any amount of weight - don't worry what the weight charts say), they are doing great! Some women never feel a let down and some women never leak. Even if you did with your previous children, you might not with these. I personally never leaked once and I have never felt a let down - and I never got particularly engorged either. Everyone is different and your body reacts differently to every baby.

I did write an article with pumping tips, which may help you if you are trying to increase your supply or have extra milk stashed away in your freezer. It is written for someone who is going back to work - but the tips in it are the same whether you are going back to work or looking to get advice with pumping and increasing your supply. Here is a link to the article:<http://www.mothersboutique.com/woandbrtifor.html&gt; Please let me know if you have any questions after reading it. Some other things that help to increase your supply are eating oatmeal (the real kind, not instant) and drinking some of the mothers milk teas.

Congrats again on your new babies!

J.
A Mother's Boutique
Breastfeeding clothing, nursing bras, breastpumps, slings and accessories
MamaSource members save 10% off your first order (excluding breastpumps) with promo code MAMASOURCE.
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Dear A.,

Congratulations!! I have 4 children also, twins in the middle. I nursed them as well, and everything you're doing sounds perfect. Keep going and don't look back! The let down reflex is not always something you will feel, esp in the first few weeks of nursing. If you felt it while nursing your other 2 children, you will most likely feel it with the twins in another few days/weeks. It is definitely not a sign in and of itself that your milk supply is lacking. Your milk supply will balance itself out, esp if you're nursing on demand, and several times in the middle of the night. I don't know if yours are identical or not, but that can help keep them sort of on the same eating-sleeping track. Not that I scheduled my infants, but I did find it helpful to nurse both babies at the same time, or one right after the other by waking the next one when the other was finished. I only ever nursed one twin on one breast. They were not assigned their own breast - I just let each baby feed on one side at each feeding. I can tell you that I worked up a huge milk supply! I never pumped either, just here and there if I was going to be gone for more than 2 hrs, which was rare.

And a word about your 2 & 5 yr olds - do you have family and friends to take them for a few hours every day? This will save your sanity, if you're able to take a few naps throughout the day with the babies...

Go girl! I am so proud of all of you nursing mamas out there! ;)

meg

I would contact your local La Leche League for really specific advice; you can't go wrong with a well trained lactation consultant. I don't have twins, but I can relate to the lack of let down sensation. My daughter is 9 months and i have never felt the "pins and needles" or any type of let down feeling, I only knew I was letting down because she would start gulping furiously to keep up with the flow.

I breast fed my first child and had issues with supply. I drank mothers milk tea and also took the supplement Blessed Thissel. These helped. My pediatrician told me to drink 1 beer daily. Apparenly it is the yeast product so it needs to be beer. I found this to be the most successful method although I continued all 3 at the same time. I am currently breastfeeding child #2 and haven't needed anything. I never experienced fullness or the "let down". Good luck!!

Congratulations!!
Monitoring the wet diapers will tell you if they are dehydrated or not. You need to moritor the messy ones too. An exclusively breastfed baby at that age needs to have at least 2 messy diapers a day. If you are getting at least 2, they should be getting enough.
I never nursed twins, but did nurse all 4 of my children, and did not really experience the let down feeling that others descibe very often. I also rarely leaked unless I was overful or I leaked from my right breast while feeding on my left side.
Every experience is different, so as long as they are gaining weight and having bowel movements, don't worry!

Sounds like everything is going well if the twins are having the right amount of dirty/wet diapers and gaining weight. Kudos to you for your great work! Here is some general info on increasing supply if you need it

"First and foremost, nurse! On demand, no matter how long, no matter how often. BABY is the best supply booster you can have.

Be sure you have a real suppply problem rather than a perceived one. Pumping only two ounces at a session is normal and isn't a supply problem. Changing fewer than six diapers per day DOES indicate a real supply problem.

If you're already nursing around the clock and pumping frequently and are still changing fewer than six diapers per day, then you can look at different techniques to increase your supply.

1. Water. 64 ounces daily.

2. Oatmeal. For some reason this can increase supply. Bowl a day.

If those two don't work, and you are not diabetic (gestational diabetes doesn't count), then you can add the following items from the health food store:

3. Fenugreek. Two capsules, three times a day.

4. Mother's Milk Tea. As directed on the box.

5. More Milk Tincture. As directed.

6. Blessed Thistle (someone please add the dosage?)

If you're still not seeing improvement, then you can see about calling in the big guns. By prescription only:

7. Reglan

8. Domperidone.

Whatever you do, NURSING is the most important component of your plan. No galactagogue will be effective if you're not giving your body the stimulation it needs. So put baby to breast as much as possible."

Congrats on the twins!! I have 3 year old twin girls. I did not feel the same after nursing them compaired to the other 4 that I nursed. I felt that my milk supply couldn't keep up with them and supplemented also. When they were 3 months, I put them on the bottle, because of their demand to eat. It seemed like all I did was feed them and change diapers. I think because they constantly eat start and then fall asleep, that your milk doesn't have the time to refill, so to speak. My doctor told me not to expect the same, and that I probably wouldn't have the pain or fulliness as you do between feeding of one child. He said that twins would feed right after each other or within 2 hours of each other. Mine were 2 hours apart, so every 2 hours I was nursing one of them. Unless it has changed in 3 years, there was a medicine you could take to help your milk come in more, but you should talk to your doctor.
Hope this helps!!
B. Golden

The Lactation Center at St. Vincents is a great place to go to have free weight checks done and get advice. Plus they have the best prices on nursing bras, pumps, and accessories in town and they have a lending library of books and videos.

Located at 311 W. 24th Street in the Women's Center.
Support Group meeting is the 3rd Wednesday of the month.

The hours change every month so it is good to call ahead to get the hours. Leave a message and K. McArthur will get back to you within a day. ###-###-####

The Erie LLL chapter is not having regular meetings but they are available for phone help. St. Vincent is the best source of support right now.

Hi A.,
There are a few ways to increase your milk supply. The first is nurse more often. Every time your baby suckles your breast, it sends a message to your body to make more milk. The more you nurse, the more milk you will produce. If you begin to supplement with formula too much your milk supply will begin to decrease because fewer messages will be beinging sent to your body. Secondly, drink Mother's Milk Tea. It has certain herbs in it that will help increase your milk supply. I've been nursing for three months and everytime I have a cup of that tea, I notice an increase in my milk the very next day. Also aviod parsley. It is one of those herbs that actully decreases your milks supply. Hope that is helpful for you. Good luck;)

H. M

Our breastfed twin boys are now 18 months old. My partner is the breastfeeding mom and had this to say when I just asked her:

"I don't remember feeling full and let-down, leaking, etc. until I went back to work [when they were 3 months old). They just nursed all the time. I mean ALL THE TIME, so I never got full, full like I imagine I would with one."

The best ways we found to increase her supply were:

1. Tandem nurse. You can do it! Nursing them at the same time will increase your supply better than anything else. There are some great double nursing pillows on the market. We have the EZ-2 Nurse Twin pillow. The foam one.
2. Get plenty to eat and drink. Eat all the time! Drink all the time!

Hang in there!

S.

To increase your milk supply: Drink Mother's Milk tea from Traditional Medicinals, often found in natural food stores. You can even make a gallon of iced tea out of it to drink throughout the day, and may find a marked changed after just one such day. Also, make sure to get plenty of rest. Accept whatever help you can with cooking and cleaning and errands to relieve your stress level. Congratulations on your twins!

Hi
I don't have twins but i just wanted to say it sounds like if the twins are gaining weight and having wet diapers everything is fine. I read on your post that you have 4 kids..your hands must be so full...How do you feel? Do you have help? I have a 4 1/2 year old boy, a almost 3 year old boy and a 17month boy..and i am beat just taking care of them and keeping up with the house is exhausting. My husband works long hours. Write me back if you get a chance.l'd just like to know how you're making out...maybe we can share tips...
take care
L.

You might need to just relax. Having twins is crazy. Just trust that your body can do it :) Keep a count on their wet diapers and if they're latching correctly, then you should not have a problem. Don't pump too much because you will overstimulate your production and get engorged.

But we're here for you!

Hi,

I have an almost 10 month old and also am breastfeeding. The secret is alfalfa!! It nearly doubled my milk supply and I have no problems. I want to breast feed for 1 year so he does not need formula (yuk). Really, alfalfa works. The other positive thing about taking alfalfa is that it is really healthy for you and therefore for your babies:) Believe me I have looked into this. I am a nutritionist and a registered nurse:)

Hope this helps you,
H.

Hi! My twins will be 7 weeks old tomorrow. They are my first children, so I can't tell you if the supply is different from nursing a singleton, but I can tell you that I also do not have the letdown or fullness feeling either. My little ones seem to be getting enough to eat as they are sleeping 3-4 hours at a time after eating, are having plenty of wet diapers and have gained weight at their check ups. I also had to supplement with formula for a couple of days as my milk also came in late. Everything you said indicates that you're doing great!

As for increasing supply, the lactation consultant told me to pump both breasts at the same time for about 5 minutes after they eat. Nothing may come out, but it will help to increase the supply. She also said that tandem breast feeding gives extra stimulation to the brain for more milk production. I have an EZ 2 Nurse pillow for tandem nursing twins that makes it very easy to do this.

Congrats on nursing your twins!

I hope this helps!

mother milk tea worked really well for me!!

I didn't have twins but I did have a lot of problems with my milk supply. A couple of things you can do for the milk supply...

1. Pump. Wait until after they eat and then pump each breast (I had a Medela breast pump that could pump both at the same time) for about 5-10 minutes.

2. Mother's Milk Tea. This has natural herbs in it that have been found to help increase your milk supply.

3. Fenugreek supplements. This is a natural herb that will also help to increase your milk supply.

4. Join a La Leche League group. Other moms and professionally trained women who can help you with your problems as they come up and support you as you do it, was a wonderful resource for me. I don't think we could have been successful with my son's breastfeeding without them.

I've also heard that massaging your breasts before feeding can help to stimulate the milk production. Try to relax. Getting anxious about it can actually hurt your milk supply. (Much easier to say than to do, I know.) It actually sounds like your twins are doing great. With all three of my children, we attempted to breastfeed (only successfully with one). I never felt the letdown that they talk about. I only realized that later when I was talking to a friend who told me how it felt. Also, if you are truly having a breast milk supply issue and the above things don't help there is a prescription you can get from your doctor that will increase breast supply (check the La Leche League website). I think it is actually prescribed for heartburn or something similar but increasing breast milk supply is a side effect of it.

I tried to breastfeed my daughter but I think because of trauma to me during her delivery, my milk supply just dwindled (I also had an inverted nipple which made it really difficult). With my second child, (my first son), I had some milk supply issues and again with the inverted nipple but we stuck with it. However, even when he got enough milk from me he failed to gain weight. My milk wasn't giving him enough calories. He ended up breastfeeding for almost 2 years but he was supplemented most of the time (usually with just 2 ounces after he breastfed). With my third (who just turned 6 months), we started with the same problems. He needed to be supplemented after a day or so because of jaundice. After he was supplemented, he wanted nothing to do with breastfeeding. With a 3 year old at home, I switched him to the bottle. He is doing fine. Just remember that no matter how you feed them as long as they are thriving you are doing a good job. They will get the nutrients they need whether you breastfeed, formula feed or do a combination of the two.

Good luck and keep up the good work.

I have 9 month old twin boys that I just weaned from breastfeeding. I wouldn't worry about not feeling the letdown. For some reason, I never felt it or leaked in the beginning but then it became apparent to me later on (with the twins and with my 2 year old son). I think if they have plenty of wet diapers and are gaining, you know they're getting enough. They say if you have enough breastmilk for one baby then you have enough for two and it's true. The one thing I found was that as their demands increased I had to feed then more often. When they were 3 months old I was going crazy feeding them every 1.5 hours so I started supplementing with formula after every feeding so I would only have to feed them every 3 hours. Good luck with everything. I know what it's like to have newborn twins and a toddler in the house!!

I didn't breastfeed twins, but I did breastfeed all 4 of my kids.

With my first daughter I felt let-down very strongly, I got painfully engorged, I sprayed milk out of the "idle" breast while DD was nursing...it was truly an experience.

I had NONE of that with my second DD. I did get engorged, but not nearly the extreme that I had the first time. Other than that...nothing.

The best indicator of how much milk you have is whether your boys are producing adequate poopy & wet diapers, and gaining weight. Sounds like they are doing well on weight? If you are concerned, I'm sure you pediatrician would have no problem with you stopping in for a weight check between appointments.

As far as increasing milk supply, one of the best things you can do is increase the number of nursing sessions. So make sure you are nursing as soon as one of your boys cues hunger (I know that clients of mine who had twins would either than nurse the second twin at the same time, or right after nursing the first, rather than waiting for the second to cue), and getting in a *minimum* of 8 of these sessions per day. If they are really young--as in less than about 4 weeks past their due date--you might want to even be aiming higher. It is absolutely normal for some newborns to nurse 12 times or more per day.

Beyond nursing, I can't imagine with twins that you'd really have much time left to pump. But if you do want to pump, you'll get more bang for your buck if you do it 30-60 minutes after finishing (or longer, but you might not want to get too close to the next feed) a feeding session than if you do it immediately after. Immediately after you are less likely to have any milk that you can pump out, what with nursing two, and there is a whole complicated thing with how the hormones work where you get more of a supply boost if you have two 20 minutes stimulation sessions as compared to one 40 minute session.

Good luck!
Jenn
www.babybodybirth.com

P.S. I was just reading through the other responses, and I've got to say, I COMPLETELY disagree with the comment saying that you don't need to worry about how much weight your babies gain. You *do* need to keep that in mind, because Failure to Thrive is not insignificant. A breastfed baby should actually move up in the weight charts during the first 4 months (like from 25th percentile at birth to 50th at 4 months of age), then start to slowly drop. This is because the weight charts are mainly based on formula fed babies, who have a different growth pattern. It really concerns me when a mom is told that a 3 oz weight gain per week is fine in a 4 week old. A weight gain that low (it should be more like 8-12 oz!) is a sign of a low milk supply that should not be ignored.

I am a mother of three, age 6, 3, 2. With my first child (under-weight), I leaked all the time between feedings. With my second child (who was extremely under-weight), it was less so. By the time I got to number three, I didn't feel the let down and I never leaked. I could go to work and pump only two times in an eight hour period with no leaking. My third child was my only "normal" weight child and he ate alot. If the boys are gaining weight, don't seem to be starving, and are having wet diapers, I'd say you are fine. They are just exhausting your milk supply each time they eat (which is a good thing). They'll let you know if they aren't getting enough (so will your pediatrician). Hope this helps, good luck with the twins.