Am I creating bad eating associations?

Hi forum,
I have nearly 10 week old twins (born 37w2d) and I'm concerned about DD's eating and if I'm creating a bad association.

I currently feed them EBM and two formula feedings at night. DD is around 8 lbs as of two weeks ago. Since ten I've noticed she is consistently wasting a 1/4 of her bottle (we feed her 95 BM and 110F 6x in a 24hr period).I also BF her around 4x a day of 5-8 min max. We usually try to force the rest of her bottle and she cries and turns her head. I've talked to dr's and nurses and some say keep doing what you're doing and others say don't force as long as she's growing and producing 5-7 wet diapers per 24 hr period. She is getting that many wet diapers but i am concerned about her growth- so far the dr. says she's fine even though both are in the 5 percentile or lower.

So my fear is that b/c we've been forcing her to eat she isn't recognizing satiety cues or even hunger cues. I do have them on the same feeding schedule but i feel that DD has to eat more thruout the day and lesser amounts.

What have you done in regards to feeding? On demand? Scheduled? Different times for each child even if one isn't hungry?

 

Personally, if she's eating pretty consistently, growing at all, keeping it down, and turning away when she's full, let it go at that. Not every child can or will be average weight. It's just the nature of babies, some will be huge, many somewhere around average, and some small. Also, their eating tends to go in spurts, along with their growth. If she used to eat a little more, she was probably getting ready to grow. She'll likely come back to that soon before her next growth spurt. Keep offering it to her, but I wouldn't force her to eat.

 

Agreed. Follow her cues! Being in the 5% is not a problem - it just means that compared to other children her age she's smaller than average. Someone has to be. As long as she's growing on her own curve it doesn't really matter what the number is. My girls have always been on the 5% and 10% and are just fine.

 

I agree - follow her cues. It is perfectly ok to be low on the curves as long as she is following her own curve. I think I remember reading somewhere that breastfed babies are often lower on the curves and that not all pedis are aware of this; as you are partially breastfeeding and also offering EBM this might be an explanation.

I think you might be right in thinking that she is one of the babies that needs small amounts more often - their tummies are still tiny at 10 weeks. One of mine still needed to be nursed every 2 hours more or less around the clock at that age, she could not handle larger portions. Today she is the twin who is a little taller and weighs a little more, it will all even out eventually.

 

I agree to follow her cues. The twins have alwys been smaller than Vivi was at their age but their doctor has never expressed concern about their weight like she did about Vivi when she was their age because they have shown consistent growth. Vivi bounced all over the chart - 50, 25, 50, 10, etc. The twins have consistently stayed in the 15 to 25 percentile range.

 

We had a lot of weight dropping issues at the beginning, so I definitely hear the concern about making sure she's getting enough even when she doesn't seem to want more. We ended up solving this issue by getting a baby scale and weighing them twice a week and entering their weights into an app called Growth+. It feels a little crazy to track their weights sort of meticulously, but it has really put our minds at ease because we know they are gaining weight and don't need to wait until the next doctors appointment to make sure they are on track. If you do anything like this, just don't think twice about any big gain or loss days, it's just to measure an average over time. As for the low percentile, both Maren and Lucy are in low percentiles and like everyone has said, it's not a big deal, someone's going to be there. We are just happy they are gaining weight (even when we think they should be eating more) and healthy!

 

Oh, back to your questions....we feed every 2-3 hours, not a strict schedule but usually within that range, almost always feeding both at the same time. When we feed them separately, it gets too hard for me to manage. I'd trust your instincts and if it seems like DD needs to eat more often and less at a time, go with that as long as you can make this work for you. One way to do this is feed them both at the same time (with less for her), and then also feed her separately in between those group feedings.