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Teaching Irish twins to potty train is no joking the longest potty training mission you may ever accomplish! Though you will definitely accomplish this obstacle, as I am currently working my way through it.
Tools you may need and that I recommend:
- Kalencom 2-in-1 Potette Plus
- Summer Infant My Fun Sticker Potty
- Use common words: Poop, Pee, Potty or Toilet, Penis, Vagina, or Pee-Pee.
- This will help with not causing any further confusion while practicing.
- Patience and lots of it!
The 2-in-1 Potette is amazing and great for traveling. My boys were scared of falling into the potty and this helped tremendously till they got over the fear. The Summer Infant My Fun Sticker Potty is a great choice due to once they are comfortable with the potty they can use it as a stool.
Jack took a while before he was completely potty trained which includes at night. He told me just recently that he was scared he would fall in the potty. After about 9-weeks of not giving up and tons of accidents it was like a light switch went off. I definitely think a carpet shampooer is a necessity for potty-training.
I feel like that potty training took longer than needed due to wearing a pull-up instead of just letting the accident occur. Then I read this book Oh Crap! Potty Training: Everything Modern Parents Need to Know to Do It Once and Do It Right and WOW it opened my eyes. It made me realize more of what the child would feel like during the potty training process. It even made me realize that pull-ups feel like diapers on toddlers so it makes sense why they are constantly having accidents in them.
When I started just doing the naked or just underwear method, it seems it clicked better for him. Of course I still use pull-ups at nap time and bedtime.
List of things that didn’t work:
- Tablets, phones or anything electronic – Reading a book about potty training was more exciting and leave the toys out of the bathroom. However, I do recommend a safe spot so that he/she can go back to exactly what he was doing prior to going to the bathroom.
- Rewards – We tried tons of different things. Bribes for toys, cookies, M&M, and more. None of them worked.
- Potty watch – Sounded like an amazing idea like an alarm your child wears to tell him to try. Well, needless to say that lasted two-hours.
- Kids urinal – I went out and bought the Froggie kids urinal thinking it would help when it was taking so long. Boy was that a mistake. I kept introducing more and more things just to cause confusion.
The positive side of having Irish twins, is that now that Jack is fully potty trained Luke goes in and sometimes sits with him on the “little potty.” Sometimes Luke actually goes and lately he keeps telling us he has to go, but then gets up and says “all done.” This is a start though as after a month of this he is actually 50/50 potty trained now. He goes in the potty at daycare and in the morning at home as well as the afternoon. Yes, we still have accidents though.
To summarize why I think it is the long with Irish twins is because once you are done with one child it is time for the next.
Really amazing post..
Hahaha! Thanks for the post! I used to think I was an expert potty trainer. I trained 3 kids, each before 2 years old. Perfectly in less than a week. Go ME!! Then number 4….Oh my goodness, that kiddo wasn’t trained until she was almost 5. Ahhh! She traumatized me. Now I make my husband handle the potty training. So kudos to you training your littles!
Before 2!!! That’s amazing!!! I don’t think I could do that. My goal each time is before there 3rd birthday. However, I wish sometimes since they are boys that they would learn to stand and go pee now, but I guess it’s less mess when they are sitting.
I bet it felt so long potty training them so close together, at least your youngest was already learning from his older brother though, so looking at it that way maybe it took less time in total, rather than having them further apart in age?
I know people that really push it on their kids, and really early… My daughter’s 20 months right now and I have no intention of even trying to push it on her, I’m just going to wait for a while, get her a potty and let her see me going to the toilet more then hopefully she’ll take off from there. She’s already interested in what’s happening when my Mom and I go to the toilet. She always grabs at her nappy when she’s done something too, to tell me. I think that’s pretty good for her age, but I’m definitely in no rush. Leave it to her then hopefully there’ll be minimal accidents when the time comes. Fingers crossed. I need to think about stopping breastfeeding before anything else haha.
I completely agree. I did that with both boys just buy the potty and sit it next to the big potty. Then when I go I see if they are even interested in it. 🙂