Hello!I am looking for some breastfeeding advice. I have been basically exclusively breastfeeding my twins for almost 12 weeks now. Occasionally we would do a bottle in the middle of the night to give my nips a break when I had thrush, or I would give a bottle if we were out every once in a while, but for the most part, we are still nursing. They are eating about 8-9 times a day for about 10-20 minutes at a time, and seem mostly content.
With that said, they have been giving me some signs here and there that they may not be getting enough. They have sufficient diapers and weight gain, so I am not worried about failure to thrive or anything, but they have been going through what I think are growth spurts where they nurse for a while and want to keep eating after they can't get much more out, or eating every hour and half and then being hungry not long after. Sometimes I give them a bottle after a feed when I am really desperate, and that seems to help. I am not against supplementing, but I want to boost my supply. A fellow twin mom friend thinks that I am not eating enough, and I read you should be eating an extra 1000 calories a day when exclusively breast-feeding twins, but I don't know what that looks like. I have two other young kids at home, so I don't have a lot of time and ability to prepare lots of high calorie meals, so I need quick options. I am also hungry ALL the time. What did you all eat when nursing young twins?
Re: Meal plan for breastfeeding twins
In all seriousness, I would try to eat high protein/low fat, and good fats. Calorie dense foods. I ate a lot of eggs - dippy eggs w buttered bread, hard boiled eggs as a snack, egg salad. I'm not much for meat, so I ate a lot of eggs and beans.
And oatmeal. Lots of oatmeal.
And then good fats like avocado and nuts. Lots of peanut butter and jelly. And trail mix! I would keep it at my desk in the afternoon - nuts, dried fruit and m&ms.
Greek yogurt is good too. And sometimes I just wanted a steak (which goes against my limit want for meat, but whatever).
Make sure you're drinking enough water.
My twins are 14mo and they lost interest quickly after a year. It took a few weeks for my appetite to subside, but it's back to normal now.
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Also I think sometimes babies fuss at the breast for non-hunger reasons- they're tired, gassy whatever - it can feel like they aren't getting enough when in reality the issue isn't hunger.
If you're always hungry, you probably need to eat more. I had some hungry stretches when I was pregnant- smoothies with fruit, full fat yogurt, peanut butter and a little maple syrup were one thing I'd make to add calories. I munch on nuts a lot at work.