any lactation consultants or bf experts out there?

[mtemm]

just on the off chance that anyone out there can help me!

My twins are 2 weeks old now, born 5 weeks early. My son seems to be having trouble getting my hind milk and am curious if anyone knows any tricks that might help?

TIA!

 

[mbb]

Congratulations...and good for you!!

So many people gave me a hard time when I wanted to bf our twins...I did, until they were 7 months old

Love that football hold!!

Good luck...and I wish I could offer some helpful suggestions - well, here's one...at a feeding, let your stronger nurser start, and not quite finish, then switch them. This would allow your "grazer" a better opportunity...feel free to pm anytime!!

HTH!!

 

[momof3disneyholics]

I breastfed all three of mine. My twins were 6 weeks early. They are boy-girl. My son had a hard time nursing at first, and what helped was a breast shield. It helped him latch on better and longer and get more milk. The football hold is really great, esp. when they are little. Keep trying and don't give up! I know how hard it can be having 2 at one time!

 

[Serena]

I didn't have twins but I nursed my babies too. I don't have an answer to this question, but if you have any other's feel free to p/m me. I'll help with what I can.

 

[tigercat]

mtemm had good advice. Let the stronger one start but change when the hind milk is coming down and let the weaker nurser then nurse that side. Good luck and it's great that you are giving your 2 a good start.
tigercat

 

[goodstarr]

What is going on that you don't think he's getting the hindmilk? Are you not experiencing letdown? If not (and I know I had this problem while pumping), you can, how do you say, "tweak" your you-know-what to induce a quick letdown before attaching him so you've gotten some of the preliminary work out of the way for him to get straight to the important stuff more quickly. Those early (and most often small) babies tend to fade out so soon. It can take a while for a weak nurser to induce letdown, therefore taking even longer for the hindmilk to come out.

 

[luv2nascar]

I nursed both of mine
certainly no expert and no advise really
but kudos to you with twins
my only other offering is you are not a failure if your son can not survive on breast milk alone
2nd dd dehydrated breast feeding. I just assumed and tried everything to get her to feed more
had to supplement and eventually give up breastfeeding for her
she was a very lazy drinker constantly falling asleep

 

[mtemm]

thanks everyone! Its so different this time around. with my older son, everything went so smoothly. I'm sure their being early has something to do with the fact it isn't this time. That and having to supplement for jaundice.

as for me thinking he isn't getting enough hind milk, has to do with pooping and weight gain. thankfully one trick a LC told me seemed to help with the pooping, at least yesterday. He's up an ounce, too, from 2 days prior. hoping that will increase more dramatically soon.

I'm also hoping that pumping will start working better. Blech. I'm getting more dedicated, so hoping to see better results soon.

 

[tinaluis]

Don't give up on the pumping. I pumped exclusively for about 7 months with each of my three DDs even though the LC told me it would never work. It was a little slow at first but soon I had the whole freezer full of expressed milk.

 

[zakatak]

I'm not sure this would work with twins, but with my youngest dd, she had trouble from being 3 weeks early. What I did was pump one side first, then latch her on while pumping the other, then switch her to the other side. She got only hind milk FISRT, then drank the foremilk from the bottle. She grew rapidly with this and I only had to do it for two weeks, then she was awake/big enough to do it all herself.

 

[Kermit]

Jacob had a problem with a foremilk/hindmilk imbalance, though it was mainly because I had too much milk rather than what he was doing. I expressed a little milk before he latched on, which would be about the same as letting the other twin nurse first. Also, since Jacob nursed all the time for just a few minutes, I used one side for 3-4 hour blocks of time. So if he nursed at 8:00 on the right and wanted to nurse again at 9:30, we went back to the right. I don't know how you're nursing twins, but I'm guessing you might be nursing them both on alternate sides each feeding. If that's what you're doing, this will work perfectly for you.

Are the poops very green and very powerful? That's the way Jacob's were. If he went while his diaper was off, it would fly over 5 feet away. There was something that blocked the path about 5 feet from his changing table, so we never figured out exactly how far they would go.

Unless you're planning on using bottles, either with formula or expressed breastmilk, I'd try every solution that doesn't involve a bottle first. Call your local La Leche leader. She'll have lots of ideas and the names of good doctors and lactation consultants in your area. A meeting would be great, too. Since so many women have had the same problem, you'll get tons of suggestions.

Good luck!

 

[MosMom]

I expressed a little milk before he latched on, which would be about the same as letting the other twin nurse first.

I was going to suggest this as well as taking a hot shower or warming your breasts with a hot washcloth. Warmth always helped me let down.

You could always go out in public without nursing pads on and listen to other babies crying and you will let down for sure!!! I just loved when that happened to me.