Ok, I am a nanny for triplets that just turned 1. I also have a daughter who just turned 1, and goes to work with me. So I have four 1 year olds during the day. I am looking into the future a little bit and thinking about potty training all these kids at the same time is a bit frightening! =) So I am wanting suggestions on how to go about potty training them, or if there is a book or two out there on this subject. I want to get as prepared for this as possible! Thank you all ahead of time! =)
Start with buying 4 chairs now.put them on the wall in the room that they play in so the will be familar with seeing the chairs.Then when it is time around 20 months have pottytime everyday at the same time.Give a book and make a potty song.Do for only a few minutes the first week.Then add on more minutes each week.They dont have to have success .This is training.Be Patient
When they are ready, you might consider sticker charts. My 2-year-old LOVES his!
My aunt had triplets ( 2 boys and a girl) when I was 5, so I remember them potty training - my grandma moved in with them to be the nanny, and she walso watched my brother and I some days in the summers, too. They had three potties lined up in the bathroom, and she would just set a timer, and at first, it was every 1/2 hour, and then later every hour, and extend it as they progress. They all sat on the potty together, and my grandma would keep a water bottle full of cold/room temp water on the side of the sink, after they were all sitting, she would squirt them in the crotch with the cold water, and it would "make them pee" and then they would get praise for going. I don't remember the poop part, they probably just payed attention to when time of day the kids usually pooped in the diapers and had them sit on the potty at that time and read books till it came out.
This was back in the 1980s, so we all wore regular cotton training pants, no pull ups - I just trained my 3 year old about a year ago, and I personally thin pull ups are a deterrent to potty training for most kids, they feel just like a diaper, so they use them like one. We tried them at first, and then just gave up and switched to cotton trainers, happened much faster then.
Good Luck!
i totally agree with jessica. line all of them up every 1/2 hr and make them sit for a while. u can give praise or a"treat" after they went "potty" but i wouldn't use pull ups..or only at night. my twins acted like they were diapers. no good. so i just let them run around in training pants or panties and a t shirt(easier for them) but it is hard..a lot of work but the good thing is, is that if one pees the others wants to too bc they saw the other kid get a treat or the "potty dance" good luck.. its a messy job....but my girls were completely trained in 3 months with no accidents. at 2 &1/2 yrs
I potty trained my twin boys when they were about 2 1/2. I would have done it sooner but I had my daughter just afterthey turned 2. So when I came out of the infant fog I got serious about potty training. I did it in a weekend. I pulled up the area carpets in our upstairs (we have hardwood floors) and put underwear on them and a shirt. I had lots of fun activities and gave them lots of liquids and salty snacks (to increase the liklihood that they would have to pee). Then I started sitting them on the potty every 20 or 30 minutes. I can't remember which. Then increased it. They got a reward after each success. We went through lots of underwear but once it clicked we had very few accidents. We accomplished this in the weekend. One twin caught on quicker but the other wasn't too far behind. We continued to use pull-ups only at nap and bedtime. We are now down to just bedtime but they are dry about 1/2 the time. Best of luck to you!
with mulitples, there is usually a leader. Girls will train faster than boys, so find the girl leader or 2 and focus on them first. the others should be interested and follow. However, for sanity sake, I would get at least 3 if not 4 training pottys in the bathroom for when all of them need to go at the exact same time!
Another thing that helps is buying the flushable wipes. you can only use 3 per flush, but they are a life saver!
M.
