Formula feeding question

My twins arrived one week ago at 3626d (ok, labor started the day before). We are formula feeding with a little pumped breastmilk. The girls seem to have white tongues from the formula. Is this normal? We're mixing the Similac as directed. It just weirds me out to see sticky white tongues so much.

BTW, these boards have been so helpful. I'm really jealous at times of couples with just one baby--and it's only been a week with the girls. Really, it would be nice if feedings took anything less than 1-1.5 hours. DH works from home and that helps a ton, but we both need some more sleep and time to get work done.

 

QUOTE(writerswife @ Apr 19 2009, 09:55 PM) [snapback]1280492[/snapback]
My twins arrived one week ago at 3626d (ok, labor started the day before). We are formula feeding with a little pumped breastmilk. The girls seem to have white tongues from the formula. Is this normal? We're mixing the Similac as directed. It just weirds me out to see sticky white tongues so much.

BTW, these boards have been so helpful. I'm really jealous at times of couples with just one baby--and it's only been a week with the girls. Really, it would be nice if feedings took anything less than 1-1.5 hours. DH works from home and that helps a ton, but we both need some more sleep and time to get work done.


Congatulations on your twins!
when my guys had white tongue I was concerned too, but it is absolutely normal at that age.Good luck.

 

Congratulations!!

I do remember my girls having the same problem early on, but it did go away quickly after feedings.

 

Yes, mine had alot of white in their mouths as well. You can always call your Ped if you are really concerned. Feedings at that age took forever for us too. We had to stimulate them to keep them awake and sometimes that didnt always help. Hang in there. Congrats on your girls!!

:welcome: to the First Year!!

 

Congratulations on your girls! When ours were first born they had the white tongue and it did go away after a couple of weeks. I also remember it taking a long time to feed them, we would have to do things to stimulate them like almost totally undress them, tickle their feet, rub their cheeks to get them to eat.

 

Congrats! At about 4 weeks old mine had really white tounges...took them to the pedi and they had thrush; you may want to take them in just in case....thrush can become very difficult and painful for them. Mine were given some meds for it and it cleared up just fine.

 

white tongue is totally normal from formula or breastmilk. thrush is more serious and you would know if they had this because they would be in too much pain to eat. I clean their tongues and gums everyday with a warm washcloth and it does the trick.

 

Could be thrush. Do you have a check up soon?

 

QUOTE(orangeyaglad @ Apr 20 2009, 05:56 PM) [snapback]1281548[/snapback]
white tongue is totally normal from formula or breastmilk. thrush is more serious and you would know if they had this because they would be in too much pain to eat. I clean their tongues and gums everyday with a warm washcloth and it does the trick.


it can cause pain but my LO's never exhibited any pain symptoms...but I think if it gets too far it can definately be painful.
But yes, white tounges are normal and we too cleaned their tounges every day or so...if it wipes off its just formula if it doesnt could be thrush

 

It's formula because it's almost gone every time we go to feed. We go in to the doctor on Wednesday. Thanks for the advice on thrush. The feedings are taking forever and it seems like they're eating really irregularly. One feeding will be 3 oz and the next will be 1 oz. This new mom stuff is so confusing and you add the sleep deprivation to that and it's so much worse.

 

QUOTE(writerswife @ Apr 20 2009, 09:11 PM) [snapback]1281776[/snapback]
It's formula because it's almost gone every time we go to feed. We go in to the doctor on Wednesday. Thanks for the advice on thrush. The feedings are taking forever and it seems like they're eating really irregularly. One feeding will be 3 oz and the next will be 1 oz. This new mom stuff is so confusing and you add the sleep deprivation to that and it's so much worse.

It shouldn't be taking that long to feed them. What kind of bottles are you using? Are they on any type of schedule or are you feeding on demand?

:hug:

ETA...doesn't sound like thrush.

 

QUOTE(writerswife @ Apr 20 2009, 09:11 PM) [snapback]1281776[/snapback]
It's formula because it's almost gone every time we go to feed. We go in to the doctor on Wednesday. Thanks for the advice on thrush. The feedings are taking forever and it seems like they're eating really irregularly. One feeding will be 3 oz and the next will be 1 oz. This new mom stuff is so confusing and you add the sleep deprivation to that and it's so much worse.

Our babies were VERY slow eaters in the beginning, too! And they've always been pretty irregular in terms of how much they eat-anywhere from 1.5-5 oz at a feeding in the early weeks, and now it's 3.5-8 oz at a feeding.

I remember asking our pedi about how long it was taking to feed our boys. She said it sounded like we were doing everything fine and they were just slow eaters. If you notice they start to suck non-nutritively, just play with the nipple, etc., then it's time to stop. But if they're actively sucking, keep going. In the early days you might keep having to wake them up/stimulate them to keep eating. If they stop because they're falling asleep, try stimulating them. if they stop because they just seem to lose interest (if you're bottle-feeding), then just take away the bottle or you risk overfeeding them. Hope that makes sense!

By 6 weeks or so we were able to start introducing fast-flow nipples (some bottle systems have medium-flow, which would have been very helpful as a transition!). It took a while for them to get the hang of it and sometimes we'd put them away for a while and then try again a few days later, but once they started drinking more often with the fast-flow nipples, feedings sped up to 15-30 minutes. So there is light at the end of the tunnel!