Potty Training Twins…I mean, it has to be done…but it wasn’t one of those things, when you find out you are having twins, that first pops into your head…it just sort of became time!!…I am writing this, because lots of other moms asked me to…heard a lot of comments like, “What? How did you do that?” “How was it so fast?” “How did you make them go?”…so here it is!
Stats: Trevor and Brandon, Twin Boys, Time to Potty Train the Twins!
Age: 2 Years 3 months
Birth Order: Trevor is 2nd, Brandon is the baby
PREP
1. Grab your patience hat, cause you are GONNA need it!
2. Realize there is a window of opportunity. With my first son, I was home alone, pregnant with twins, on partial bed rest and just tired…I knew we were moving across the world during that year…and I didn’t want to train and retrain, so I think I let that window of opportunity pass…I put him thru “boot camp” at 3 years old…and it was TOUGH!!! (Like dropping a nugget in the largest gingerbread house in Asia at the casino his father was managing director for! HA! He STILL remembers that!). So my advice is to notice your kids signs. My boys were wanting to sit on the pot, pretending they had to poo, pretending to wipe their butt…Trevor even walked up to the toilet during a shower and actually peed in the pot…I was shocked!
3. Make the day you start, THE DAY YOU START. Commit yourself, no turning back.
4. Grab LOTS of pants and undies. Because I was training 2, I carried 6 pairs of pants and 12 pairs of undies with me everywhere I went. (We literally have about 50 pairs of undies…3 boys in the house…yep…necessary)
5. Did I say patience? Smiles? Big boys? Proud of you?…yes, grab those catch phrases and hold on to them for dear life…with your smile!
The Training – (All of my nannies were on holiday for a week, so I thought it would be the perfect time to get my boys set up on the toilet!)
Day One:
I made a big deal out of no diapers. Let them choose their undies…my boys are BIG into choosing what they wear. They picked their favorite out. I took them straight to the bathroom and made it a big deal to pee there. They put their undies on…and pants…and pee’d them about 6 to 8 times each boy…Yes, I had the washing machine set to soak, and just kept throwing undies in there. I kept a smile on my face and said, “Oh, no! You need to tell mommy when you need to pee!”…and always took them to the toilet to let them try, even after they peed. End of day one, Brando was wetting his pants, but able to stop it to get to the toilet…and even did a poo. Trevor would just look at me and say, “Uh-oh!”…I think he made one stop to the toilet.
Advice: Ask if they need to pee, take them when it’s been an hour just to remind them, watch for hiding in the corner…usually a sneaker poo is lurking!!!
Day Two:
I was excited…NO MORE DIAPERS…I was on a roll…ready to tackle this thing! Brandon did great, straight to peeing on the toilet…he LOVED the praise, the high fives…started repeating, “I so proud”…then Trevor got on the bandwagon and started digging the praises…Lord knows he sat on that toilet 20 times…We were down to about 6 pairs of undies that day…to me, is a BIG success…in one day, to go from 16 accidents to 6…pretty dang good!
Advice: Take undies with you wherever you go, know where the bathrooms are, take them to the pot even if they say they don’t need to go.
Day Three:
I took the boys to the pool. I still didn’t trust the warm water and the urge to NOT poo…so I put their swim diapers on. Lo and behold…BOTH boys were all excited to get OUT of the pool to go and pee. (I think part of their fun was watching me run all over the place; carrying one, dragging the other and asking a friend to keep an eye on Zachary). Brandon had ONE accident…and it was a DOOZY!Brandon decided to make a BIG poo in his pants at my friends house, was embarrassed, didn’t want a shower, but NEEDED one, had crap dripping down his leg, while I was trying to make the shower hot, smeared poop on the toilet, and was trying to give me a hug. Luckily, my girlfriend has potty trained 2 already and just gave me soap and laughed! I was sweating and trying to put that smile on my face!
Advice: If they need to pee in the grass, let them (maybe not if you are in the US…is this OK? My hick Cambodia brain sometimes doesn’t work out over there!! HA!), LOTS of encouragement, let all of the kids in the bathroom when you go, when they go, when brother goes, when daddy goes…they will GET it!
Day Four:
True test…the boys had school that day. I let ALL of their teachers know that they were diaper free…that Brando like to pee standing up, Trevor like to pee sitting down. When I picked them up…only one pair of pants was soiled! At nap time, Brandon fought me and said, “No DIAPER!”…he didn’t pee during nap time either!
Advice: Don’t RUSH them…give them a little privacy if they want it…ask them if they are all done and to try one more time. At this point, they should have control over their bladder and be able to know what they are doing.
Final Thoughts
By day 7, the boys were at school. They played, they came home, had naps, played some more, went on a play date…BOTH boys did not have ONE accident ALL day long. I don’t know if my boys are just super smart or I’m just super smart…but whatever the combo, it worked for us!
Let them work up to where they “want to go”…and THEN start training that way. If you just put them on a toilet and tell them to go, they are going to get freaked out. Lots of undies. Lots of bottoms. Get your washing machine ready for soiled pants. If you leave the house: take a plastic bag with you so you can put the dirty ones in it. Know where a bathroom is at all times, or be prepared to use a tree. No matter how hard you want to scream, don’t. Just smile and pick your baby up and take them to the bathroom and leave them there on the pot for their “private time”…while you clean up AND cool down!
Sort of reminds me of the fact that I grew up with 4 brothers…peeing ALL over MY toilet seat! Thankfully, in Cambodia, you can just hole the hole damn bathroom down!!!
There was no double trouble for me…double meant easy…they encouraged each other, fought over the toilet and took turns spraying each other’s butts. What more could you ask for?!
Sadly, I came across some disturbing information today as I was looking at my blog stats...and some weirdo in Canada is googling photos of naked toddler boys and was sent to my site. I don't understand these people and it makes me sick to think of any of this. Photos taken down you jerk.
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