Share your top tips with Penwizard on encouraging your children with their potty training for your chance to win a £300 Love2Shop voucher! NOW CLOSED

[KathrynMumsnet]

The team at Penwizard have asked us to find out your top tips to encourage your children with their potty training.

Here’s what Penwizard say: "We all know potty training can be a tough time for both toddlers and parents. That’s why in our new personalised potty training book we guide children step-by-step through the process to help them understand what’s involved and help parents motivate their child. But we want to hear from Mumsnet posters what tips and tricks have worked for them whilst handling this delicate process and any advice they would pass on to first time mothers”.

So what are your top tips? What do you wish you’d known about potty training before starting the process? Do you have a reward system in place? Whatever it is, we’d love to hear it!

Everyone who posts their comment on this thread will be entered into a prize draw where one lucky Mumsnetter will win a £300 Love2Shop voucher.

Please note: your comments may be used anonymously elsewhere on Mumsnet and by Penwizard on their website, marketing materials and possible elsewhere, so please only comment if you are happy with this.

Thanks and good luck!

MNHQ

p.s. if you would like to find out more about Penwizard’s new book click here.

Good old fashioned bribery worked with DS. Chocolate button for using the potty-2 weeks and he was dry during the day!

Going to see if this works with DD in a couple of months.

As others have said - take clothes out of the equation. I had both DDs in skirts without pants for the first couple of days which was really helpful as they knew nothing would catch their wee.

• moving the potty to whatever room they were playing in for the first week so they didn't have to go far once they realised they needed the loo
• lots and lots of praise for any successes and just brush over the failures so that it's an enjoyable time for them.

Don't pressure them, I take my daughter to the potty when I go, praise her when she went. Work wonder with a higher up potty that I bought it's like a seat. I think comfort is the key as well. I make it fun also as I give her a book to give her time specially when needs a poo.

firstly, DON'T PANIC! the child will pick up on your anxiety and will feel pressured leading to accidents. pick at date and stick to it, don't give up after a few days because it is hard and there are accidents, buy a attractive fun potty and have it in the room the child is in the most. praise ALOT when they go and don't tell them off if there is a accident (which there will be)

Firstly choose a good time when theres not much else going on, stock up on lots of pants, keep reminding them about the potty continually to start with, have a sticker chart with rewards, I used to give my boys one sticker for a number 1, 2 for a number 2 , and finally always remain calm, even we they have produced something in the potty then tipped it over the floor! always remain calm

Start when they're ready! Most important. But lots of pairs of underwear and let them go without if it's warm weather.

Our reward strategy was a mixture of stickers and chocolate buttons. We also used the Poo Goes To Pooland story as a bit of encouragement.

Be prepared to go backwards - after weeks of being dry we went through a period of accidents again. So frustrating but we worked thought it.

If your child is in a nursery, get them involved with your strategy eg take their reward chart to nursery with them.

Wait til their friends are doing it too. DD is much more interested in using the toilet if she's copying her friends!

Wait until the summer when they can go without anything on the bottom half in the garden - makes it much easier to whizz a potty underneath them, or if it's too late, it does no harm to water the grass!

Go straight to pants. I found training pants and pull ups just caused confusion. Accidents occurring was the only way my DD figured she had to tell me she needed to go. Cheap and cheerful ones.

Watching her little toddler friends using the big toilet.

When you have to take them every 15 min keep a little book (a new one different to their usual books) or something for them to keep occupied as they very quickly get bored and whiney. And they soon tire of having to be disturbed from playing to go and sit on potty/toilet. So a new book/magazine/stickers were good encouragement.

Be patient!

We started potty training in a Monday, on Tuesday my son got chicken pox, we gave up there and then despite comments from our family that backtracking would cause us problems in the future! One month later we started to read the pirate Pete potty stories to my son who loves them and we let him choose a different potty to the first one he had as he kept saying he didn't like it. With a new potty in place and the book learnt off by heart we started again, no problems at all, reward chart in the book was amazing and he did overnight by himself at the same time, so top tip let them lead you and don't pressure them make it fun xx

When my children were potty training I had a sticker chart. They'd get a sticker if they wee'd in the potty but if they had an accident they got a sad face drawn on it. I didn't tell them off as it's all part of learning. It only took a few weeks for them to be fully trained.

Simply put them in pants, no pull-ups, no nappies, job done. I have potty trained around 60 children, all by their second birthday. Watch for the window of opportunity between 18 and 21 months.

Wait until your child is ready. I had all of mine trained in a couple of weeks because we waited. It isn't a competition and you don't see many teenagers wearing nappies, so chill out about it!

-Wait until they're ready. After seeing pushy parents as a nursery nurse insist their child potty trains the day after they turn 2 I can't believe how many kids have to go through that!

• Don't bother with pull ups. Kids think they're the same as nappies and its just harder to change them.
• Encourage but don't tell off. Accidents WILL happen.

To wait until they show signs of ready to be potty trained, other wise it will take a lot longer than necessary.
I found a simple potty and seat for the toilet did the trick. As at first I bought my son an expensive potty that played music, had a toilet roll holder etc and he just thought of it as a toy

Don't rush.dnt compare.let them have their own time not what Timmy next door s achieveing.
Loads of big sibling encouragent.
Calm,talk like an adult to adult about 'perhaps giving this a go'

Start early, use baby sign language for poo when you see your babies poo face, they will then know a communication tool for letting you know that a poo is on its way.

Also blowing bubbles is great for keeping kids entertained on the potty and getting them to secretly use their pooing muscles

If you want to get out and about during potty training but don't want to revert to nappies or pull ups in car/pram, stick a pull up on over their pants. They'll know they had an accident but you'll have less of a faff.

My top tips are to go cold turkey during the day and say no more nappies, I wouldn't bother with pull ups as I think it just confuses them.
Set aside a few days and just keep them naked on the bottom half - no underware, never scold and always go overboard with praise if they go on the potty, have your bleachy moo ready!

Get toddler toilet seats, not a potty, it makes it just a lot easier and cleaner.

start with sitting them on the loo every night for a few months before bathtime ot get used to it.

I've learned from my mistake with DC1, I took the decision to get him dry at a point I had a week off at home anyway, he wasn't ready. with DC2, i'm waiting until she is ready, not when it suits me. If that means it's not a week in the summer when she can run round half naked in the garden, but a rainy cold week in November, so be it. It'll be quicker if they are ready and understand.

Children learn remarkably quickly at very early age and love praise and being big. They are amazing. Wait until your DC is ready, if possible leave it until Spring/Summer (then they can run about freely and if there are accidents then easier for washing and drying!), and go straight from nappies to normal pants (training pants are so expensive and prolong the process)

When my little ones were first learning to use the potty we used to read & read & read whilst they were sat on it in the hope they would go.

My husband and I took the week off work so that we could be patient when potty training our son. We let him walk around the house in just a t-shirt and kept encouraging him to use the musical potty chair. After one poo behind the table....he didnt have any further accidents ever! I am convinced it is because we showed patience and let him go at his own pace

Remember that the age your child potty trains at doesn't go on their CV. It takes the pressure off doing it before your child is good and ready.