Now closed: share your potty training stories and win £100 of Random House books.

[RachelMumsnet]

It's Prince George's first birthday on 22 July and author Nicholas Allan has made ready for the occasion with his hilarious book The Prince and the Potty.

To celebrate, we're offering you the chance to win £100 worth of Random House children's books. To be in with a chance to win simply share your potty training stories with us - we want to hear everything from your trusty tactics to the wacky methods you tried and tested. Was it a gleaming success or a downright disaster? We want to know.

We'll select our favourite story and ten runner's up who will receive all of Nicholas Allan's Royal Reads books. So, if you've got some cracking tales to divulge or some valuable techniques to share, post away - we're looking forward to this one! Here's more info about the book and the competition.

This competition is sponsored by Random House books

[HappyMum4]

We adopted the potty training dance for our four, each time they scored a hit, we all went crazy dancing around the room, and they found it such fun they kept wanting to do it over and over again! I also once broke my toe kicking their potty across the bathroom floor!

[JoCar72]

Haven't started yet but hopefully it wont be long. It's great to read everyone's stories and pick up essential advice. I think reading between the lines it's all about patience and willpower. After facing daily nappies it wont be too hard...will it? ;)

[Amez2012]

My daughter loves the noise it makes - she says tinkle tinkle when she hears it go in!

[EvilHerbivore]

We didn't use a potty either, just went straight onto the loo with a insert seat at the beginning although he stopped using that after 6 weeks or so, we also did loads of other things mentioned on here - "special" pants with his favourite characters on, stickers and loads of praise if he went, a present when he got 10 stickers, setting an alarm on my phone as a reminder to go every 20 minutes or so in the first few days and mainly leaving it until he was ready, "late" by some peoples book (just turned 3) but he cracked it in a week or so with few accidents and little stress really

[hutchy73]

My son was sticker mad so we had a sticker chart- the only problem was he was almost straining to go on his potty just to get a sticker!

[Fairylea]

I think more than anything it's important to have a potty available at all times. .. when dd was training I'd left her for all of 10 minutes while I hung out some washing and returned to find she'd done a poo and proudly and carefully placed it across (as it wouldn't fit in) the top of a dainty China dolls tea set cup she'd been playing with as she clearly thought it would do as a make shift potty!

So cute. And gross.

She's 11 now and I still love to remind her of that story :)

[LEE88]

My little boy hated his potty and wanted to use the toilet so to help his aim I would scrunch up little bits of toilet paper for him to shoot the "aliens", although one time I had dropped a piece on the floor and before I noticed my little one was peeing all over the floor saying "look Mummy I got the alien that was trying to escape" lol.

[stephgr]

I got my children to decorate their potties with stickers and so on which made them really keen to use the potties

[MiaSparrow]

DD beat us to it: she just woke up one morning when she was 2.5 and announced "Mummy, I don't wear nappies anymore!" She was dry in three days flat. We hadn't even bought her any knickers and the potty training book that I'd ordered arrived the following week, only to go straight to the charity shop. I'm SO glad we waited and that she initiated it. I think it made all our lives a whole lot easier.

[onestepbeyond]

I potty trained dd1 at 2yrs old, she wasn't interested in starcharts and i didn'y want to use food as a bribe so I invented the happy dance! (you basically stick your bum out and wriggle around!). Everytime she successfully used the potty or toilet we did the happy dance, I have happy danced in carparks, shopping centres, laybys and even a grave yard!!

[UWLMW]

My eldest was 2 years and 1 month old when my second baby was born and I thought I had him potty trained.
My new health visitor came round to visit new baby for the first time and I proudly told her about our success and how it had been 2 days since the eldest had an accident...in the twenty minutes she was there he had 3 accidents and not a single drop in the potty. I was left a bit red faced and I'm sure she thought I was either deranged or deluded!!

[MadMonkeys]

DD1 refused to wear pants when we tried the first time at 2years 6 months. I didn't push it. Then a month before DD2 was due she announced she wanted to wear her pants (at 2 years 8 months) - she was dry in the daytime after just one week. She's a determined little girl, she will do it in her time or not at all!

[IncaAztec]

My only success with potty training was setting an alarm every 30 mins to start with as a toilet alarm. I would then ask if she needed the toilet and take if necessary. I then stretched this out to 45 mins then an hour until she remembered by herself. She is now dry and seldom has accidents. Won't work for all, but worth a try!

[glmcall123]

My son was quick to learn how to use the potty but the new found freedom from nappies gave him the idea of marking his territory, i.e weeing on anything that was his. It was a month of hell before we managed to stop him.

[purpleskull]

My daughter decided to start potty training herself by peeing in her bucket of lego. I was impressed with her but wished she'd emptied out the lego first, haha :D

[sarah3875]

I found doing it in the summer months with my youngest much easier. They can run around the house/garden with pants and no trousers whilst they get the hang of it. x

[JWalker23]

Not yet at the stage of potty training but most of these comments have been so useful, guess you just have to have patients like everything else and go at the speed your child is working at :)

[Mink35]

My son was virtually potty trained then we decided to spend a day at banger-racing (my husband and friends used to compete at the time and we went up in a big group of people). Whilst up there he naturally wanted the loo but the portaloos were disgusting and he wouldn't use them so hubby showed him how to pee up something... in this case the car tyre (banger!).

Unfortunately for days afterwards he refused to use the potty/toilet and only wanted to pee up the car!

[ikkle87]

We are trying to go at my sons pace, he doesn't talk and isn't able to tell us when he needs a wee or poop. Instead he does a wee in his nappy and then will strip off take his own nappy off and go sit on the potty and clap his hands as if to say well done. It's not quite right but small steps :)

[AnotherStitchInTime]

With dd1 we used to tell a story about the poos going to poo-land and the wees going to wee-wee land. Now she tells it to dd2 who is 2.5 and just showing an interest in the toilet, she likes to flush the toilet for me and say bye, bye wee wee.

[Madamecastafiore]

Do day and night together. Have never understood why people train kids to be dry during the day but not the night at the same time. Did this with 2 of 3 DCs and worked fine.

[Lydia30]

I've never used an actual potty. All 3 of my children and 2 of my Grandchildren whom I've brought up, all used a children's toilet seat. I found it so much more convenient

[snare]

I did potty training with mine in the summer so that we could start it in the garden without them wearing pants and they then got the idea :)

[WarmHugs]

I potty trained both of mine at 2.3, despite them not showing any of the "signs". I cancelled our plans for the week, and had lots of activities to keep us busy at home. When they woke, I told them that they were a big boy/girl, and they could wear special undies/knickers.

Day 1 - all wees/poos on the carpet
Day 2 - some on the carpet/some in the potty. Lots of excitement and praise.
Day 3 - Nearly all in the potty
Day 4 - no accidents, and they have both been the same since.

No fuss, no messing, no dramas.

I did invest in a great carpet cleaner though!