Mon 27 Jul 2009
How to Tell Newborn Twins Apart
Posted by KathrynWhiteley under Twin Tips - Infants, Twin Tips - pregnancy
[8] Comments
Many twin and multiples parents worry that they’ll have trouble telling their newborn twins, triplets, or higher order multiples apart. Often times, even fraternal twins are hard to distinguish.
And yet, “identical twins” are not completely identical. There are many differences in appearance. Typically, one twin will be narrower in the face — the other rounder. Some identicals are even “mirror image” of each other.
The good news is that most parents quickly learn the subtle physical differences between their twins / multiples, and it is mostly friends and outside family that have difficulty.
Still, there are techniques to make it easier for everyone in your multiples’ lives to tell them apart. Having some of these techniques in place will be especially helpful when part-time caregivers come to your aid.
- Hospital wrist bands. Keep the hospital wrist bands on for a couple of days after returning home.
- Assigned colors. Assign a color to each of your twins, triplets, or higher order multiples.
- Dressing in assigned colors. Purchase clothing in the assigned colors and dress each accordingly. It can be fun to dress twins in matching outfits, differing by assigned color.
- Paint a toenail. An age old, tried and true method to tell newborn twins / multiples apart is to paint a toenail on one or more of the babies (in your chosen assigned color for each, of course). Why a toenail and not a fingernail? When the babies begin to suck their fingers, you can avoid ingestion of the polish.
- Color code your charts. If you keep charts for tracking feedings and sleep schedules, highlight each infant’s chart with their assigned color. (Check back for a future article on the subject of charting your infants’ schedules.)
- Color code your cribs. Choose bedding in the matching assigned colors, and place colored labels with their names over the cribs. If they share a crib, always place each infant under their name on either the left or right.
| Tip: Take lots of pictures when your twins, triplets or higher order multiples are young, but be sure to label them to indicate who is who. Although you might easily tell them apart now, you might have more difficulty when you look back in a few years. |
When our babies were young, we soon were easily able to tell them apart. We tried to take a lot of pictures, but didn’t always have time to go in and label the photos to identify who was who. Big mistake. Now that they are older, we look back at early pictures and often can’t tell them apart! At the time, we were easily able to key in on the differences, but looking back is more difficult. Often times, it is the color coding of the outfits in the pictures that lets us know.
Even with techniques in place, mix-ups can (and do!) happen. The trick is to be extra careful to check your charts and schedules and double-check which baby you’re holding. This can be critical in the case of food allergies, for example. One of our identical girls had a severe allergy to milk, the other not. A mix up did happen once, which resulted in our little sweetie vomiting after her feeding. Fortunately it worked out fine, but was pretty scary for a few hours.
How about you… what have you done to tell your newborn twins apart? Have you ever mixed them up?
At Evergreen, my identical girls received different knit caps and they wore those until they outgrew them. Also they have totally different ears and slightly different head shapes. I did run in to my husband in the middle of the night once in a panic and asked, “Who is this?!?”
This is a popular topic for parents expecting twins, as I have written a similar article on it. But, I like your advice on labeling early photos of your twins. I must say, when I look back on some of my twins’ photos as newborns, I’m not quite positive who’s who! What a great tip!
While trying on maternity clothes when I was pregnant with my twins, there was a woman there with her twin daughter who was also trying on clothes. She gave me one piece of advice that I follow continuously when it comes to taking pictures of my identical boys together. I always have the same twin on the left (for me, that’s Twin A).
This has been very helpful when passing out portraits to family members. They always know Twin A is on left, Twin B is on right. I try to keep to that in snapshots as well.
I was always leary about the nail polish trick. They’re nails are so scotch-tape thin when they’re newborns, it makes sense to think some of the enamel chemicals could seep through into their system. Plus enamel nail polish deprives the nail from oxygen. For me the nail polish trick was not a good idea. Instead we tied a color coded piece of yarn around their ankle.
Jennifer –
Great points! I never did do the nail polish or tie a string with mine. My identical girls were born C-section and they had actually cut into one little sweetie’s head a tiny bit during the operation. So, she had a little butterfly bandage for quite a while — then a little scar. That made it quite easy to tell them apart — at least until her hair grew in!
We took monthly photos of our twins… always in the same chair, side-by-side, and as you did, we also placed the same twin on the left or right each time. I had forgotten that little technique.
Good tips! Thanks!
Kat
We had Twin-to-Twin Transfusion twins so there were a couple of things that caused to help us be able to tell them apart. Their first few weeks, the recipient twin was really red and his donor brother was rather pale. Check out http://davistwins.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/davistwins.jpg for a striking example of this coloration from when the boys were just a few minutes old.
Later, it was other subtle things – our recipient twin has always been about a pound heavier and because of where he grew in the womb, his head wound up rounder and flatter on top. Recipient twin had an angel’s kiss in the middle of his forehead for a good part of the first year that looked like a triangular golf hole flag.
BUT – barring all the minor physical differences we do now have problems at 21 months figuring out who’s who in some of the older pictures – we were consistent about putting one in blue and the other in green/brown/orange/yellow when we had similar outfits. That trick does hold up pretty well.
Wow, Todd. That is quite a picture!
Our girls were born by C-section, and one of them had a small cut on her head – which left a little scar that was visible until her hair grew in after age one. Many family members would look for it.
Thanks for your comment, and for sharing the picture — quite dramatic!
Kat
When my twins were born, they put a velcro soccer ball on one hat and a baseball on the other’s hat. My mom also purchased super soft felt hats for the boys and had their names embroidered so we always knew who was who.
One time I got my twin babies mixed up and couldn’t tell them apart so me and my wife decided to get their names re-changed. Trust me, follow these tips!