Potty Training Twins - Etters,PA

I don't have advice on training twins - I actually came to this post to read the responses! But, I can help a little as far as rewards. Go to a teacher's store or a craft store where they have scrap booking supplies and buy a sheet of little stickers. They are usually very cheap for a couple hundred sparkly stars or smiley faces etc. I may have even seen them at Staples. Make a special chart for each boy and for every time they are successful, they get a sticker. 1 sticker for getting to the potty in time, a sticker for pulling pants back on unassisted, a sticker for remembering to wash hands, and so on. Cottonelle used to have potty training kits free - they include a story book, a sticker chart, stickers, (the chart and stickers are for kids who are into the process a bit), and a cardboard guide to hang from the toilet paper holder to show how much toilet paper to use. Try www.cottonelle.com

Another reward I would use in conjunction with the stickers - after 1 full line of stickers my kids would get to watch one extra video that day (TV is a privilege in my house). We've also done trips to the park, bubbles in the bathtub, exclusive time with mommy, go to the dollar store to pick a toy, etc.

Best of luck,
K.

every kid is different...some kids do really well with potty training and others you really have to work with...i nannied three little girls and all we did to get them potty trained was stick them on the potty every 1 to 2 hours and let them sit there until they went...with in a week they were potty trained...with my son it took me a little longer...i tried for two weeks to get him potty trained and he just wouldnt poop on the potty so i put diapers back on him for two weeks and told him he had to wear baby diapers until he decided to be a big kid and go on the potty...after the two weeks were up i tried again and everytime he would go on the potty i would praise him and tell him how proud i was of him and it took about two weeks and it worked...my sister in law was a nanny for a pair of twin boys and she came up with an idea to put up a chart for each of the boys on the bathroom wall...she wrote in one column pee and the other poo and everytime they would do one or the other (or both) she would give them a sticker to put on the column...when they filled up the column (there was about 12 or so spaces) they would get to pick out one piece of candy that they wanted...and that really worked for them...i know you dont want to reward them with candy but maybe you can find something else they really like to do and give them that for a reward...one major factor in potty training is to make sure that you all are consistant with what you do...good luck

My first thought was that because they are still pretty young, be patent with them. My son wasn't trained until he was more than 3 years old, and we had started right after he turned 2. So don't get upset if it takes some time!

A tip that may be helpful, especially if you and/or your husband are home with the boys everyday. Devise a time schedule that has the boys being taken into the bathroom to potty every so many minutes. At our daycare, I think she used every 20 minutes at first, then lengthened it as they got better at it. (One of the girls there trained 8 little boys at one time, between the ages of 2.5 and 3.5).

We tried the candy, toy, whatever incentive thing, and it didn't really work for us. Time is what worked, and that's about it. He still has accidents (usually because he's too absorbed in his playing to realize he has to go) but he's pretty good, and we rarely need to remind him to go now. We just started with bedtime training, so we'll see how long that takes.

Good luck!

Try stickers like stars and keeping books around. My daughter likes stickers the trick is to just keep them out of their sight until they go to the bathroom. I am trying to potty train my two year old now. And just do the best you can do.

Hey girlie!
When I decided to potty train Dom the biggest part was that he had to decide he wanted to. When I started I put the potty in the living room for easy access and would sit Dom and Kolin on the potty about every 20 minutes or so. I don't have twins, but I did have Kolin during the day. It was kind of like potty training twins. I'm not sure if the C's like stickers, but you could create a chart and give them stickers. I'm not sure if there's something else they really like, but you could use pretty much anything they really enjoy. After a while, they will decide they want to go in the potty. Don't get discouraged if it takes a while. It has to be their choice. Good luck!

Smiles,
E.

For a reward, you can try stickers ... if they get a certain # of stickers, they get a bigger reward (ex. get to pick a movie to watch or a toy or gets to go to the park .. whatever motivates the child) With twins .. once one gets it, the other will want to do it. Be positive ... they get a high five or a big hug when they go on the potty!

I'll echo the mom who pointed out that your sons are pretty young--especially if they were born premature as many twins are, you should be looking at "corrected age" (though as a childbirth educator/doula, I've had two moms go to 37 weeks with twins this year...so perhaps you were full term too).

I tried potty training my first daughter when she was 20 months old, and it went no where. She thought it was fun for one week, then started screaming when I tried to put her on the potty. When she was about 2.5 she picked out a potty at the store (while I was looking at something else she dropped her pants and started saying "potty mommy, potty!" while pointing at it--needless to say, I bought that potty), and potty training her was pretty effortless.

Unfortunately I can't say that potty training my next 3 was quite as easy--but I can tell you that it was between the 3rd and 4th birthday. My husband was okay with messes with DD#1 because we knew we were going to rip out the family room carpet within the year. But with the next 3...sigh. He loves Pull-Ups, and I hate them because I think the kids don't know the difference between them and diapers. Our youngest--who is 3.5 and not potty trained (though he almost was before I went back to work full time 3 months ago, then DH started putting him in Pull-Ups--ggggrrrr!), actually will tell me when I struggle to put underpants on him "no mommy, DIAPER!" DH is finally on board with him though...the impending start of preschool always seemed to motivate my DH.