Potty Trainnig Twins

[Meeely2]

This has probably been covered elsewhere BUT

ANY tips on how on earth i get my boys dry! being nagged by my MIL just to stick em in pants and get on with it, I have tried, god knows i have....

They are in pants all day at nursery, but there they have staff dedictaed to taking them to the loo every half an hour....weekends, I try to do the same, but by 10am we have gone through all their pants and all their trousers....I just don't feel as though this is how i want to spend my weekends with my boys when thats the only time i see them.

MIL thought i was exaggerating, so when she was up for my birthday, she nagged me again, so i said, fine, i'll put them in pants but you can deal with it, I want to enjoy my birthday and not run round after these two mopping up. By 5 o'clock she conceded she had underestimated how much they wee and that doing two at the same time was simply exhausting (she had claimed all three of her kids were dry by the age of two, but she did them one at a time).

So for those of you who have managed it, top tips, techniques, things to say and not to say to them, how many potties should i have round the house, would a loo seat be better, do boys prefer to wee standing up etc etc

Meeely, tbh, it just sounds like your boys aren't ready to do it. Stick them back in nappies for now, and try again in a couple of months.

Don't know how old yours are but all of mine weren't ready until 2 years and 3 months exactly-no idea why. I used GF How to Potty Train in a Week for the twins. Yes I chortled at the title too but it had some great tips and we did it in a couple of weeks. It was 2 weeks of sheer hell though.

My top tip is to decide you want to do it and stick to it whatever. If you chop and change it'll take longer in the long run.

Do not use pull ups at all they just confuse them.

Clear 2 days stay at home and let them run round with nothing on so they can get to the potty quickly(it's supposed to be a week I think but my sanity wouldn't stretch to that).

After that just stick pants on and live life as normal you will have aweek of wet hell but they have to go through it to realise what is required.

A couple of times I made the boys(we were out and I got caught out) stay in their wet clothes it really helped them realise the consequences of not asking for the loo. They improved big time the following day.

I used to give mine a chocolate raisin for a wee in the potty and 2 for a poo. The first week they had a little toy if they were dry all day.

Stick with the potty to begin with as you can sit it next to them. I'm guessing you've done the choosing new pants and decorating potty with stickers.

Get them Once Upon a Potty by Alona Frankel mine loved the pictures of poo in it and they really liked the story.

Try not to show it's bugging you at all, try not to scold them for accidents or it'll become a control battle.

Remember potty training twins is heaps harder than doing a singleton I've done both and it's soooo different.

Good luck

I'm going to go with the naked method, but I am rather at the idea of leaving a toddler in wet clothes!

If they're not ready then they are not ready. You could do them one at a time (starting with the one most ready). You could always ignore your MIL or let them spend a week with her in the summer so that she can potty train them.

DT1 was brilliant and trained in an instant, DT2..... well he still likes to water things. Much harder doing DTs than singletons. Much!

I was only half an hour and not planned I literally had no fresh clothes we'd worked our way through my entire stash. However it really helped.

I think 15 mins(obviously not in the depths of winter)whilst walking back to the car, now and again doesn't really hurt and teaches them that mummy can not always be relied on to provide an instant set of fresh clothes.

It'll probably happen anyway, lugging around 4 pairs of pants and 4 pairs of jeans is enough IMHO and as we all know the average toddler can have multiple accidents X that by 2 and you simply can't carry it all.

If you wee your pants at some point you're going to have to live with the consequences, it's life

thanks all, some good advice there, especially the bit about egetting MIL to do it as they are visiting her this weekend!

Wince potty training shudders. How's it going? I'm still scarred from when I trained my triplets. It takes time, patience and a husband! We trained my son at a different time to my daughters cause he wasn't ready and it sounds like your boys aren't ready at the moment.

We didn't use potties either, just straight onto the loo, we found that they liked to show us what they had done...not a pretty sight! And they always seemed to do it when we were in a meeting...

I'd try doing your twins at different times...

Would anyone slap me if I told you I found it easy?

YES!!!!!!

Actually, that said, mine weren't too hard, I did dd1 and the others copied... eventually...

Do one at a time, you'll probably find one is more ready than the other. Best of luck, i remember it fondly

don't sweat it and tell your MIL to piss off.

as has already been said one will be more ready than the other.

boys can pee sat down on a potty

remember that if your in the house - better to let them run round nekkid so there isn;t hassle of pulling pants down to get to potty.

put nappies on when you go out - don't be with the self flagulation - nowt worse than piss all over tesco floor

my other tip is - if you have a DP/DH and you have a boy best to let them do the JOINT pissing in the toilet - " c'mon lets go for a wee" both trot upstairs and piss in bowl together - much fun for small son.

another tip is to get a small plastic ball and put in toilet.

this then gives much incentive to go to toilet to have target practice. ball will float and survive flush and boy can merrily piss it from side to side in the toilet bowl.

may the force be with you

YOu don't say how old they are. My DTDs were a lot older than most before we tried to train them. They were probably at least 2.8-2.10 if not older.

We just took their nappies off and left them to it. DTD1 did it from day one. We just left the potty laying around and everytime we turned around it had a dribble of wee in (it id get knocked over a few times as we didn't realise). The only accidents we really had was when they were having to think about something wlse (e.g. having tea/playing play-doh etc.). We just made sure she was sent to toilet before we distracted her.

DTD2 just would not do it. She would not even look at the potty. So we put her back in nappies. Treated her as an individual and didn't make her do it just because DTD1 was. She knew she was weeing as she would announce "I am going to go and wee on the bean bag (with nappy on!!!)". She just would not look at the potty. 2-3 weeks later she just decided she was going to do it. Frisday she was petrified of potty. Sunday she was fully trained.

Based on all that my advise:
Wait until they are older . It is much easier.
If one is getting it easier that other don't be afraid to treat as individuals and do one at a time (easiest first). The second will soon get it when he sees his brother doing it.
Don't do it just because you MIL says so. DTDs were the oldest in their nursery group that weren't trained. We refused to let them train them as we weren't reday at home (we wanted the easy life!!!).

The competitive element really helped in my house. I trained DD first, because she was definitely ready. A month later, DS2 decided he wanted to do it, so DS3 decided he was going to, but do it better, [grin[ result was 2 boys who trained themselves in an afternoon.

I do remember emptying potties around 40 times a day though!

I'm sorry but my twin girls were easy peasy too - BUT I do have top tips!!
I was going to potty train now in the summer hols as I am a teacher and wanted to have time to do it - but they trained themselves about 2 months ago (they are now 2years and 5 months)
I wasn't ready to do it.... but it seemed that DT2 was ready.

I bought the GF book to potty train in a week (have friends who used this and said it was fab) but never did use it as.....:

I put them in "MAGIC PANTS"

Huggies pull ups with pictures on. For my girls it was hearts. The heart pics disappear with each wee... the first day they both wee-ed like mad - to see what happened. BUT when we started saying "Oh look - good girl - you still have all 5 hearts - aren't you clever" - it soon became an ambition to keep them.
DT1 not interested at first - but once DT2 was dry and happy - she soon followed suit.

I think that what others have said before about them being ready is so important.
They WILL do it but training boys is hard, and training twins is harder than just one.

My advice would be - do it when both THEY are ready and YOU are ready (ignore relatives)
Do one - and then do the other
I also used a sticker chart - get them from tesco near the pens and rubbers and colouring books - £2 ish for a set of stickers and chart.
Use the magic pants (excellent secret weapon)
Have a potty and training toilet seat on/by each loo (they ALWAYS want to go at the same time - just to annoy me!)
The padded loo seats are much more secure, with handles on. DT1 hates sitting on the solid ones as it hurts her legs.
Final thing was letting them help to choose and buy their own "Big girl pants"

I really hope this helps. Good luck!

i have boy girl twins
she did it by the book in 3 days at two and half ..he refused point blank until a week before his 4th b-day. we tried at 2 and half and three anf three and half but he was upset and hanging onto wees all day and then doing them at 7pm in night nappy. i just said it was his b-day and he cd have his main present but that he wd need to do wees in the potty if he wanted any other little ones from us. i know this is very mean but i was advised by doctor freind not to leave it til this summer as the pressure of starting full time reception still in nappies wd be worse. it worked and he was dry in 3 days, only ever had one accident and now 4 mths later goes standing up and is dry at night whereas freinds with boys who trained at three are still battling for dry nights. he still needs the seat insert thing for poos as is frightened of falling down toilet. best bit of advice i cangive however is to ignore mil or in my cas mil and my mother and even my father who ventured an opinion!

My girl/boy twins are 2.10 and still not ready...they wee literally evey 10 mins and don't know until its happening.

Leave it til they are 3 ish and it will be done easily and quickly. The older they are the easier. I have tried twice (leaving time inbetween) and they are still not ready. I will try again end of september.

can you tell me how you know when they are ready?