Potty time?

I was told recently that potty training is much easier if you introduce the potty early. This woman (also a twin mom) said to place it in their play room so it is visible and let them play on it to get comfortable with it starting around 12 months.

We have a two story house, so I need atleast two potties. So at a recent consignment sale I bought one potty.

Ok, my questions:

[] How soon did you/do you plan to introduce the potty?
[] How many potties did you have? (Please do not tell me one for each child! I do not want four potties if I can help it!)

I know I sound crazy (4 potties!?) and this is a bit early to be wondering about this, but there are a few sales this time of year- so I figured I can buy them in waves if I do need several. My mother (singleton mom) suggested 4 potties because it would make training easier because they could both go together.

 

1. I did not start introducing the potty to my twins until 18 months and did not start training them until after they turned 2.
2. I only bought two potties. That worked fine for our twins. We have a two story house as well.

 

We have dabbled in potty training but are not taking the real plunge yet. We introduced potties around 18 months also. We are almost 25 mos - think we are about ready. I have two potties downstairs and for upstairs for now we just hold them - I think for the upstairs I am going to buy one of those little potty seats that fits on the toilet. We are downstairs for the majority of the day. I was going to get one but usually when one goes on the potty the other follows instantaneously. Good luck whatever you decide...you might want to add after you know you will need more instead of buying all up front if you are thinking you will do four.

 

1. We did not introduce potties until we were ready to start training (that is we had a few weeks when we'd sit them on the potty a couple of times a day but they were still in diapers before we got down to the 'real' training). I think introducing them early sometimes leads to them being used as toys/becoming boring. I like to have it as part of the exciting fun that is potty training!
2. Yes we had one for each child. Get two potties for sure and keep them in the same place. If you end up training them together they will almost certainly want to sit at the same time as each other, you don't want to be dealing with tantrums/upsets/accidents because one wants to use the potty and can't because their twin's on it. I actually prefer cheap, simple potties to the more flashy/expensive ones. I don't think any of my children had a potty that cost over £5, so the cost was not that painful.
I'd say whether you need four depends on how much you move between up and downstairs during the day. A & B ended up with four potties (an accident, they forgot the potties early on when they went away for a weekend and had to buy two more) and it was actually very useful not to have to cart two potties, as well as herding two toddlers, every time we moved between levels in the house. N & L only had two potties and it wasn't really a problem because we spent 95% of our time downstairs anyway. They both had rings for the big toilets (one for each toilet) as well.

 

We got the potty around 18 months... I should say my *MIL* did. :aggressive: She got the one that sits on the toilet seat. Shortly thereafter, we got the free standing one. We just put it in the bathroom, no pressure to use it. My mil would try to get them to go when she was around. I was in no rush to get them to use the potty. To me, they were too young. Sometimes they would sit if we were in there. Sometimes they would go on their own. And if we asked them-forget it. :laughing:

We trained them at 34 months...so we had the potties sitting around for almost 18 months before they were used! As for how many...We got one toilet seat topper for upstairs and downstairs, and one free standing toilet, that stayed downstairs.

 

We are expecting b/g twins in May. We plan on using "elimination communication" also known as infant potty training. You learn their signs and signals and they learn about their bodily functions right from birth. Saves on diapers and prevents bedwetting when they are older because they don't get in the habit of pooing and peeing in their clothing at night. It's what they do in developing countries where people don't have diapers, washing/drying machines etc. Usually they are out of diapers by a year to 1 1/2 years old. I like the idea of having them out of diapers before they learn to say "No". :good:

 

with my 9yo dd we bought a potty at about 28 months. Put it in the bathroom and never said another word. As most of you can agree (who have older kids) when they start crawling and walking you can forget about going to the bathroom by yourself anymore so they see what you are suppost to do. On her 3rd birthday she used the potty and never looked back. she is 9 and has never wet her bed, has had so few accidents in her pants I can count them on 1 hand and i didn't have to stress out about it. They will in my opinion go when they are ready. You don't want to make potty training stressful on either one of you. I honestly think you can give them the tools and support them and encourage them and it will workout with out you wanted to pull your hair out.