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So here I am in the throws of two 2-year-olds who are giving me all the signs of readiness for potty-training. But I feel like a deer in headlights with no direction whatsoever! You’d think I would have a clue since I have successfully trained my two older daughters. But no, boys are different and twins are entirely different! I still can’t trust them in the bathroom for 5 seconds or they will dump everything possible in the toilet, turn the hot water on in both sinks and bathtub simultaneously and lock me out. Yes, this happened to me today. Lucky me! But these boys are ready. They tell me they want a diaper change because they have a “stank”, they hide in a corner when they do their business, and they are OBSESSED with everyone else’s bodily functions. It’s pretty funny when I have to take my posse into public restrooms because at least one of them will announce “mommy poo-poo” when I’m just going tee-tee!
So what is the difference between training boys and girls and where do you start? I’m thinking that the potty books are the very first step. My favorites are A Potty for Me, Everyone Poops, and Once Upon a Potty Boy/Girl. My girls were fascinated by Everyone Poops since it accurately shows every kind of creature going poo-poo. They read it for a full year after they were potty-trained! The next step is to get new training potties in every bathroom and stools by the sink/big toilet. We may also pick up a few potty dvd’s for long car rides or if we’re just hanging out sitting on our potties. A very important step in the process is to let your children go to the store and pick out big-boy pants or big-girl panties. I also think that training pants, ie. pull-ups, seem to defeat the purpose. When my girls wore them, they took it as a free pass to skip the potty since they really didn’t feel wet. Plus, they cost a fortune. We did use them at night for a while, but never used them during the day. I may be eating these words with these crazy twins of mine! I’ve been told to put blue food coloring in the toilet because when they go tee-tee, the water turns green. That sounds pretty fun. Another trick for boys is to put Cheerios in the potty since they can aim at them (Cheerios float nicely). What I’m struggling the most with is the reward system. We did peanut M&M’s for the girls and that worked like a charm. One for tee-tee and two for poo-poo. My oldest loved the M&M’s and she learned to do a little bit at a time to maximize the # of M&M’s. I wasn’t opposed to this because it seemed like she learned how to control herself quickly. Many of my friends did potty charts with stickers and that worked great for them. I’m just not sure what to do this time around. One thing is certain, I will wait to start after school gets out and we’re not really on a schedule. That way, we can run around naked in the backyard and get used to the potty sensation.
Do you have any tips to share? Here’s my big question – do you think I should train my boys separately or together? You don’t have to be a mom of multiples to offer up tips! Thanks for your Smarty advice:-)
7 comments
I trained my twin boys together.(It took about 3 days once I buckled down and did it). First advice-train them to sit and pee, so pooing won’t be such a big issue. Have them go in together and when one sees you praising the “pottier” they in turn will want to impress you.Mine got out of wanting a reward b/c the sheer fact of mommy’s attention and praise on “just them” was reward enough! (My twins and youngest are 20 months apart)The hard for me was putting my youngest behind a gate so i didn’t have 3 kids to watch in the bathroom at once…..Good luck
I have three boys and when we potty trained, we had them sit facing the back of the toilet for potty. Mine all trained at 2 1/2 and they were way to small to stand…if you put them up on a stool, the potty flies all over (trust me on this, I learned the hard way). If you sit them backwards, they can use their legs to grip the potty and they get used to being in the right direction. It really works. My own philosophy was to wait until summer, stay home for a week, don’t sweat the inevitable accidents and it will all be over quickly. I agree that pull-ups just prolong the agony because they don’t feel wet. I bought some old-fashioned rubber pants to use when I had to go out of the house and that prevented accidents from getting too messy in stores, etc. Good luck!
I don’t know about training twins, but I can provide some advice on boys … I would definitely recommend that you start with sitting (but make sure they learn to “point it down” b/c that pee has an amazing way of sneaking out between the seat and the base!). I found that my son didn’t have a strong enough stream to go standing up. Plus, he often had to do both at the same time – literally – so standing did not lend itself well to that! you can always teach them to switch to standing once they have the whole potty thing down!I also found a book that I really liked – Potty Training 1-2-3. One of the philosophies was to reward your child for keeping their pants dry as well as going on the potty. But it was more focused on rewarding them for not going in their pants b/c then YOU are in control. The thought being that when you reward them for going in the potty, then THEY are in control. It made sense to me anyway…
I haven’t trained boys but I trained my twin girls together at about age 2 1/2. I suggest hunkering down for a weekend. Watching potty videos and giving M and M’s each time somebody went in the potty worked for us. We went through 16 pairs of underwear to be laundered on day one but only 6 on day 2 and by Sunday night they were both trained. Choose an area like a linoleum floor and offer lots of drinks that they like drinking to encourage frequent peeing. We also used those lap pads (rubber bottomed) that we had from when they were infants and called them “magic carpets.” They were supposed to bring them wherever they went and sit on them. They thought it was a cute game and it saved some messes. Good luck.
I am having an issue with my oldest pitching a fit when he sees one of his younger twin sisters getting an m&m for going on the potty. Anyone have this problem?
Thank you for this post! I am about to begin potty training my twins once schools is out. They are almost 2 1/2 and both girls. I have a 10 month old who is about to be crawling all over the place so this will be interesting! Great advice and helpful comments from all of you as we begin this adventure!
The post about sitting backwards on the big potty is totally right!!!! This way they can hold on to the back and lean in. Also, if you do start with a small potty, the Bjorn potty is awesome. Boys make a mess with a circle potty. They need an oval like the Bjorn!!! You’re right on the pull-ups thing. We did use them at night for about a month. Now we just take him to the potty before we go to bed. He never remembers it, but doesn’t wet the bed.