How long did it take your newborn twins to finish a bottle?

I don't recall it taking over an hour to feed my daugther when she was born.

My boys are 11 days old and one of my boys is taking anywhere between 3 and 4 ounces. It can take well over an hour to feed him- he weighed 6 pounds 7 oz when he was born. Then, my other boy drinks between 2 and 3 and he also can take over an hour to feed and he weighed 7 pounds when he was born. I sat here from 6 to 8:15 feeding them tonight.

Is this normal for this age???

 

Isabella drinks 4 ounces in record time and Sophia takes her sweet time drinking two ounces here and two ounces there. I think it's just their personalities.

 

For anything over 30 minutes, it takes more energy for them to drink than what they're getting, so you want to cut it to 30 minutes tops... Might be the nipple flow that is too slow. 3-4oz seems a lot though...

 

When my babies were newborns it never took an hour to feed each of them. Have you tried burping them after every ounce ? Maybe they have gas ?
You could ask your pediatrician. It shouldn't take that long.

 

I don't know about at 11 days as ours were still in the NICU and barely taking anything. Later though if it took longer than 20 minutes to feed them we would try the next nipple level to see how they did.

 

QUOTE(Fran27 @ Nov 16 2008, 08:41 PM) [snapback]1073033[/snapback]
For anything over 30 minutes, it takes more energy for them to drink than what they're getting, so you want to cut it to 30 minutes tops... Might be the nipple flow that is too slow. 3-4oz seems a lot though...


Ditto...That's what we were told in the NICU when the babies were starting to drink from a bottle.

Of course that being said, mine are taking that long now, and I can't do anything about it. I hope the above doesn't count for them at this stage.

TC

 

I agree with the others about checking the nipple flow. We were also told the same stuff in the NICU. Even when we started breastfeeding, time was a consideration to keep them from expending more energy in the feeding process.

 

I just wanted to add - at first we used the 4oz bottles, and they had preemie nipples. My two drank very slowly with those... So every time it started taking even 30 minutes to drink a bottle, I switched to the faster flow... They were on stage 3 nipples at 4 months! It depends on the brand of the bottles though, Born Free nipples are slower flow than Dr Brown, for example.

 

I agree with what everyone´s written, it does seem a very long time. Also 3-4oz seems a lot at that age. I´d check with your pedi and see what s/he says. KUP & GL!

 

Mine were that slow for a long time (didn't come home from the NICU until 10 weeks, and feedings took an hour for at least a couple of months after that). When we tried faster nipples the milk just spilled right out of their mouths.

Do check with their pedi before cutting them off at 30 minutes - we were never told to do that. The main thing is whether they are gaining weight as they should.

They are still super slow eaters at almost 4! Probably good though, because I'm the fastest eater on the planet and I was worried that they would be like me.

Rachel

 

Mine seemed to take forever to feed. Counting burps, etc I guess it might have taken us close to 45 minutes in the beginning. We used slow flow nipples (playtex dropins) I didn't change to medium flow until they were 4 months old and it cut down eating time.

 

Annalise drank pretty quickly (always has) and Nikola would take 45 minutes each time. So, yes, I think it is perfectly normal at this age. It does speed up over time :hug:.

 

QUOTE(SweetGirl @ Nov 17 2008, 10:46 AM) [snapback]1073578[/snapback]
Annalise drank pretty quickly (always has) and Nikola would take 45 minutes each time. So, yes, I think it is perfectly normal at this age. It does speed up over time :hug:.

my girls still take their sweet time at 3 and a half months!!!! when they really want it though they can down it in 10 minutes, that's 4 ounces though, they rarely will eat more than that.. someimes to get them to take that still does take an hour though.