Right now, it might be hard to imagine wanting to sit down and go through baby pictures of your little ones. They’re already right in the other room, and anyway, who has the time or energy to go to all that trouble? But in 10 years or so, you’ll be really glad you have pictures to document the early days of their lives. The only problem is, in 10 years when you look at the pictures, how will you know who’s who?
Some things that you use right now to tell your little ones apart don’t translate well to pictures. Personality and weight differences, for example, which you might be relying on most of the time, may not be as evident in photos. Here are some ways to guarantee quick photo identification, to make things a little easier for your future trips down memory lane.
Use baby anklets to determine who’s who
Scrunchies might be a thing of the past in terms of hair styling, but you can put them on each baby’s ankle to tell them apart in photographs. Lots of hair scrunchies are soft and made of fabric and won’t be uncomfortable for the babies to wear for long periods of time. This is a really good way to tell each baby apart in pictures – the only challenge being that you’ll have to remember which baby wore which scrunchie!
Label hard-copy photographs
The majority of people’s photo albums are digital now. In some ways this is great – it saves space, and makes memories way more accessible when you’re away from home. But it might make telling your multiples apart a little harder. So if you have any pictures developed or printed out, turn them over and write down who’s who on the back.
A possible option for the tech-savvy parents is to download a photo-labeling app, or to rename your pictures to a title that has the babies’ names in the order they appear.
Dress the multiples in a certain color, or with certain patterns
This is slightly longer-term than the scrunchie or labeling ideas, but some parents decide to dress their multiples in specific outfits all the time, to ensure that they can quickly tell them apart in pictures and in real life. Maybe one baby is always in stripes, one always in solids, one always wearing blues, or one always wearing green, or – you get the idea. It doesn’t work for everyone, but maybe it will work for you.
Accessorize
Okay look, we’re not saying you have to plan complex outfits for each baby every day. It would be a little silly if one was always wearing a bonnet or a tiny fedora, for example, just so you could tell the babies apart. But when it comes to simple accessories for quick identification, light caps and headbands can go a long way.
Always position the babies the same way
It will be a challenge to keep up with this one, but if you generally always put the babies in a particular order in photographs, your future self will have a better idea when figuring out who’s who in the holiday pictures. Maybe by alphabetical order, or birth order? This will be hard to enforce outside of your own home, and there are bound to be pictures that break the rules. But you could definitely try to get into this habit, so that you’re still covered, even if you don’t have a scrunchie, headband, or different outfits prepared.
You won’t know how well your chosen method is working until, oh, about 5 to 10 years from now. But the nice thing about multiples is that it doesn’t matter toooooooo much if someone gets switched around every so often. Even if you crack open the photo album one day and simply cannot remember which baby always wore purple, it’s far more important that you have the chance to look back on these days with fondness.
