Breastfeed and formula

I would suggest you see a "proper" LC, sometimes in hospitals they call nurses LC's but they are not necessarily board certified and their info not alway particularly current. She will help you figure out if their latches are as good as they can be as sometimes when babies are bottle fed they try and suck fromt eh breast the same way and don't get as much milk out. She can also show you how to BF both at the same time if you haven't figured out the best way to do that yet. Not leaking is no problem at all, I never leaked, never wore breastpads and never felt letdown and still had plenty of milk. All women are different in that respect. Once your supply settles down you also don't tend to have full hard breasts anymore, which is great cos you can go back to sleep on your tummy etc :) I was never able to pump much more than 100mL even if I pumped for an hour (by the way you are better to pump for shorter bursts with breaks in between, pumping for an hour will just give you sore nipples) , I know I had much more milk than that though, because my baby grew at an alarming rate. Some women just don't really respond well to the stimulation of the pump. The best thing you can do to stimulate your supply is FEED FEED FEED, to give your breasts the idea that more milk is required. What you can do is take what is called a "nursing vacation" basically you block your schedule for a few days and spend that time in bed with your babies, doing lots of skin to skin (so you have no top on and they have just nappies on) and keeping them close to you so they can nurse whenever they feel like. Put them to the breast often, even if they only fed 20 minutes earlier and don't worry about schedules or length of feeds etc. Try to avoid formula at all during this time, you need them to be hungry so that they will breastfeed more frequently. You can do this in conjunction with fenugreek if you want, with fenugreek you need to take a very high dose for it to work, the tea is unlikely to have much effect. Fenugreek won't work on its own without you make an effort to nurse more frequently though. Again an LC may be able to help advise in terms of doses.

Hi there! We've got a big list of all the breast feeding support in Dubai that you can check out here http://www.expatwoman.com/dubai/monthly_pregnancy_babies_Breastfeeding_Support_In_Dubai_8935.aspx Hope that helps!

since you are feeding 2 its not necessary that your breasts should ache but your milk supply is making your LO's tummy full. as OP suggested fenugreek helps alot. also add 1-2 tbsp cumin seeds to water.boil it. then drink only this water( for as long as you want, but you can have plain water with it too). this surely increases milk supply (tried and tested) as for the pain i feel pain in one and not in the other.since your LO's do not take formula after feed then they are full. but if they are crying and do not taking formula then probably you should change the formula. as long as weight gain is fine its ok. My baby was also given formula at the hospital because he did not take my milk next day for full 8 hrs. so nurses gave him formula.but eventually he latched on :) i was advised there to feed him in every 2 hrs. i use to follow it religiously even after returning home and it was stressful for me with the c-section. also my baby used to search for milk all the timein everybody's lap :) then i just followed my heart and gave him whenever he wanted. he would drink for not more than 10-15 min in day and 30 min at night. but atleast its helping us both to sleep at night otherwise i use to get up all the time and wake him up too. result both of us cranky :) trust your instincts. i do not leave him hungry for more than 3 hrs now in the day (3 month old) although now i am thinking of giving him same formula every now and then because its difficult to feed him when we are out apecially in dubai mall as there are no ac in the feeding rooms there and he just cries!! all the best. such a simple thing of eating is so complicated for little ones :D

I would recommend to see a lactation consultant, maybe your babies' pediatrician or your doctor can recomend someone. For all kinds of information about nursing I strongly recommend this website: http://kellymom.com/ Your milk supply is established through nursing, when your babies nurse your body gets the message to produce milk. The more often you nurse the more milk you make. Pumping also stimulates milk production, but not as effective as a nursing baby. So what you could try first , before you take any medication, is to have your babies nurse frequently and when you are substituting a feeding with formula to pump your milk to keep the milk production up. I did this with my first when she was a newborn and it worked out fine, she was off the formula after a few weeks without problem. I don't have any experience with twins though, but I am sure you can increase your supply to replace some off the formula. But I would definetly talk to a proffesional lactation consultant or doctor who knows about brestfeeding Also, babies go through phases where they seem to nurse non stop for a few days when they have a growth spurt. the kellymom website has an article about that. My second s currently in one and I am basically parked on the couch since yesterday , typing one handed. The frquent nursing helps to adjust the supply for greater demand and also it comforts her as aparently babies also are fussier during growth spurts. edited by Lilli34 on 17/07/2012 Not everybody's breasts hurt or leak even when the supply is good. Some women never need to wear breastpads while others leak like sprinklers.... And once the baby is older there will the breasts ususlly are soft and rarely engorged beause your body has adjuted to producing just the amount of milk required. <em>edited by Lilli34 on 17/07/2012</em>

Hi Zuzu, first of all congrats for twins :) U can do a lot to increase the supply...try fenugreek tablets..they shud available in pharmacy or u can try the one in lamcy mall...I don't knw if Lactonoc Granules are available in Dubai robot but they helped me a lot...I had the same problem with my DS..I just kept feeding him let him suck for as long as he wanted...I think it's ok that ur breasts don't hurt all time also it's not necessary tht when we pump it shud be a lot in some time..for different people it's different....and if ur babies are not interested in bottle after breast feed tht means they r getting their tummies full with BM Also check the diapers as in how much u r changing in a day if they peeing fine then they r getting enuf milk... HTH