tandem nursing tips?

[blueberries8]

I have been EPing (which honestly I really don't mind so much), but I am slowly trying to BF more. Ideally, I would like to transition to primarily BFing over pumping as the babies hopefully become more efficient. I just tried out the twin my brest friend today for the first time. I would love any tips and tricks with tandem nursing, especially at the NB stage. 

[mrsf0831]

No advice, but following. Btw how old are your babies? Ive been attempting to bfeed and would tandem a few times but my boys arent latching w out the shield and I don't think they are getting enough to eat and I end up giving them a bottle.

[anotherdreamer]

I didn't switch from EPing to BFing so I can't help with the transition, but I do tandem nurse my twins. Starting out one of them had a bad latch (DD1), and the LCs told me to latch her on first... however, I found it easier to get my good latcher (DD2) on, then working with my other one. The letdown happened faster because of DD2 nursing, so DD1 didn't get frustrated trying to get latched then waiting for letdown.

I set up a system in my house. During the day I tandem nursed them on the couch- I had my MBF twin nursing pillow, a boppy, and anything I might want (drink, phone, Kindle, remote, etc...). I would set one in the boppy, and sit down with the pillow on while holding the other. I then put them both on and latched. In the early days it took a lot longer to nurse, sometimes 20-30min (they also ate more often because of clusterfeeding), now they take about 5min altogether to tandem nurse. Earlier on they were very sleepy and eating a lot, so I would stay on the couch and let them nap a little then let them relatch. It helped us get through the growth spurts and establish supply. One of my girls did need a shield for a little bit (for the latch issues plus compensating for my OALD), but we slowly weaned off that as she got older (think we were done with it by 2m).

[babys2015]

I tandem occasionally, but honestly my boys eat better solo, and I stay home is I have the time to do that. Tandem looks a lot like what anotherdreamer, described..and I prefer the football hold.

[harti09]

I'd consult a LC about the full transition, ideally someone who works with multiples.

As far as tandem goes, it takes practice. Just go for it. I would start feeding one kid and then latch on the second. We would tandem for a bit and then I'd finish up with the second. My goal was to always increase the tandem feed time. Keeping a log helped.

We were fully tandem by two months. A large part of it is getting them on the same schedule. Whenever one kid wanted to eat, the other was offered. It was a lot at the beginning, but it did pay off. When at five months, it only took 12 minutes to feed two kids, you win.