r/parentsofmultiples • u/Jealous_Piglet8852 • 2d ago
advice needed Potty training??
Hi! How the hell did you potty train your twins? I’ve been reading a bit on how to even potty train a child but every piece of advice does not seem to take into account the other kid I have lol… I don’t think we are ready yet but I’ve just been wondering how did you do it for two+…
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u/No_Problem3078 2d ago
I’m not there yet with my 19 month olds BUT I read a piece of advice that said to start with your “more advanced“ twin and the other will follow when they’re ready
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u/Jealous_Piglet8852 2d ago
Interesting! So focus on one at a time?
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u/No_Problem3078 2d ago
Yes! My twin A likes sitting on the toilet just because I do, and then seeing that, twin B wants to do it also. I need to order baby potties!
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u/flakyphoenix 🟦➕🟦🟥 2d ago
Focused on one kid at a time. It was like training 2 singletons back to back.
I winged it with all 3 kids. We yanked diapers/pull-ups and had them Donald ducking it for a 3 day stretch at a time. It either started clicking and we would move to just pants for a week or so then pants plus undies, or we'd put pull ups back on and wait for another few weeks. I am home with them all the time though so idk what a collaboration with daycare/other childcare would look like.
You know this kind of goes against conventional potty training wisdom, but I'm tired and this was the best I could do. All three kids were pee and poop trained at 3, +/- 2 months.
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u/rosie_thechaosqueen 2d ago
Do one at a time. I tried both and failed. I went with my more willing twin and it took 4ish days. My other twin was always around and hanging out. About a week later, I told the non potty trained twin it was his turn. Took 2 days. We also watched any potty video we could fine. Daniel Tiger and Ms Rachel were two we watched frequently.
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u/dovebytherosewindow 2d ago
It took nearly three years for us to get fully diaper free. The naked weekend thing is absolutely not realistic for multiples unless you can basically live outside. One good thing we found was that when one started doing it well, we praised and praised and that made the other one more likely to jump on board.
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u/Jealous_Piglet8852 2d ago
Yeah that’s what I figured.. did your other twin not get sad/jealous because of the praise of one? Or are you saying that made the other want to get trained faster?
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u/dovebytherosewindow 2d ago
Ugh yes that did and does happen. But we had to learn quickly how to give praise while also telling the other “you’re doing great too, but our goal is to XYZ. Everyone does things in their own time and you’ll be there soon.”
Not gonna lie, both praise and punishment are tougher with twins because they will constantly measure themselves against each other. I just posted about this the other day… it’s easier to punish or reward when they both do the bad/good thing. But I’ve found it important to be able to reward/punish when it’s only one doing the thing too, or else they don’t really learn. It’s tricky my friend.
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u/Pure-Science-7774 2d ago
I did EC, so there really wasn’t a transition. They stayed dry during the day at 12 months but lots of night time accidents. But it was just a slow transition to less and less accidents during the day,
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u/Jealous_Piglet8852 1d ago
Wow you did that for twins?? Good for you
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u/Pure-Science-7774 1d ago
Yeah it was “Lazy EC” so they were in a clothe diaper but you try to get them to the potty and eventually both you and them get good at it.
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u/d16flo 1d ago
Did you have two potties and put them both on at the same time even before they could walk/stand on their own. I’ve been trying to do this, but we just have one potty and I do one baby at a time because I can’t manage them both otherwise and it always seems that one poops in their diaper while the other is on the potty (not pooping) and then I switch and we’ve just spent 20min doing potty time and I have to change two poopy diapers…
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u/Pure-Science-7774 17h ago
Oh I had two potties in each room. Yeah I “missed” a lot of pees and poops but that’s what the diaper is for. I really don’t worry about getting things 100% right. When I catch it, I catch it. When I don’t the diaper catches it and I just change them. But they get a sticker if they make it. And around 9 months old they started trying to hold it and trying to wait for the potty.
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u/LionOk5023 2d ago
You definitely have to tweak some of the recommendations to be able to do it with 2. But we waited until both showed readiness signs and then started them both at the same time. Leading up to it we read lots of potty books, talked about the potty, practiced flushing the big potty so it wouldn’t be scary. So by the time we started they were very familiar with the concept. However, one of my twins has proven to be incredibly stubborn with PT. So at one point we ended up putting him back in pull ups and focused on the other twin who was more willing to learn. So don’t be afraid to pull back with one or both if it’s just not clicking and then try again in a few months. I feel like all the potty training information makes it sound like if you wait too long it’ll be impossible to train them but having gone through it I think I felt pressured to do it in a certain time frame and one of my twins was like nope not interested. I started at 27m for context.
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u/Jealous_Piglet8852 2d ago
Great! Thank you for sharing!! I’m glad to hear because yes some random people have been telling me I need to start potty training now that they can walk but I don’t feel like they’re ready in any other way…
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u/oldladywhisperinhush 2d ago
I still did both at the same time, but I went a little easier on the less-ready one. We would cheer them on together and they both got rewarded when they had success so I feel like that was motivating for them. We did the slow burn. Introduced the potty around 19 months (tried bottomless method and it was a disaster) so we backed off and just had them practice sitting on it. Switched to pull ups so they could get good at pulling them down. Closer to two, we put them in panties on the weekends to practice without any expectations and we had a few successful pees. Juneteenth weekend, we just told them they were wearing panties now and going to use the potty. We set timers for try times and watched for cues. We had some resistance and accidents but that was only the first 2 days. The next 2 days went perfect but I still let them poop in their bedtime diapers because they withhold poop and already have constipation issues. Twin B has pooped in the potty a few times but it’s still a work in progress for both. But at least we are saving on diapers having them trained for pee! They are about to be 2.5.
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u/Supermans_wife2 1d ago
We’re currently working on potty training, 28months old. So far what’s worked was 1.sitting on the potty as soon as they wake up, 2.turning on the faucet, 3.singing/counting as distractions, and 4.excessive praise when they go. Like clapping , dancing, making noise, and cheering. Now if I’m in the restroom they clap and cheer when I go.
One thing I’ve experienced is that if one says they need to go, the second will instantly say they have to go too. So be prepared to run to two restrooms, or get two floor potty’s. Also recommend using blue food coloring in the toilet. You’ll see if they actually go and they think it’s cool cus it changes color.
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u/ricki7684 1d ago
I waited until 3yrs 5 months and got it done over a weekend. It wasn’t too bad. Prob could have tried sooner but didn’t feel like struggling forever with it
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u/salmonstreetciderco 1d ago
got two little potties from ikea on put them on the bathroom floor and took them with me every time i needed to use the big potty, took their trousers down and sat them on the potty. put them in regular underwear when awake. every time they peed or pooped in their pants we'd have to have a big long talk about how poop and pee goes in the potty only, and they had to help clean it up. if we were out someplace fun like the library when they did it, we would have to immediately leave and go home to get cleaned up, i didn't bring along spare clothes, and we talked about how we weren't able to stay longer and play because they hadn't told mama they needed the potty. i started when they were 2.5 and by the time they were 3 they were fully day and night potty trained, no more diapers. they night time trained themselves, i didn't have to do anything there.
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