Tips and tricks on toilet training twin boys. 

Big boys don’t wear diapers: Toilet training your twin boys.

My wife and I were in shock. We had just discovered a major leak in our finances after a routine family budget. Our twin boys were now peeing $100 away every month!

I’ll explain: My wife had an Amazon diaper subscription that sent diaper boxes to our house every month. She had done the math earlier and found out the cost was comparable to the local Sam’s club. So we didn’t immediately notice that the diaper box price had slowly gone from $80 to $100. The two boys easily went through a big carton of diapers every month without qualms.

Imagine all we could have achieved with that extra 100 bucks? If invested in an education fund, that money could be the deciding factor if they would attend college or learn a trade—but they peed it away! If it had been invested in bitcoin–only a few years back, I’d be driving a Bentley and thinking of retiring already.

I immediately saw the big picture. The issue wasn’t just about keeping our boys dry. It was much bigger than that. We could have saved lives, if the money had been given to the right charity and used to buy a kidney or medical supplies in Yemen. We could retire early if the twins weren’t leaking such a big hole in our nest egg. Something had to be done right away to stop this leak. We canceled the Amazon diaper subscription immediately. Amazon stock prices weren’t even rising at that rate anymore!

We considered stopping all their food and drinks, but we dismissed the idea because they wouldn’t stop crying and allow us to eat in peace. Then the idea struck me like a vision from heaven.

 “You will be potty trained by the end of this year!” I proudly declared that evening. The twins didn’t share my excitement, but we were still in mid-November and I was sure getting them dry could be readily done in 2-3 days over a dedicated weekend, or one week at most. You just let them run around butt naked, take them to the toilet every hour, and reward them generously until they can pee and poop by themselves—It was that easy.

“Are you sure they are mature and ready?” my wife said.

“What do you mean they’re not yet ready!’’ I replied, “When they want cookies, don’t they know how to point and ask for it?”

The twins were already two and half years old, and were behind in all milestones compared to their older sisters, but I wasn’t bothered. “They are ready!”

That said, I needed to be ready too. I went back to Amazon and bought a potty seat—The one you place over the toilet bowl. See image below.

Those kiddy toilet seats set me back about $26 each! But I bought two without hesitation—one upstairs and one downstairs. This was an investment. Pay $52 today and save $100 every month forever!

The next day I bought some cotton underwear for them. “Paw-Patrol and Mickey-Mouse pants!” I said, waving it around. “This is what you will wear when you can pee-pee by yourself. Diapers are for babies and you’re big boys now. No more diapers!”

I pulled down their pants and yanked off their pee-wet pull-ups.

Many parents recommend taking off the whole underwear and allowing them to run around butt naked. You can try that with your one child, but with two boys and a rug in my living room, I couldn’t afford our living room smelling like a restroom. So I left their pants on as some sort of insurance to keep accidents in check. I told them we would go to the toilet every hour on the dot.

Our first check was at 5:00 pm. No pee. “It’s not working,” they said.

Soon the next hour came, but the twins were busy playing. “Time to pee-pee!”

“No pee-pee! No pee-pee!” they protested in unison and ran away.

 After much protest and crying, I got them to sit on their toilet seat.

“It’s not working,” Stephen said after sitting on the toilet bowl for only 10 seconds.

I’m staring at him as he’s fondling and playing with his thing.

“It’s not working,” he repeats.

“What do you mean it’s not working!” I yanked off his hands, took out my iPhone, opened the balloon app, and gave it to him, reminding myself that I’ll have to sanitize that phone later. He relaxes on the seat and starts to pop the balloons in the app.

“Don’t stand up until you pee-pee.” I stepped out and shut the door.

After a few minutes, I heard cries from the bathroom and went in to check on him. He was crying because the app had closed, and was yet to give out his precious pee.

After one week, Simon was able to control his bladder, but Stephen was yet to get his to work. Thanksgiving soon came, and it was tough having one boy on pull-up diapers and leaving the other to ‘sail solo’, so we left both boys on diapers, and after a week, we fell off our hourly goals. But I never saw any wet diapers the same afterward—with every morning diaper change, I saw college funds peed away, saw shriveled children dying in Yemen, and retirement funds dripping away.

By Christmas, we had lost the initial progress with Simon, and he too had lost control of his bladder. We were back at square one and failed our end-of-the-year goal!

January came with a renewed zeal and we decided to give it another try. We added chocolate rocks to our routine as reward. Within two days, Simons pee-pee was working on command again, but Stephen sat on the potty seat only to pop balloons on the app.

Now that we were back on track with Simon, we wouldn’t hold him back because of his brother. I took out the Paw patrol cotton underwear and made Simon wear it to daycare. He was now a big boy. The first day, Stephen didn’t seem to care. By the second day, he couldn’t bear it any longer and wanted his panties so badly he asked to go pee-pee and was willing to sit down on the potty for several minutes. By the third day, he so much wanted to be a ‘big boy’ like his brother that he started to lie that he had peed when he hadn’t!

We got our first real success from Stephen in mid-January. “Daddy! Daddy!” I heard a sudden scream and rushed to the bathroom. “It’s working! Daddy! It’s working!” Stephen was pointing and screaming excitedly. “It’s working!”

The boy was seated and peeing, but not a single drop of pee was getting into the toilet bowl. His pee-pee was pointed up, and urine sprayed all around the bathroom floor and drape. I couldn’t spoil his moment. “It’s working!” I screamed back, “it’s working!” I jumped up and down as if we had just won the lottery.

Stephen finished, jumped off the toilet, and ran to tell his mother the good news, and he got some chocolate rocks. Whoever came up with those rocks is a genius. If you hand out 3-4 at a time, the pack is good enough to last you three months of potty training two boys. Skittles and hard candies may be cheaper and save you a dollar or two, but those hard candies grab onto molars and will ultimately cost you thousands in dental fees. Not that I endorse sweets as rewards, but I prefer chocolate because it eventually melts off a child’s teeth. Please always remember to brush your child’s teeth at night.

By mid-January, Simon was fully pee-potty trained while Stephen was still in his process. We asked the daycare to help, and they offered to take them to the toilet together. However, Simon came home with a superman panty one day. My wife was upset about it, “How can he be wearing someone else’s underwear!”

“But it’s clean,” I replied, “someone else probably has his spare!” We washed the panty that weekend and she made me return it the following Monday.

We continued to be strict with our hourly toilet schedule even while playing outside in the backyard. When the potty time comes, we don’t rush back inside. We have them pee right there, and they appreciated this. Eventually, they learned to grab their crutch when pressed, and we didn’t have to go every hour.

Last week of January, Simon had a major accident and did a solid number two on his panty. My wife suggested trashing the whole paw-patrol cotton panty, but I declined. I felt up to the task. After all, I was blessed with a poor sense of smell, and six years of diaper changing had prepared me for this momentous occasion. It was now my turn to shine. Oh boy, was I wrong! All my prior training of washing stool-smeared pants was trivial and like foreplay compared to this. This was the real deal. That day was a lesson on courage and persistence. I also learned firsthand—no pun intended—that hand washing a pant smeared with doo-doo from a dripping diaper, is very different from washing a panty in which the entire mother-lode had been dumped. I had never handled so much poop in my entire life, and I pray to never do so again.

Thankfully by the time of this write-up in mid-February, both boys were already potty trained.

In summary, toilet training twin boys will take more time and commitment than toilet training girls. Girls are more self-conscious and easily potty trained than boys. Our two girls were both potty trained by 2-years-old without any issues, and it was as easy as getting them to play on the swing.

Here are some take home-points for toilet training twin boys. 

Don’t give up.

It may take longer than you think, but don’t give up. Toilet training refusal will occur and your child won’t happily follow you to the toilet. Don’t give in to this. Be persistent and consistent. Transition to cotton underwear after one week of success using the potty. Holidays and outings will throw off your schedule, but don’t return to diapers once you see some progress.

Know your options.

We had potty-trained our girls with the mini potty chair—the fancy little toilet chair that has a flush handle which sings when you turn it, but does nothing to throw the pee or poop away—this chair is considered easier to use than the over-the-toilet-seat, but we knew the chair wouldn’t work for two boys. You still will have to empty and clean up the seats afterward, and that was unnecessary double work. Once children have mastered using the potty chair, they can switch to the regular toilet with an over-the-toilet seat and step stool.

Reward and praise every effort.

Hype every successful toilet pee as if you were going to the bank to cash a check with it. A sticker or star chart may also be used as positive reinforcement for successful attempts.

Accidents will happen.

Prepare for this, especially the major shite accidents: get gloves, get towels ready and close by, get a bucket filled with soap and water on standby 24/7.

Don’t be too hard on your child when accidents occur, but don’t praise accidents either. Show your child that you are upset, and let the child learn the consequence of the accident by making him help with cleaning up the floor with you.

Treat constipation.

Painful constipation may cause your child to hold on to poop, which then causes a vicious cycle of painful constipation and stool holding. Keep stools soft by increasing dietary fiber. Reduce dairy products such as cheese and milk. I’ll dare to say that if he’s more than two years old, your child doesn’t have to drink milk more than once a day, and even then, it should be less than 24 oz. Children can get their calcium and vitamins from many other sources. When it comes to constipation, apple juice is underrated and milk is overrated. (I’ll leave this at that)

Get help from others.

You can’t do it all by yourself. Older siblings can be trained to take their younger siblings too. Get the daycare involved as well. You will be surprised that many daycares have toilet/diaper changing time, and they might offer to use this as potty-training time as well. Encourage imitation by allowing your child to see you and older siblings using the toilet.

Some more potty-training tips:

·      Get your child going to the toilet first thing every morning.

·      Boys should learn to pee sitting down first; teach them to stand only when you’re sure they can hold their poop successfully.

·      Transition from diaper to training pull-ups before using cotton underwear.

·      Night-time dryness takes longer and should only be attempted only after a child is consistently dry during the day.

·      Bedwetting will continue for a while.

Your Baby’s Comfort is Our Mission.