Super-cute triplets look incredibly alike - but parents have brilliant way to tell them apart

These adorable identical triplets look so alike that not even their parents can tell them apart - but now they've come up with an ingenious way of identifying the tots.

Karen and Ian Gilbert from Wales buy bright, Christmas-themed nail varnish so they know which of their 16-month-old little girls is which.

Baby Ffion has fuschia polish on her toenails, Maddison has mint green and Paige wears purple, reports Wales Online.


Mum Karen, 33, said: “It’s not a fashion statement, we really struggle to tell them apart.

“We came up with the nail varnish 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.”

Karen and company director Ian matched the first letter of the baby’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 develop individual looks and personalities to help them tell one from another.

The triplets celebrated their first birthday at the weekend after a “fun filled year” where everything had to be done in triplicate.

The family from Pontypool 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 TV’s Casualty and the family drama Stella.



Because they are so identical, Ffion, Maddison and Paige can play the same baby on screen, so they get rotated while scenes are being filmed to avoid a single baby getting too tired.

Full-time mum Karen said: “They are all TV stars before they reached the age of one.

“They are lovely little girls who have already brought us so much joy - in triplicate.”

They trio was conceived naturally from one egg - against odds of 160,000-1 according to the Multiple Births Foundation.

Ffion, Maddison and Paige, weighing 3lb 8oz, 3lb 5oz and 3lb 4oz, were delivered via emergency caesarean section two months early.

Karen said: “It has been a frantic but fun-filled year.

“Going out is a military operation which we call Operation Triplets.

“We can’t just think, ‘Oh, shall we go out?’ We need at least 24 hours notice. It’s like packing to go on holiday every time we leave the house.

“We have a triple pushchair and we’ve had to get a bigger car, a seven seater Ford Galaxy.”



Their local supermarket Morrisons has even ordered a treble baby seat shopping trolley to help the family.

The couple have a four-year-old little girl Faye who tries to help out by painting the babies' nails.

Karen said: “We have treble trouble, but we would not have it any other way.”