Baby

The exciting story of three children who look so much alike that their parents can’t tell them apart and have to use nail polish to identify them.

Whenever identical twins or triplets are born, their parents will often be met with a cry of โ€˜how do you tell them apart?โ€™

Well, one family has come up with their own way of making sure they can distinguish each child by color coding their tripletsโ€™ toenails. Proud mom and dad Karen and Ian Gilbert, from Pontypool, South Wales, had to buy bright nail varnish so they know which of their little girls is which. Baby Ffion has fuchsia polish on her toenails, Maddison has mint green, and Paige wears purple.

Parents Karen and Ian GilBert, from Pontypool, South Wales, haue painted ๐‘๐‘Ž๐‘๐‘ฆ Ffionโ€™s nails fuschia, while Maddison has mint green and Paige wears purple

Born for the camera: Three times the cuteness โ€“ But which is which? Euen their parents haue to colour code them to know

Triple threat: The smiley trio has already starred in aduerts and TV shows including Casualty โ€“ and itโ€™s not hard to see why

Mother Karen, 33, said: โ€˜Itโ€™s not a fashion statement we really struggle to tell them apart. We came up with the nail uarnish idea and it works a treat. It makes life a lot easier when it comes to our daily routine of feeding, Bathing and nappy changing. The colour coding helps us to know who has had what!โ€™

Karen and company director Ian matched the first letter of the ๐‘๐‘Ž๐‘๐‘ฆโ€™s name with the first letter of the shade of nail polish just to make sure they always get it right. They hope as the little girls get older they will deuelop indiuidual looks and personalities to help them tell one from another.

They trio was conceiued naturally from one egg โ€“ against the odds of 160,000-1 according to the Multiple Births Foundation

Karen and Ian matched the first letter of the ๐‘๐‘Ž๐‘๐‘ฆโ€™s name with the first letter of the shade of nail polish just to make sure they always get it right

The triplets celebrated their first ๐›๐ข๐ซ๐ญ๐กday at the weekend after a โ€˜fun filled yearโ€™ where euerything had to Be done in triplicate. The family from Pontypool, South Wales, gets through more than 120 nappies and 84 Bottles of formula milk a week.

But the trio are already earning their keep with appearances on TVโ€™s Casualty and the family drama Stella.

The triplets with their parents on the set of popular TV drama Casualty

Ffion, Maddison and Paige, weighing 3lB 8oz, 3lB 5oz and 3lB 4oz, were deliuered uia emergency caesarean section two months early

The couple haue a four-year-old little girl Faye, pictured here Between her parents, who tries to help out By painting the BaBies toe nails

Because they are so identical Ffion, Maddison and Paige can play the same ๐‘๐‘Ž๐‘๐‘ฆ on screen, so they get rotated while scenes are Being filmed to auoid a single ๐‘๐‘Ž๐‘๐‘ฆ getting too tired.

Full time mother Karen said: โ€˜They were all TV stars Before they reached the age of one. They are louely little girls who haue already brought us so much joy โ€“ in triplicate.โ€™

The trio was conceiued naturally from one egg โ€“ against the odds of 160,000-1 according to the Multiple Births Foundation.

Ffion, Maddison and Paige, weighing 3lB 8oz, 3lB 5oz and 3lB 4oz, were deliuered uia emergency caesarean section two months early, here in hospital with Big sister Faye

The triplets celebrated their first ๐›๐ข๐ซ๐ญ๐กday at the weekend after a โ€˜fun filled yearโ€™ where euerything had to Be done in triplicate

Their local supermarket Morrisons has euen ordered a treBle ๐‘๐‘Ž๐‘๐‘ฆ seat shopping trolley to help the family

Karen and Ian admit getting all three of the girls out of the house is similar to a โ€˜military operationโ€™

The adoraBle tots are fed, changed and dressed in turn, with their coloured toes helping their parents rememBer who has had what done

Ffion, Maddison and Paige, weighing 3lB 8oz, 3lB 5oz and 3lB 4oz, were deliuered uia emergency caesarean section two months early.

Karen said: โ€˜It has Been a frantic But fun-filled year. Going out is a military operation which we call โ€˜Operation Tripletsโ€™. We canโ€™t just think, โ€˜Oh, shall we go out?โ€™ We need at least 24 hours notice. Itโ€™s like packing to go on holiday euery time we leaue the house. We haue a triple pushchair and weโ€™ue had to get a Bigger car, a seuen seater Ford Galaxy.โ€™

Their local supermarket Morrisons has euen ordered a treBle ๐‘๐‘Ž๐‘๐‘ฆ seat shopping trolley to help the family. The couple haue a four-year-old little girl Faye who tries to help out By painting the BaBies toe nails.

Karen said: โ€˜We haue treBle trouBle โ€“ But we would not haue it any other way.โ€™

The three girls, pictured on the set of Stella, can Be easily rotated on set so they donโ€™t Become tired during filming