by Jennifer Powers

Created on: July 01, 2009

When parents are told they are expecting twins or higher order of multiples, their first questions is, "Are they identical or fraternal?" Having twins has become much more frequent due to the increase of use of infertility treatments as well as many women waiting longer to have children, however this usually results in fraternal twins. Identical twins comes from one egg splitting into two, resulting in identical babies. Some fraternal twins that are boy-boy and girl-girl also can look identical in the beginning, so parents need to find ways to tell the two apart.

As the twins progress in the womb, one usually begins to get bigger than the other. While a couple of ounces to a couple of pounds might be hard for some parents to see when the babies are first born, the difference in weight will become more apparent as time progresses. This is when the parent needs to look closely at the thickness of each baby. In the case of identical twins, one always has a more round face and head while the other has a thinner and smaller face and head. It is a strange phenomenon that all identical twins have this difference from birth, but it is the easiest way tell identical twins apart.

If your keen eye does not pick up on the difference between the more full face versus the thinner face, look for distinguishing differences on the rest of their body. Perhaps one has a birthmark, which makes your life a lot easier telling them apart. Be forewarned there is one red birthmark called a Red hemangioma (or strawberry mark), which disappears by the time a child reaches the age of 9 years old. Other forms of birthmarks can disappear as a child progresses so ensure you have other ways to tell your babies apart.

One trick of the trade is to mark or "paint" your baby when the hospital bands come off. For baby girls, one might have a painted toenail. Paint a toenail over a fingernail so when your baby begins to suck on her fingers, nail polish doesn't get ingested as a result. For baby boys, you could put socks on one and not the other. Identification bracelets can also be purchased to where you can inscribe each child's name on their bracelet, or have a cap embroidered with their name. This way you can still dress your twins identical if you choose to do so but will still be able to tell them apart.

Some clothing tips when taking your babies around those outside of the immediate family is to dress them so others can tell them apart. Dr. Seuss' Thing 1 and Thing 2 rompers

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