Feeding Newborn Triplets
Some of the first questions we get are in regard to how many bottles and diapers the triplets go through
As newborns, the babies were fed every three hours. That math works out to 24 bottles every day, or 168 bottles per week (check out the infographic to see what that looks like). It was decided that we’d start with Dr. Brown’s bottles, which contain double the pieces and parts of a standard baby bottle.
If you’re wondering how we keep up with washing 24 bottles a day, 18 Dr. Brown’s bottles and parts do fill the entire top rack of a typical dishwasher.
Not familiar with Dr. Brown’s bottles? These are special bottles designed to reduce the amount of air the babies suck in when drinking, making feeding easier for parent and baby. This is accomplished with extra parts other bottles don’t have, and they need to be washed after every use. After some experimentation, we figured out how to pack the dishwasher using an assortment of Munchkin Dishwasher Baskets to hold the various components.
Are the Dr. Brown’s bottles expensive? Yes, definitely more than a standard bottle. That said, garage sales have proven to be an excellent resource, allowing us to pick up used bottles for around $1.00 each. We did purchase all new nipples but they were otherwise ready to use.
Preparation is Essential
It wasn’t long before we added formula dispensers to pre-measure the powdered formula. These have three compartments and make it quicker to prepare bottles, especially overnight and during phases when the babies were on different formulas.
| UPDATE |
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| We quickly abandoned the bottle storage bin system. Having only a day’s worth of bottles, everything comes straight out of the dishwasher and gets prepared for the next day of feedings. There aren’t really any extra parts that need to be stored. |
How We Feed the Triplets
So, how much time does it take to feed triplets? Eating every three hours, it was essential to feed the triplets as quickly and easily as possible in order for their parents to get some sleep at night and keep up with chores during the day. Within a few weeks of their birth, we worked with the babies on prop feeding.
This started by using a special Bottle Snugglers Feeding Time Helper, allowing one person to feed all three babies simultaneously and keep feeding times down to 30-45 minutes. The Bottle Snugglers worked great with the 4 ounce bottles but became a struggle for us when moving up to the 8 ounce bottles. At that point we moved to a simple blanket prop and that seems to work well.
The blanket props were also better for pace feeding. We learned about pace feeding in the hospital and it involves placing the bottle nearly horizontal so the baby has some control over how much milk they’re drinking, rather than a more vertical position that causes some milk to run continually into their mouths. Our babies had various, although minor, digestive issues and this seemed to help.