Any Advice for Potty Training Twins?

[Ayesha Nicole]

Dear Everyone,

I am very anxious about potty training my two girls because they are almost showing the signs of readiness.  I have the book How to Potty Train Your Child in Less Than a Day, and need to reread it.  I am really dreading this. 

Any advice, please?   

- Ayesha

[saniso]

Hi Ayesha,
this is a very emotional topic for  me as I am going through ups and downs with potty training. I missed the sensitive period for my DD as we were travelling but the cues were strong and i feel terrible about it. nevertheless now we are still pottytraining and I feel that we are so close and then something happens and we realpse back. to cut the long story short, if you are apprehensive about PT in one day , have you considered any other approach? I found this book: The potty training answer book by karen Deerwester and it has a summary of most plans and gave me a very practical solution . like I said we are still working but I found this to be a very self paced program.
Also stock up on potty books , our favorite is the potty book for girls by Aliisa Satin Capucilli, along with the video.  I was not in favour of potty books but tried it as a desperate attempt. It helped DD to get over her resistance for Potty. HTH, Good luck.

[VictoriaC]

Hi Ayesha,

I'm facing the same issue with my twins. My daughter pulls her pants when she feels like peeing. Sometimes she even says pee pee or poo poo. The problem is when I take her to the potty, she starts to cry. She seems very afraid of the potty. So at times she rather hold on to the pee or poo than doing it sitting on the potty. I felt so frustrated and bought a potty training DVD i.e Potty Power to watch with her. The first time we watched the video, I asked if she would like to try sitting on the potty just like the little princess in the story. She agreed and sat on it ( with her pants on). I clapped and cheered for her. My sister happened to be in the room so she clapped too. My daughter immediately broke out crying and threw a tantrum. Since then she just refused to sit on the potty at all. However she loves the video so much she asks to watch it everyday. I've tried reading, offering sticker and juice...it just wont work with her. She cries so loud no matter what I say to her she's not listening. My son on the other hand, pees when we remove his pants and diaper in the bath tub, but when we offer him to pee into the potty or sit on the potty to poo, he'll cry. sigh...

[Ayesha Nicole]

Dear Saniso & VictoriaC,

Thank you for the responses.  And it seems I am not alone.      

I did find this informative:

http://www.twinslist.org/tttfaq.htm

And I just left a voice-mail message with Dr. Azrin, author of Potty Training in Less Than a Day.

http://www.pottytrainingconcepts.com/A-Potty-Training-In-One-Day4.html
http://cps.nova.edu/faculty/Ffultime/azrin/Azrin.html

I will keep you posted with his advice for how to use his book with twins, as well as the issues you both mentioned. 

- Ayesha

P.S.  Dr. Phil's advice is based on Dr. Azrins:

http://www.pottytrainingconcepts.com/A-Dr-Phils-Potty-Training1.html

[laughingwater]

I have found that potty training is a very sensitive topic.  I attend a weekly mom's group and all the mom's in the group are trying to potty train their children and they are all struggling.

My experience is a bit different.  I grew up in South Africa and there it was common for children to be potty trained by the time they could walk (around 1 year) as opposed to in the U.S. most children are only potty trained when they are about 3.

When my daughter was 3 months old each evening when I would undress her for her bath and wait the couple minutes for the bath to run she would pee.  Since I was not about to get peed on every day, nor was I about to let her pee on the floor, I went right out and got her a potty. I started off by just putting her on the potty before bath time and she peed in the potty every day since then.  I did that for a month or so, then when she was 4-5 months old I started putting her on the potty more often - right after waking up from a nap, and soon after eating or drinking.  By 5 months she was peeing in the potty about 5-6 times a day.  We went through a little stage when she was first able to stand that she was not intereted in sitting and I could not get her to sit long enough, but I found that if I keep a stack of books next to the potty and read to her while she sits she will usually sit long enough to go.  At around 10 months she also started pooping in the potty.  I give her A+'s everytime she uses it.  She is now 13 months and has started talking and will now sometimes say poop when she needs to go.  She is not quite at the stage of putting herself on the potty, but it has been a few weeks since I have changed a poopy diaper.  I think the reason for her sccess was that I started when she was really young. She got used to using the potty and didn't develop a fear of it that I see so often in 3 or 4 year olds.  I don't have any advice for those with older kids who are struggling, but I would strongly advise anyone with a child less than one to start putting them on the potty - with no pressure. Just let them sit and get used to it and figure out what they should do on it.

Good luck!

[Ayesha Nicole]

Dear LaughingWater,

I have a dear colleague who is in Cape Town; and I do wish I could go and visit there someday.

Thank you for sharing your experiences and your advice.  I wish I had begun earlier; however I will follow the Azrin/Foxx method described in the famous book, Potty Training in Less Than a Day. 

Yesterday, I left a follow-up email message for Dr. Nathan Azrin; and today I left a voicemail message for Dr. Richard Foxx (who is my region) > http://citl.hbg.psu.edu/bsed/faculty_bio.cfm?FacultyID=41

Over the last few evenings, I have been re-reading through the book, ordered potty training supplies, and am preparing myself mentally for the intense training period.  I believe that my girls will learn quickly - and in fact I think they are more ready than I am.   

Will keep you posted.
- Ayesha

[Skylark]

Agree with you, laughingwater, will be doing that with our next child definety. Our first one has not used diapers, so it is nice to actually get an advice from someone else , who had a plan and followed it. Since in our case, even though our girl used potty since she was less then a month old, I did not know how to start doing it with the next child in case he/she would not be that expressive about not using diapers

Thank you for great advice!

[Ayesha Nicole]

Dear Skylark,

Did I read correctly that your first born used the potty at under one month of age?!? And if you did not use diapers, then what did you use? 

- Ayesha
curious

[waterdreamer]

I read a very good book called "Diaper Free Before Three" I think with my next child I will try this approach.
Best of luck

[Ayesha Nicole]

Dear Everyone,

I am sooo happy to share that I actually trained the girls in less than one day using the book, Toilet Training in Less Than a Day.  It works AND it works with twins!  

I also found these tips (and the products) helpful:

http://www.pottytrainingconcepts.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?

And there is another great product called PODS that I will use when we are outside to reduce the mess of accidents when they do occur:

http://pottytrainingsolutions.com/index.php?cPath=21&osCsid=6773043b1503acbdfe50da9135194981

http://pottytrainingsolutions.com/article_info.php?articles_id=26

So happy and so proud of my two Big girls!!!

- Ayesha



Today is day two of being diaper free and there has been only one accident this morning when one was distracted by eating. 

These

[Skylark]

Congratulations, I am so happy for you!!!!

[happymomof5]

Congrats, Aysha!
POtty training is a very natural process & I strongly believe that doctors who teach you to wait training your kid to go potty till after two years old are paid by the diaper making companies.   Like in South Africa, most of poorer countries (or our parents for that matter) DID NOT have kids pooping in their diapers at the age of three!!!  (I personally find it extremely  gross & degrading for our children!) BTW, if kids can read at two, don't you think they're intelligent enough to poop in the right place?
I have five kids & the first four were out of diapers in the daytime around one year old. With a couple also at night, the other two were very deep sleepers.
It's very simple & natural.
1. I use cloth diapers. There are great diaper covers on the market right now that makes it even easier. You save a TON of money as well! They feel wet right away & want to change. They also get the point VERY FAST that peeing = discomfort, so when offered an alternative of where to pee, they catch it right away!
The reason we need diapers (or whatever other alternatives) is NOT because babies don't have bladder control, but because it's not important to them & they can't communicate it so well,.... well actually I'd even say that it's more like we, the parents don't listen carefully enough
2. I start at about 2-3 weeks, but it's never too late. At every change just hold the baby (squatting position, his back against your chest/tummy, your hands hold the little thighs, spread apart) over the potty (or sink, or basin, anything, really) & make a hissing sound (something like ps-ps-ps-ps-ps) In China they whistle (I think the point is a signal sound, not so much which particular sound, although i did find that sound of running water makes them pee ). Always also try a grunting sound for poo-poo. If a baby starts to poop in her diaper, take the diaper off & hold her over the potty to let her finish, & make your signal sound so they get the point that this is what's supposed to happen. They understand super fast! My 4 months old grunts when she needs to go potty & goes on the potty many tiimes a day! After about 7 months i DO NOT HAVE POO-POO diapers!
3. Another point for new babies, when it's warm, just put a rubber pad & a cloth diaper under their bottom & let them get sunshine & air on the little bottoms (mommies of boys, watch out! you have to have the cloth also over the peenie to avoid a shower ) It's so much healthier for babies than sitting in those chemicals! 
4. If you have time (don't be scared, you get a route down really fast!), about 30-40 min. little babies usually pee

[Skylark]

Dear Skylark,

Did I read correctly that your first born used the potty at under one month of age?!? And if you did not use diapers, then what did you use? 

- Ayesha
curious

Oh, sorry, I never noticed it, so ave not replied...    We only used the first pack of diapers when she was born, and that was not because she soiled them, but because they wore out. She did not want to be wet or dirtly, so she would fuss and ask to be changed, when we will start changing her she would be dry and usually will go in-between changes. It tok us a few days to figure out that what she actually wanted was not to be wet or dirty, and took another few days to find a tiny potty. Once we did, it was not hit and miss process at all, it is amaizing how intelligent the babies are, she would communicate and the very first time we put her on the potty she did it. First we kept a chart, just for our own sake out of curiosity, we would have a miss in average once every 20 times, so once every two days or so, usually when we were not able to respond within a few minutes, like in a heavy traffic ( had to pull off the freeway, etc) Then we stopped with the chart. We used comfortable cloth underpants, and it works great.

I think it is more difficult to re-train babies who are used to dirtying their  diapers, then to just work on communicating and understanding them from very beginning. In the beginning everything is new to them, so everything that becomes a new habit is a very natiral process, what becoes more traumatic and unnatural is when we train them one thing ( like the fact that going into your diaper is OK) and then a little later start training them not to do it. I never though of it before I had a baby, but having this experience totally changed my perspective. Our girl was so much happier, communicative, expressive, when she realised that she can productively communicate with us, and count on us to meet her needs.

Again this is our personal experience that did not come from any pre-planning, but rather was a result of bonding and trying to connect with our newborn and to meet her needs in the best way possible.

[Ayesha Nicole]

Thank you for these explanations and tips. 

Last night, I kept the girls in their training pants along with a PODS liner, and put plastic pants over the training pants, and then put their long pajama pants on top, and they sleep on a waterproof bed liner; they woke up wet, but it was contained with the plastic pants over their training pants.  And then they tinkled in their potty seats after waking up. 

I am happy that they are staying dry during the day, with only hree accidents between both of them yesterday; and none so far this morning (it is now 11:52 am EST) which I think is fabulous!!!

- Ayesha

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