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Breastfeeding
10 week twins and desperate
Things have gotten bad here in a hurry - I've fought for 10 weeks to build up my milk supply for my twins, and now that I have, their nursing may kill the whole deal.
My son has been a bad nurser from the get-go. He's like a vacuum and gets the milk just fine, but he clamps and bites and is doing something weird with his tongue that I can't figure out. It's been cleared many times now that his latch is fine, he's not tongue tied, etc.
My daughter was nursing well, good latch, gentle on the breast, but now she has started clamping down and biting, especially during night (can't even get through one session with her), and is fidgety and popping off the breast all the time.
I can't figure out what has made it get worse with both of them - no diet changes or anything like that, but they did have their 8 week peds visit a week ago today, where they got several shots. Not sure why effects of that would just be showing now.
Trying to find a good lactation consultant in my area but in the meantime needed to find out if anyone is experiencing anything like this? Is there hope or anything I can do???
DD born 6/27/2010
di/di B/G Twins born 5/4/2012
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Re: 10 week twins and desperate
Great job on getting your supply up! Is it possible that you are dealing with a bit of over active let down? My girls used to bite and clamp down some because the milk was flowing faster than they wanted. You can try to use gravity in your favor by keeping them in a position when they have to "work" more for the milk, like with baby on top of your breast tummy-to-tummy. Honestly, I could never get the hang of this position (great advice I give huh?!) but I also had a LC suggest for me to use a "scissor" hold on my boob so that I could squeeze right at the base of the nipple and slow the flow a bit. I'm not sure if you tandem feed or nurse them separately. Tandem makes everything a little more difficult seeing as there are no spare hands!
If you don't have over-active letdown then maybe you could try just breaking the latch and giving them a few seconds before trying to relatch each time they bite/clamp?Encourage a wide open mouth, especially for your DS with the funky tongue thing!
I'm no expert... Definitely get into contact with a LC and have their latch re-evaluated. And stick with it mama! I almost gave up nursing my girls 384978538 times. And here we are at almost 8 months
You can do it!!
I am not sure about your son, but based on what you said about working to build supply and your daughter's new behavior, it sounds you may actually have more milk than she can handle just now. At her age the clamping down, fidgeting, and popping off are all signs that she is trying to slow down the milk flow. (Is she gulping too, or frequently gassy? Those would also be things to look for). That doesn't necessarily mean you have too much milk, just that many young babies (especially comfort nursers) are just too small for the faster flow. When they get a little older, they actually prefer it! She will likely outgrow this problem over time, but meanwhile what you can do is when your milk lets down, take her off and express the milk onto a burp cloth for a minute until the initial spray is done. The later milk will be easier for her to drink.
My thought as I read too, I would talk to a LC on ideas to help!