Charlotte Millington posts about twins whose mother stopped supplementing
with formula after two weeks, and is now nursing both babies simultaneously.
The babies look good and seem happy.
Charlotte, you didn't say what the birthweights were, nor the weights at
previous check before you were there to help her.  In my experience if a lot
of formula is being used, it takes a little time for mother's own supply to
take up the slack.  Often these babies have lost less weight than average
immediately after birth and there seems to be a sort of plateau where they
almost 'catch down' (as opposed to catching 'up'), that is, they lose a
little weight to get hungry enough to really stimulate production in mother.
If loss in the early days was very little, there is a better margin to go on
too, before you start really worrying about why they aren't gaining apace.

Contented, round babies who are observed to be feeding well is a good sign
that everything is happening as expected.  I would want reassurance that
stools are at least daily and have that characteristic breastmilk look too.
Stooling less often than daily would make me want to have them weighed again
in a couple of days; if frequent stools, I would probably feel OK waiting
til after a weekend to weigh again.

I am inferring that they were last weighed just before your first contact
with her, in which case the most recent weights are not really alarming.  It
would be nice if they'd both gone up a notch or two, but they aren't
declining by any means and all the other indicators seem to point in the
direction of a breastfeeding relationship being turned around from within an
inch of total failure, to roaring success.
Here, we would stay in touch for the next week or so, and mother could come
weigh them as often as she felt the need to, though I would encourage her to
look at the babies (and their output in diapers) more than at the scales,
spend time breastfeeding rather than driving back and forth to somewhere
with baby scales, and trust that this will work out.  You've done everything
right as far as I can see.

Rachel Myr
Kristiansand, Norway

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