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Got feeding advice from a friend with twins
and I'm not sure what to think of it. She put her son and daughter on a strict feeding schedule of 3 hours and made them both finish their bottles no matter how long it took. My girls are eating every 3-4 hours and anything from 2-4 oz. per feeding. My friend had her babies eat the same amount every feeding and as soon as they wanted more, that was the new amount.
I can't imagine spending 2 hours to get one of my girls to finish the whole 4 oz. and then only getting an hour of sleep and waking up to do it again. Right now it's hard enough because one girl always seems to wake up earlier for the next feeding than the other. So I'm always trying to make one of them wait until her sister wakes up...
Fiona & Julia
23 mos. TTC, MFI, IUI #1&2 BFN, IVF #1 = BFP!!!
23 mos. TTC, MFI, IUI #1&2 BFN, IVF #1 = BFP!!!
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Re: Got feeding advice from a friend with twins
That might be true for most babies, but with mine and their god-awful acid reflux, if I didn't force them they'd eat about 1oz at a feeding. Every feeding they do is a battle b/c it hurts them to eat. So some people can't rely on their babies' cues.
I feel for you, all 3 of my babies are terrible eaters and if I didn't push them to eat more they would only eat about an ounce too...I know some people don't understand this...Mine all have severe reflux too. It is a constant battle of feeding...OH I can't wait until they don't need bottles anymore! I get the comment about...don't force them to eat, they will eat when they want/need, but in some cases it just doesn't happen that way...
While I won't force feed, if a baby is particularly sleepy and uninterested I'm going to try to encourage him/her finish his/her bottle if it's a decent amount left because I don't want that baby waking up an hour later because they want a snack. My 2 eat different amounts (DS does 5oz - sounds like a lot but he kept demanding more until we got to 5oz and DD is just starting to do 3.5).
I'm more apt to encourage DS to eat more just because he's less barfy than his sister. If she says she's done, she usually means it!
Sorry ladies,
I didn't reazlie about reflux and having to make them take a bottle. Didn't mean to sound like I know it all, I don't even come close to knowing much..
Haha, rely on this board alot,
anyways just wanted to say sorry.
I was ona 3 hour schedule and would try to make them finish their bottles...for like 20-30 mns..after that I would give up.
They would get easily distracted or bored, so that's why I say I would "make"them. You can't really force them, but I see how you can sort of make them have a little more. That wa sthe key to keeping the same schedule and the key to keeping my sanity.
And no, they are not fat
That's nice of you to apologize but you don't need to : ) Before I had kids I had no clue that babies could be so bad at feeding. I had heard people say BFing was hard, but no one told me bottle feeding could be also. I used to think babies stopped when they were full too.
My girls are on schedule now, and I guess I "make" them finish their bottle. I mean, if there is .5 oz left, so be it. But babies do get distracted, etc. as others have mentioned, so you do sometimes need to get them to finish. I've never FORCE FED them though!
Also, if you watch the total number of ounces per day, you are not making your children obese. I think it's pretty easy to gauge when the baby is really full, or when they are playing around and not focusing, and thus not eating. I don't let them play around during eating time. I imagine that's what your friend meant.
Also, if one baby is hungry and it's not "feeding time" I just feed them both. But for the most part, they eat on schedule (which for me is give/take 15 min from the "set" time).