Anyone try the 3 day potty training method with twins?

[UnderProtest]

Did it make you insane?  I'm contemplating it, but oh so horrified at the thought of two little ones peeing and pooping all over the house.

[loremipsum]

We did it and it worked like a charm.

We waited until they were REALLY ready to try because I wanted the best chance of success. They were a bit over 2.5yo and had already been using the potty casually for a little while before we gave it a shot.

Day 1 was a pee-a-thon, Day 2 was way better, and Day 3 was accident-free. We were lucky and they were willing to poop in the potty straight away (I know some kids are reluctant).

They still wore pull-ups during naps and at night for a while, but were both night trained by 3, which was AWESOME.

[katandkevin]

I tried it once by myself when they were close to 2.5 and it made me insane. We used a similar strategy when they were closer to 3 and my son picked it up in about a day and my daughter 2-3 days later.

[cinnamoncox]

We did it the weekend they turned three (girls if it matters).
They are four and have been diaper free since then. We use a pull up at night because pediatrician said kids can't always control it overnight until closer to five.

We got two little kid potties and set them up in the living area and they did it in the long weekend. (Their bday is 7/5 so we had Independence Day long weekend to do it).

Once done with potties we have a toilet seat on our regular toilet that has kid seat built in. I was so sick and tired of putting the seat on, having to take it off for the rest of us. There are five of us and one bathroom.

[origami]

I did and it worked great - with the huge caveat that they have to want to PT and be ready. The first time I did it DS2 refused to comply. DS1 did great but then regressed because DS2 was having none of it. I waited 2 months and tried again and it was a piece of cake because both wanted to do it. (Piece of cake in hindsight. I remember wanting to drink at 9am so it wasn't all fun and games.)

Some ideas, in case this works for your kids too:
-between PT attempt 1 and 2 I put my kids on the toilet every day, once a day at a time they usually pee (before bath) and made it part of our routine. I'm convinced this is what convinced my stubborn kid that he could do it. Most of the time they didn't pee but the few times they did built up their confidence.
-I did the naked 3 day method first and then with underwear the 2nd time. Vastly prefer wearing underwear. It was cleaner and the kids disliked peeing in underwear. They didn't dislike peeing freely on my carpet. Plus they need to practice pulling underwear up and down. So I did shirts and just underwear for the 3 days, then added elastic waist pants after that.
-if your kids need motivation there is a very cheesy video called Potty Power. My kids loved the stupid songs. 1 of mine needed rewards and stickers and candy worked like a charm. The other didn't give a rat's ass about bribes so I just had to wait it out until he decided he was ok with it.
-I think you need more than one potty to PT but IMO try to get them on a real toilet as much as possible. The first time I only used little potties and DS1 refused to sit on a regular toilet. The 2nd time I just used the little one as backup if the real toilet was being used and that worked better.
-i may get flamed for this but it worked. When my kids pooped their pants, (after the 3 days but before they were completely reliable) I made them take a shower to clean them off. They HATE showers, I don't know why. It wasn't cold or in their faces. But anyway they pooped on the toilet like champs after a few trips to the shower.
-and finally, stock up on alcohol and excedrin! And if you start wondering if day 1 of the 3 days is the worst day of your mom life just know we all thought that too. Hopefully on day 2 you see signs of hope and by day 3 you'll know the worst is behind you and it will only be better in the future. (If not quit and try again later.)

GL!!!

[origami]

Oh one more thing. (I'm going to just keep going until I write a novel.) beware of auto flush toilets. We had an incident at the Olive Garden with one and my kids still to this day ask the toilet is going to flush on them.

[Deleted]

I did when my girls were 3. It worked for one and not the other. That's a long background story for that one though haha. good luck!

[UnderProtest]

My kids will be 3 in October. The boy will pee on the potty, but only has pooped once (I think due to exhaustion). The girl just peed on the potty for the first time last night. What chance of success do I have?

[floridakat]

I tried it when the girls were about 25 months. One of them seemed very ready, and the other one is our "baby me, too", so I figured she would get on board once she saw her sister doing it. Well, the one I thought was ready ended up having a MAJOR issue with pooping in the potty, and the one I didn't think was ready was completely trained in a matter of days. The other one ended up in pullups thanks to multiple, unmentionable poop incidents, and didn't train full till a year later. The first one has been day/night trained for well over a year. The reluctant pooper still wears a pullup for overnights.

*Do not, under any circumstances, buy a nice, new rug for your family room right before trying the 3-day method. You're welcome.

[UnderProtest]

Aug 22, 2014 11:07:38 GMT -5 floridakat said:

I tried it when the girls were about 25 months. One of them seemed very ready, and the other one is our "baby me, too", so I figured she would get on board once she saw her sister doing it. Well, the one I thought was ready ended up having a MAJOR issue with pooping in the potty, and the one I didn't think was ready was completely trained in a matter of days. The other one ended up in pullups thanks to multiple, unmentionable poop incidents, and didn't train full till a year later. The first one has been day/night trained for well over a year. The reluctant pooper still wears a pullup for overnights.

*Do not, under any circumstances, buy a nice, new rug for your family room right before trying the 3-day method. You're welcome.

Ha.  The plan is to keep them downstairs on the level with only ceramic tile.  And its a rental house, so we aren't permanently stuck with pee/poop floors.

[floridakat]

Excellent plan! I kept a laundry basket full of clean undies and clothes for me downstairs while we were training. Every time they'd have an accident, I'd throw the wet stuff in the other half of the basket and only had to take it upstairs once a day.

[floridakat]

Clean undies for the girls, not for me. LOL

[fryjack2]

Not even close.

I will ask the boys if they have to go potty and they will sometimes say yes. They think its a game. "Potty" to them entails sitting on the toilet, unrolling the toilet paper, farting which I think they think is going potty), saying, "All done! Flush it! Wash hands!"

Then they try to get down and unroll more TP and flush the toilet a million times.

[cayl]

We're going to try it next month. I am NOT happy about it. DD2 is not at all interested but DD1 will go on the toilet whenever we ask her and gets it. They both grab their poop and draw with it, which is gross on a million different levels so I feel like we have to potty train them. We've been doing sticker reward charts and H took DD1 out for dinner and to buy a toy when she filled up a whole page. She was so excited and loved it but still won't go on her own without us asking her first.

[Deleted]

Not my twins but started with my singleton today actually. So far no poop accidents and he did go on potty. He told us well in advance that he needed to poop. Pee is 50% tells us before and get on potty in time other 50% he tells us he needs to potty just as he starts to pee. I have cleaned up a lot of pee today!!!!! But he seems to be responding well. He is 26 mos. I read this method works best before 28 mos so that's why we are trying now. But obviously no experience. We will see. I would love to only have two in diapers!!!

[Deleted]

Aug 22, 2014 11:07:38 GMT -5 floridakat said:

I tried it when the girls were about 25 months. One of them seemed very ready, and the other one is our "baby me, too", so I figured she would get on board once she saw her sister doing it. Well, the one I thought was ready ended up having a MAJOR issue with pooping in the potty, and the one I didn't think was ready was completely trained in a matter of days. The other one ended up in pullups thanks to multiple, unmentionable poop incidents, and didn't train full till a year later. The first one has been day/night trained for well over a year. The reluctant pooper still wears a pullup for overnights.

*Do not, under any circumstances, buy a nice, new rug for your family room right before trying the 3-day method. You're welcome.

Lol I just bought a new rug for my foyer! We actually rolled it and the living room rug up and moved to the side for the next few days. Sooo much pee!!

[UnderProtest]

This isn't giving me much hope.

[loremipsum]

Aug 22, 2014 15:46:13 GMT -5 UnderProtest said:

This isn't giving me much hope.

Don't be scared! I think the most important thing is to be sure they're *really* ready to try - it's not something you want to do when it's iffy.

And maybe work out a good bribe - my guys LOVE stickers so they got a Cars or Thomas sticker every time they used the potty (M&Ms work for a lot of kids too, but my dudes are weird and don't like chocolate).

[UnderProtest]

Aug 22, 2014 18:01:17 GMT -5 loremipsum said:

Aug 22, 2014 15:46:13 GMT -5 UnderProtest said:

This isn't giving me much hope.

Don't be scared! I think the most important thing is to be sure they're *really* ready to try - it's not something you want to do when it's iffy.

And maybe work out a good bribe - my guys LOVE stickers so they got a Cars or Thomas sticker every time they used the potty (M&Ms work for a lot of kids too, but my dudes are weird and don't like chocolate).

Urgh.  They are entering preschool in September and are supposed to be well on their way and must be potty trained by January.  Ugh.

[loremipsum]

Aug 22, 2014 18:03:18 GMT -5 UnderProtest said:

Aug 22, 2014 18:01:17 GMT -5 loremipsum said:

Don't be scared! I think the most important thing is to be sure they're *really* ready to try - it's not something you want to do when it's iffy.

And maybe work out a good bribe - my guys LOVE stickers so they got a Cars or Thomas sticker every time they used the potty (M&Ms work for a lot of kids too, but my dudes are weird and don't like chocolate).

Urgh.  They are entering preschool in September and are supposed to be well on their way and must be potty trained by January.  Ugh.

They turn 3 in Oct right? Keep encouraging them to use the potty casually, and then give it a try after their birthday. It will happen eventually, I promise!

[UnderProtest]

Aug 22, 2014 18:43:32 GMT -5 loremipsum said:

Aug 22, 2014 18:03:18 GMT -5 UnderProtest said:

Urgh.  They are entering preschool in September and are supposed to be well on their way and must be potty trained by January.  Ugh.

They turn 3 in Oct right? Keep encouraging them to use the potty casually, and then give it a try after their birthday. It will happen eventually, I promise!

Does that mean I'm off the hook for this weekend?!?!

[loremipsum]

Aug 22, 2014 18:47:26 GMT -5 UnderProtest said:

Aug 22, 2014 18:43:32 GMT -5 loremipsum said:

They turn 3 in Oct right? Keep encouraging them to use the potty casually, and then give it a try after their birthday. It will happen eventually, I promise!

Does that mean I'm off the hook for this weekend?!?!

If you think they're not totally ready right now, then yeah I wouldn't stress over it. But it's not a full pass, you still have to face it sometime lol.

[UnderProtest]

Aug 22, 2014 18:53:32 GMT -5 loremipsum said:

Aug 22, 2014 18:47:26 GMT -5 UnderProtest said:

Does that mean I'm off the hook for this weekend?!?!

If you think they're not totally ready right now, then yeah I wouldn't stress over it. But it's not a full pass, you still have to face it sometime lol.

Damn it.  I've been trying to get the grandmothers to do it and neither one is cooperating.

[origami]

Aug 22, 2014 10:53:08 GMT -5 UnderProtest said:

My kids will be 3 in October. The boy will pee on the potty, but only has pooped once (I think due to exhaustion). The girl just peed on the potty for the first time last night. What chance of success do I have?

I say just go for it and see. It's hard to tell in advance until you try but you have some good signs so that's enough for me. Even if they will not tell you in advance that they have to go, if they will go when you tell them then that's great and they'll do fine at preschool because the schools usually make 3 yr olds go in groups. At that age I made my kids go first thing when we got to school just in case they wouldn't otherwise make it until group potty time. (I still make them pee at home whenever we leave the house.) If you start now and it works you'll know about how many hours they can go before they HAVE to pee. Some kids don't poop train during the 3 days. If that happens to you that's still ok because most kids don't poop at school.

[josieposy]

Aug 22, 2014 8:14:05 GMT -5 origami said:

Oh one more thing. (I'm going to just keep going until I write a novel.) beware of auto flush toilets. We had an incident at the Olive Garden with one and my kids still to this day ask the toilet is going to flush on them.

OMG YES! Scares the hell out of my kids.

A friend taught me a cool trick though. Carry post-its in your purse.

[loremipsum]

Aug 22, 2014 19:00:33 GMT -5 josieposy said:

Carry post-its in your purse.

This is genius!

[origami]

I'm lazy. I just put my hand over the sensor

[josieposy]

Aug 22, 2014 19:04:43 GMT -5 origami said:

I'm lazy. I just put my hand over the sensor

Same here, usually because I forgot the post-its again. LOL!

[shananagins]

I'm terrified to start potty training.
One of my girls LOVES sitting on the toilet, but rarely actually goes. She just likes sitting there reading.

[cobber06]

My girls are 18 months and I started potty training yesterday. We haven't had any success yet, but I'm going to keep plugging away. They are happy to sit on the potty (especially if I bribe them with m&m's) but end up peeing about 30 seconds after I take them off the potty.

Audrey was able to stay dry from 7:30 am to 11:30 (I put a diaper on her for naptime) so I suspect if I'm able to get her to catch on she will train easily. Claire on the other hand doesn't mind having wet underwear and went through 5-6 pairs before naptime.

I'm thinking my girls might be a bit early to really get it, but a friend was able to train her twins by 18 months, so I figured it was worth a shot.