How To Potty Train Twins in Just 3 Days

You are in the throes of surviving the toddler twin years and it’s that time you have been dreading, potty training! Well, in this post we will discuss everything you need to know to make potty training your twins go as smoothly as possible.

I am a twin mom and when it came time to potty train my twins we used the 3 day potty training method. I will be sharing our family’s experience as part of this post. The goal of this post is to provide you with a detailed guide with tips for potty training twins in 3 days, as well as, reviewing when to potty train twins and whether you should potty train your toddlers at the same time.

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What Is The 3 Day Potty Training Method?

The 3 day potty training method is a way to potty train toddlers that involves planning to stay at home for 3 days straight. Initially, your toddlers will hang out at home without any underwear or pants on.

Next, you will encourage your toddlers to drink A LOT throughout the day and every 15 minutes you will bring them to the potty. This is generally how you can get started with 3 day potty training.

In the rest of this article, we will review how to do this in much more detail. But, the idea is that after 3 days or maybe even 2 days your toddlers are potty trained.

Will your twins be completely potty trained after 3 days? No, but there is a good chance they will have the basics down.

Can Potty Training of Twins Be Done in 3 Days?

YES IT CAN! As you read on, you will see that my husband and I were able to successfully use 3 day potty training with our twins. If you are looking to potty train quickly, this is the method I would recommend.

There are two keys. First, your twins or at least one of your twins need to be showing potty training readiness signs, which will be discussed more below.

Secondly, you must set aside a weekend or a long weekend in order to make sure you get it right, otherwise it could be a waste of time.

When Should You Start Potty Training Twins in 3 Days?

Ideally you should start potty training if both of your twins are showing readiness signs. But, you could also move forward with potty training if only one twin seems ready too.

This was actually the case in our house. At 2 years and 10 months old, one of our girls had been showing signs of readiness for a couple months, while her sister was not really showing any signs. I want to also point out that you will need to consider your circumstances when determining the right time to potty train your twins.

Besides making sure at least one twin has shown signs of being ready for potty training, consider your current family situation. For example, when our twins turned 2, I was pregnant with their little brother.

The pediatrician had told us not to bother potty training while I was pregnant. She thought the girls would go through a potty training regression once their baby brother arrived.

I have known other families where this happened after the arrival a newborn. On top of this, once their brother was born, it was impossible to find time. So, we ended up starting potty training the day he turned 6 months old.

Signs Your Twins Are Ready for Potty Training

Whether you have twins or a singleton the signs of potty training readiness in toddlers are the same. It’s just a question of whether both or only one twin are showing these signs.

Here is a list of things to look out for:

• Can stay dry for at least 2 hours
• Wakes up from naps dry
• Doesn’t like being in wet or dirty diapers
• Hides when peeing or pooping in diaper
• Has shown an interest in the toilet (ie tries to sit on it)
• Can get on and off the potty on own
• Can pull pants and underwear up and down on own
• Can follow simple instructions and communicate the need to go to the bathroom

Should You Potty Train Twins At The Same Time?

The answer to this question will start with if at least one of your twins is showing signs of being ready to use the potty. In our case, one of our twin girls had been asking to use the potty and successfully peed at least a dozen times on it.

Meanwhile, her twin sister had only peed on the potty once because I had her sit there, with a tablet, for a good 15 minutes. I was definitely nervous how this would go for her.

Even though I did not consider them both to be ready, since one twin was AND they were almost 3 years old, we decided to try potty training our twins them at the same time. My advice would be that if you think one twin is ready and the other is not, go ahead and try potty training them together.

If it ends up working out, you just saved yourself a lot of time. If it doesn’t work out, it’s not that much extra work.

What Is the Average Age for Potty Training Twins?

Honestly, it probably doesn’t really matter what the average age twins potty train at. Your kids will either be ready or they won’t. Some day they will start using the potty!

My point here is to not stress over the exact age your twins potty train. If they are ahead of schedule, great. If they are behind schedule, no big deal.

I do not think there are exact stats regarding the age twins potty train. But, the average age for toddler potty training has a large window of 18 months to 3 years old.

How To Start Potty Training Twins in 3 Days

During a visit with our friends, they told us they used the 3 day potty training method for their daughter when she was the same age and it worked! This was awesome news, you can potty train in 3 days?

I wanted to know more, so I did some research and found this 3-day day potty training article. We ended up following the methods in this article very closely.

It has a very realistic take on potty training in 2 to 3 days. I did not read any potty training books. I relied on the article above to understand the 3 day method and that was good enough.

To handle 3 day potty training with twins, it’s pretty straightforward. You follow the methods described and have your twins do it simultaneously. I will discuss how to handle needing two spots to go potty below.

Something you will want to invest in are toddler stools. When your kids use the regular toilet, they will need a stool to help them get up there. A fun thing we did was get each of our girls their own stool. We gave it to them the night before the start of potty training.

This created a lot of excitement around learning to go on the potty, and our girls absolutely love their stools. You could also make it special by getting a stool in their favorite color or getting one with their name on it.

How Did Potty Training Twins In 3 Days Go?

I am not going to go into all the details of how to use the 3 day potty training method. You can honestly just reference the two day potty training article linked above.

It’s true, I did not invest in any books. I read that article and made a plan to follow it as closely as possible. And, guess what? It worked like a charm for my twins and also for our third child.

If you like to plan and have a way to keep track of things, especially with potty training two at the same time, I do recommend investing in this potty training planner. This will help you stay organized and keep your stress levels down.

Another great thing about the potty training planner is you just print from the comfort of your own home and you can print as many copies as you want once you purchase it. This is a double bonus for twins!

The planner includes daily, weekly, & monthly potty training trackers, reward charts, potty training checklists, and much more. So, definitely check it out.

Now that you know how to get organized, let’s get into sharing how potty training twins in 3 days went, so you can have reasonable expectations.

Day 1

Day 1 went surprisingly well. Our twin girl who was showing readiness signs had no accidents!

And, her sister, who was not showing signs of potty training readiness only had one pee and one poop accident. This was a very pleasant surprise.

After her one accident, she was good to go and figured out how to pee in the potty. I was so happy for her and she was so proud every time she did it.

Day 2

Day 2 morning also went well, so in the afternoon we decided to try underwear and pants. This is where we bent the rules a bit and hung out with our neighbors outside at our house.

It turned out this was probably too much for them to handle on Day 2. We had some refusals to go inside to go potty, which led to accidents.

Day 3

Day 3 we had to work and the twins’ nanny came. This change led to quite a few accidents. The twins continued to wear underwear, but not pants.

After evaluating the last 3 days we decided underwear seemed to be a mistake, especially with the change of us going to work. There were a lot of accidents in the morning.

Beyond Day 3

For the afternoon of Day 3 and all of Day 4 we were back to no underwear and no pants, and there were no accidents! I also want to mention that the first few days we did not have success going potty before bed or before going outside.

But after a couple days they both started going potty before these events, most of the time. Day 5 was a big day, we tried again with no underwear, and our “not ready” twin actually pooped on the potty.

We went out for ice cream that night AND there were no accidents in the car. On Day 6 we went back to wearing pants, but no underwear.

That gives you a summary of how potty training twins using the 3 day potty training method went to start. All things considered, it was a great success and as stress-free as could be expected.

How Many Training Potty Seats Do You Need for Twins?

Next, we need to discuss potty training chairs for twins. The first thing to review is how many potty training seats you will need for twins.

Like many houses, we have one bathroom downstairs. I was worried about the twins needing to go potty at the same time (yes, that will happen when doing the 3 day method).

So, our solution was to buy one small potty and one toilet seat ring, This worked very well!

You could also purchase two training potties and skip the toilet ring or two toilet rings if you have two bathrooms on the first level. At the end of the day, you will need two potty seat options for your twins in the cases where they need to use the bathroom at the same time.

I will also add that we purposely chose a training potty that could also be used as a toilet seat ring. This way we didn’t need to buy a toilet ring for the upstairs bathroom down the road.

The Best Potty Chairs for Twins

How do you pick potty training chairs when you are potty training two at the same time? One important factor to consider is the logistics and setup of your home.

This was already touched on above but how many bathrooms are available on the same level where potty training will take place. Make sure there are two options for your twins to use.

Secondly, you should consider the cleanup required for each type of potty. Once potty training started, I definitely preferred when the “big potty” (with the toilet seat ring) was used because there was minimal clean up.

On top of that, after a couple days our twins started taking the insert out of the small potty to dump it into the big potty because they saw us doing it. They were trying to help, but it was pretty obviously messy and gross.

If you can avoid it, don’t let them see you dump the little potty contents into the big potty. Unfortunately, with twins you might not have a choice and need to temporarily use a training potty rather than just a potty training toilet seat ring.

So, with all this said, let’s get to the list of the best potty chairs for twins. The list contains a combination of toilet seat rings and training potties.

• Munchkin Sturdy Potty Seat
• SKYROKU Potty Training Seat With Step Stool
• Summer Infant 3-in-1 Train with Me Potty Seat
• The First Years Potty Training and Transitioning Seat
• Summer Infant My Size Potty With Handle, Lights, & Songs

Tips for Potty Training Twins After 3 Days Is Over

I want to share what it’s been like after our initial potty training weekend. First of all, after 10 days, I am still worrying about accidents when being away from the house, which I think is normal.

There were a few days with no accidents for both twins. At worst, each girl might have one accident per day and this is exponentially more likely when we are away from home.

One thing I had to come to terms with is that they do not always tell me when they have to go potty. Sometimes they do tell me, which is great. Sometimes they say they have to go, but nothing happens and they goof off in the bathroom.

If they are excited about an activity they are doing, they WILL NOT go potty on their own. I decided going forward, if it has been 1.5 hours since going, I will tell them they have to go potty.

If they still refuse to go (pretty much guaranteed), I will tell them that we will have to completely stop doing the activity we are doing. So far, this has been enough motivation to get them to take a potty break.

How To Leave the House When Potty Training Twins

How does it go when you have to leave the house while potty training? This was the confusing part for me, how do you go out as usual? It’s definitely a trial and error process.

Our first adventure in the car was to get ice cream. It was a good test because we didn’t have to drive far and we were doing something fun for the kids.

As much as you can avoid it, try to do quick, small car trips at first. Break up running errands into one or two stores at most, just for the first week or two.

Going against the advice I just gave, we decided to try attending a birthday party on Day 7 of potty training at a friend’s house that was a 1.5 hour drive away. Each twin had one accident when we were there, but they also had successful potty trips.

For the long drive we put diapers on them for the car ride. Unfortunately, the diapers seemed to add some confusion because one of the twins had a couple accidents over the next two days, one in the car and one while watching TV.

Based on experience, if you need to travel while potty training I recommend not using diapers to avoid any regressions. You can even purchase a travel potty and car seat protectors (yes, that’s a 2-pack perfect for twins), to help make traveling while potty training easier.

Should You Potty Train Twins at Naptime and Bedtime?

Before starting we decided that we did not want to tackle potty training at nap and bedtime yet. With this decision one of the twins started pooping in her diaper at nap time.

It took a good 2 months before we got the whole pooping on the potty thing worked out with one of the twins. Even with this issue, I would still personally choose to hold off on naptime and bedtime potty training if I was doing it all over again.

At the end of the day it’s up to you if you want to tackle potty training twins at naptime and bedtime at the same you do daytime potty training. You can definitely potty train at naptime simultaneously. I do think bedtime could be trickier because your twins might not be physically ready for it at this age.

Treats For Going On The Potty

What are some good potty training rewards? This is an important piece for successfully potty training twins in 3 days.

We used jelly beans and M&Ms as rewards, and I only gave out treats if they asked. The number of times they ask for a treat has decreased as the days have gone on. You could also try giving a bigger prize, like a toy, if potty training has gone well for a few days in a row.

Do I recommend potty training twins in 3 days?

Yes! I would definitely recommend using the 3 day potty training method for twins.

It has taught my girls the basic understanding of how to go potty. I was especially happy that my daughter who did not seem ready to be potty trained, was able to easily start using the potty.

As expected, it’s a big undertaking potty training two at once. In my opinion, using the 3 day potty training method with twins makes this a simpler process. Good luck as you tackle your new twin parenting adventure of potty training!