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How do I make sure I don't mix up identical twin newborns?

parenting.stackexchange.com

21 points by SandB0x 9 years ago · 4 comments

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catpolice 9 years ago

Why would you need to tell them apart?

  • milesvp 9 years ago

    I'll assume that you're not just being facetious here. As the father of new twins, I can tell you that just keeping track of the state of a single baby is hard, it's more than doubly hard with twins. Has Joe eaten yet? What boob is Bob on? Have you changed Tom's diaper yet? Does Ben need to burp still? While each of these questions has very little long term consequence, each one can have very serious short term psychological impacts on the parents. When you're already over stressed and sleep deprived, missing something as simple as a diaper change can cause a catastrophic failure mode (aka crying) that interrupts the one rem cycle you were gonna have that night.

    So, keeping track of which baby is which ends up being essential for mental health.

    • burfog 9 years ago

      I also have twins. You don't need to tell them apart because you can just do everything to both of them. There is one boob for each. If you change one, you change the other. The names don't matter; even with my non-twins I just call them "baby" for a year or two. (so "this baby" and "that baby", or "left baby" and "right baby", or "port baby" and "starboard baby")

      Soon enough, one will fall down some steps or fall out of a stroller, and then you'll be able to tell them apart by the scar.

    • catpolice 9 years ago

      Oh right, babies are stateful. I forget these things sometimes.

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