Women with twins are often faced with many challenges when caring for their babies. If you are choosing to bottle feed your babies, for whatever reason, then there are a few tips that may help make the sterilising and feeding process a smooth one.
- If you are sterilising by boiling, you will need quite a large saucepan (or do a couple of loads).
- If you are cold sterilising then it may be easier to get a large bucket with a lid to put the sterilising solution into, rather than multiple small containers. Once you have used the bottles, you can rinse and clean them and put them straight into the solution (they will be ready again an hour later).
- If using a steam steriliser, then you will probably have to do a 'few loads' to sterilise everything.
- Making up a large batch of formula in one go, and preparing all the bottles at once, is probably easier than making them as you go. Some women will carefully scoop and measure all the powder into a jug, and then use a permanent marker on the jug, to let them know how much powder to use each time. This will need to be adjusted as the babies grow and you need to make up more formula.
- If one baby is having a slow teat, and the other needs a fast teat, you can cut a small piece off the rim of one of the teats, so you can tell them apart.
- Some women will keep written charts of when each baby has fed and how much they had to drink, to keep tabs on what everyone is up to. Twins and triplets etc are all individuals, so they will drink varying amounts at different times of the day, from their sibling(s).
- Often you can feed one baby while the other is asleep (or content) and then feed the other. If your partner is home (or you have help) you can both feed a baby each. If both babies are awake and crying, either feed the one that is screaming the loudest first, or you can change them and sit them in bouncer chairs in front of you, holding a bottle in each hand to feed them. Take care not to strain your back. Another way is to sit cross legged on the floor, with you back supported against a lounge or wall, and place each baby with their head resting on the inside of your bent knee.