Twice the pee, twice the poop … twice as hard to potty train, right? Not always. Tandem training has its challenges (like simultaneous puddles in different rooms), but each twin can be a positive influence on the other.
If one or both of your twins are showing signs of readiness — asking to be changed when their diapers are wet, craving privacy when they need to poop — then you may be ready to get the potty training party started.
How is potty training twins different from potty training one child?
The most obvious difference is, of course, the number of potty-training pupils you’re working with at once. Having twins means you could be training two toddlers at the same time, so you may need to have two potties, preferably identical so they don’t squabble over who gets which one.
How to potty train twins
Many toddlers, twins included, will show signs of being ready to be potty trained between the ages of 2 and 3. If that sounds like a wide range of time, it is — every child learns to use the toilet at her own pace (even if your kids are a part of a set). Here are some potty-training tips for twins.[1]
Do some potty prep. About a week before P-day (the day the potties appear), start talking to your twins about what’s going to happen. Try potty training activities, like reading books about potty training, and make a big deal out of heading to the store to pick out big-boy or big-girl underwear. (You’d be surprised how motivating a pair of Spiderman or Dora undies can be.)
Go naked (or bottomless). Two kids wetting their pants all day makes for a lot of laundry. Cut yourself a break and let your potty training twins go bare sometimes, though do be prepped and ready for pop-up puddles — and avoid prolonged playtimes on carpeted areas.
Bring in reinforcements. Hire a babysitter or recruit your mom or dad, a friend or your partner to help prevent accidents before they happen. If you need to help one child make a quick trip to the potty, it’s easy to miss the other getting ready to soil the sofa.
Stick to a schedule. When potty training twins, some parents set a timer to go off every 20 minutes or so, at which point they put both kids on the potties.
Go as a team. When one twin feels the urge to pee, bring her sibling to the bathroom and encourage him to pee too. This way, you’re not spending all your time rushing one twin and then the other to the toilet.
Teach them to pee sitting down first. If one (or both) of your twins is a boy, teach him to use the potty sitting down first. Once he learns how to pee while seated, he can make the transition to standing.
Use rewards. Make a big deal (“You did it!”) whenever one of your kids poops or pees — even a drop — in the toilet. What’s the best type of reward when you potty train twins? A silly, celebratory dance or song — that way, even the child who didn’t use the potty can participate.
Avoid sticker charts when you potty train twins. Charts show an obvious comparison between your pint-sized pair. One or two stickers are a great reward — with any luck, both kids will be getting their share — but putting them on a chart can be a constant visual reminder to one twin that she’s “behind” the other.
Don’t use one twin’s potty success to encourage the other. The twin who’s taking her time with potty training will be able to figure out the progress of her sibling without you pointing it out. Instead of being motivating, comparisons might intensify feelings of jealousy or competition and could cause potty training regression.
What should I do if one twin is potty trained earlier than the other?
Every child has her own personality when it comes to the potty, and it’s important to respect that. But the twin that gets it first can be a positive influence on the other, which can help speed the process along.
Even if one child is showing more signs of readiness than the other, you can still train both your twins at the same time. Lots of parents decide to tandem toilet train as soon as one seems ready so as not to prolong the process. And if things go well, the less eager twin will show more interest when she sees her sib using the potty.
Do you have to potty train twins at the same time? What if one is ready and the other isn’t? Some twins, especially boy/girl sets, learn to use the toilet as much as a year apart — and that’s okay. All kids are different (even if yours look a lot alike). It’s true that boys tend to take about 6 months longer to potty train than girls[2], but personality is a stronger indicator of potty readiness than anything else.
If one of your children has started to regress[3] — throwing tantrums, having accidents, wanting to go back to diapers — then it’s perfectly fine to take a break from potty training and pick up the process after a few days or weeks.
How do you potty train twins if they’re both girls, both boys or one of each?
If you have a boy and a girl, you can still potty train them at the same time — and in a similar way. It can be easier for boys to learn how to pee and poop on the potty while sitting down, so you can train boys and girls the same way.
Once your boy (or boys) are able to pee and poop sitting down, you can teach them how to pee standing up. It might be helpful (though not totally necessary) to enlist the help of a male partner to demonstrate the technique.
If you have one or two girls, you should also teach her how to wipe — always from front to back to avoid infections.
Both girls and boys may also benefit from using dolls to demonstrate how to hike up their dresses and pull down their pants to go potty. These toys might also be a good reward after a few successes.
What are possible problems with potty training twins and how can you overcome them?
Accidents are par for the potty-training course — but when you’re teaching two tots to use the toilet, there can be some unique challenges:
They're fighting over the potty
Toddlers don’t always share their things nicely — and that may go for the potty too. To avoid a squabble over who gets to go first, buy each of your twins a (preferably identical) potty of their own. You can always let them decorate their potties with stickers or markers, though, so everyone knows whose is whose and your little ones get more excited about using them.
They're having trouble getting undressed to go to the potty
It’s hard enough to help one toddler pull down her pants, let alone two. During the first few days of potty training, let your tots go naked from the waist down. Afterward, try dressing them for potty training success in easy-to-lift-up clothing like dresses or skirts or pants with loose, elastic waistbands.
Your twins aren't ready to potty train at the same time
Maybe one of your twins is showing more signs of readiness than the other. Not to worry — you can still try to train them both together. Include both twins in the potty training process. You might find that your more potty-ready twin makes a great example for your other one, who might just pick up the process all the more quickly.
You want to encourage the twin who's farther along in the potty training process without making the other one feel bad
It’s perfectly fine to offer your child praise whenever she pees or poops on the potty — just try not to let her twin get discouraged by her own lack of success. Never use one twin to pressure the other. The best types of rewards are the ones that allow both of your children to feel encouraged, like a silly song or dance.
Be sure to praise more than just peeing and pooping, though — you can offer rewards for asking to use the potty, handwashing and flushing. This way, you’ll be celebrating your children’s progress, not just their performance.
Potty training twins may seem like double the work — and of course it can be a stressful developmental stage — but it can also mean getting it out of the way faster than you think. Peer pressure is a powerful force when it comes to potty training twins, and your dynamic duo may well motivate each other to get with the program.
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