Toilet Training Twin Boys

Author: Anonymous

I wasn’t looking forward to toilet training twin boys – I was very, very stressed about it. I thought it was going to be a complete and utter disaster. My two boys are very active and tend to be mischievous, and don’t listen to me at the best of times, so I was having all manner of nightmares about how it was going to go.  

Preparing for toilet training twin boys 

As I wasn’t looking forward to it, I decided to be super prepared for it. Not long after they turned two, we went on a shopping expedition to buy some undies. They loved their undies……………..as bracelets. They weren’t interested at all in wearing them as undies!! 

Shortly after, one of the baby expos was on and I bought one of the toilet training kits from one of the stalls, which included a Wee Man, a Lupy Loo toilet seat, plus rewards charts and “fun stuff” to throw in the toilet. I felt prepared. But I wasn’t ready mentally.  

Toilet training twin boys 

Eventually, a few months before their third birthday I couldn’t ignore the fact that they were really showing signs of wanting to use the toilet any longer. Keeping nappies on them was a nightmare, they were fascinated with the toilet and were trying to use it by themselves. Their daycare was also politely asking me when we would be toilet training.  

Easter was coming up so I came up with a marvelous (!!) plan of starting the training on the weekend before, so I would have the help and support of my husband, then the third day of training (which I had heard would be bad because I’d be over it by then) would be at daycare. Then the 4th day they would be at home with me, 5th day at daycare again, 6th day with me at home, then the long Easter weekend with daddy’s support and help again.  

The first two days went reasonably well – not an awful lot of successful wees in the potty or toilet, but great enthusiasm about it all, and there were a couple of successes. The third day at daycare went really well. The 4th day at home went badly. One boy was compliant, and even though he didn’t always make it to the potty, he was at least happy to give it a go. The other boy put his foot down, and was not going to be told what to do.  

One down, one to go! 

This trend continued for the next couple of weeks. One boy was more or less trained by the end of the week, still having a few accidents (particularly with poos) but always trying to get to the potty, or would go when we asked him to. But the other boy got more and more stubborn about going the more we pushed. After about 3 weeks (and it felt a LOT longer), as I got more and more stressed about the constant cleaning up of wees, poos, undies, floors etc I finally decided to put him back in nappies. What a relief that was for all of us!! 

He eventually decided he was ready to wear undies about a month after he turned three, and was quite successful with the wees from that point on. Although he still doesn’t like to be told to go to the toilet, and will resist if we push him too much.  

Toilet training twin boys with number twos 

Poos continued to be a bit of a disaster for both boys for quite a few months. They would really only poo in their nappies, you could pretty much guarantee that as soon as a nappy went on for their sleeps there would be a poo done in about 2 minutes. I tried not to react to it as I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it – but it was incredibly frustrating.  

One boy ended up with fecal loading, where the bowel ends up completely full of poo, because even though he was regularly doing a poo, he wasn’t doing a big enough poo each time. The GP ended up prescribing a low dose of laxatives for a few weeks to help get everything moving – and once that had seemed to have worked he quite happily began doing his poos regularly on the toilet. And his brother followed suit soon after.  

Night training twin boys 

It has now been about 11 months since we started toilet training, and we are still yet to attempt night training. I’ve contemplated doing it many times, but I’m just not feeling ready to be woken numerous times during the night to change sheets. I’m all prepared again for when the time comes, but mentally I’m not prepared. As with many parenting milestones/challenges, the kids seem to handle it quite well, it’s the parents that seem to have the trouble!  

Toilet training twin boys: My tips 

As for what you need – LOTS of undies! In the early days we went through 15 to 20 pairs a day, and it was an effort keeping up with the washing. You’ll want to make sure the undies are loose enough for your kids to easily pull down, but of course not so loose that they fall down. We also had a bit of trouble with one child wanting to always wear his favourite pirate undies – if I had the time over, I’d only buy plain coloured undies.  

We had 2 white potties, but they stayed in the bathroom – I didn’t want my two thinking it was ok to use the potty in the kitchen/lounge room etc and then change things later. It might have meant a few more messes to clean up, but it suited us.  

The rewards charts didn’t really work after the first day – the stickers were a great novelty at first, but then they lost interest.  

Most of all, you will need patience. A whole load of patience. And support. Have a plan, how are you going to do it, and at what point will you concede defeat if necessary. If it’s not working, there is no harm or shame in trying again later.  

You can read more about what worked for another twin parent HERE.