Possible growth spurt?

I need a little advice...one of my 5 wk twins has been eating 4 oz of formula about every 2 hours for the last couple of days...he wakes up screaming and the only thing that calms him down is eating. He has previously gone 3-4 hrs between feedings. He seems to do this about once a week. Afraid to feed too much because he is a spitter upper and occasional projectile vomiter. the dr said the twins shouldnt be eating anymore than 4 oz at a feeding, but they ( especially boy) still seem so hungry. my girl can eat up to 6 oz with no problems and can go anywhere from 3 to 4.5 hrs between feedings. I'm also trying to implement the "baby wise" principles and getting them on the same schedule. So is the frequent eating a growth spurt? How can is stretch the feedings out? I've also been giving the little tummies gas drops a few times a day, per dr. Also, since I'm trying to get them on the same schedule, this too frequent eating is making me feel the only thing I do is feed babies.

 

I'm no expert on formula feeding, hopefully another FF mum can help but it sounds like you're following your baby's cues nicely! I have no idea how to stretch out baby's feedings without just watching the clock while they cry. I find I have happier babies if I follow their schedule not mine. Unfortunately this means you will have days where feeding babies is about all you get done. No small achievement that! It's hard work but your babies are still so little, things will change with time. I found things magically became easier at about 12 weeks. Good luck!

 

During growth spurts, my formula fed twin always had 4-6 oz per feed every 2.5 hours, give or take a little, then magically she would drop down to 2-2.5 oz every 3 hours - it used concern me a lot, I thought there was something wrong with her but that's just the way she is, even now.

With the screaming, the only thing I can think of is that he has gas - you could try bicycling his legs while he is on your lap, a warm bath and gas drops at every feed (we used Infacol but I'm in Australia) - to be honest, I don't know if the gas drops helped or not, perhaps they did a little but we used them until they were about 7 months old (probably more for our minds then them!) until their gas issues subsided. The other thing that helped a lot was after using the Medela newborn bottles we changed to Dr Browns bottles - that was a biggest factor in reducing their gas issues, I felt. You can also do a little baby massage on him and trying to feed him upright, if at all possible.

They are still so little yet, don't stress too much about their schedule - at this wonderful baby moon time, all they will do feed, poop and sleep - you will have days where that's all you do and then days when they'll just sleep all day and you'll be wanting to wake them up. I did try to keep to the same schedule even if one is eating more than the other - I always had the motto, one up both up, one feed, both feed - it just made my life easier and if that meant one had more frequent feeds than she needed at the time, then so be it.

Around 10 weeks was our magical time when everything started to fall in place.

 

Does he always finish the bottle?
Maybe i did it wrong but i always let them decide when they were full at each feeding. IMO most doctors don't know much about feeding or sleeping.

I fed them until they were full. If they finished it I would make more OR if they finished it but had slowed down before the end we stopped. If they finished a couple in a row i would increase the amount for the next feeding.

Is he happy when he is feeding? does he get fussier after he burps and then not really drink well after that?
Those were the symptoms of my DS with acid reflux. It hurt after eating so he would eat less and be hungrier earlier. Meds made a HUGE, HUGE difference for him.

I agree about keeping them on the same schedule! it makes your life sooo much easier and sets a good standard for the future. Scheduling only gets trickier so start now.
My joke was my DD never even had hunger pains the first 2 months of her life. I fed her when DS was hungry and usually had to wake her up to eat!

Keep working on it, you will figure it out.

 

I agree with the other posters, follow babies' cues. We always feed together, it is easier. We are at 9 weeks and heading toward a schedule. It doesn't seem like it will ever work out, but it does. And a growth spurt is possible....mine eat a lot and sleep terribly when they are growing.

 

It probably is a growth spurt. I seem to remeber my twins doing the same thing around 5 weeks too. Mine are 11 weeks and generally eat 4 oz but sometimes they'll go up to 6. My baby girl has bad reflux issues. My doc has her on meds, (I know its controversial bit my doc recommended 1tsp of cereal in her bottle to help with the reflux) and we burp her every ounce and keep her upright for about 20 min after a feeding. We also went through a bunch of bottles until we found the Playtex ventaire, those were the only ones that didn't cause gas. You might want to try the burping and keeping him upright and giving him 5-6 oz. The cereal helps tremendously for us but dont do it until you talk to your doc.

 

Thank you for the advice and encouragement. Today was better. I started trying different bottles too. We originally had him on the dr browns bottles, those nipples were the closest shape to the ones we were sent home with from the hospital. They were ok, but it took forever for him to eat (45 min to 1 hr) He didn't like the avent bottles/ nipples. The evenflo ones are the most recent ones and so far so good, feeding time has been cut down by about half. He seems much happier today, but my girl seems a little less happy. I guess if it isn't one its the other! Oh the joy of twins!!
Tara