How to toilet train your toddler

Putting their favourite book by the potty so that you can read it to them can help change the way your little one thinks about potty time. It might even make it something to look forward to.

Your child’s development: Having you read to them is relaxing for young children – perfect for toilet time. Storytime helps with their language and even reading later in life.

Children like putting their mark on things – and the more familiar they are with something, the more relaxed they'll be. So let them play with their potty well before they begin to use it. If you can, help them make a label with their name on it to stick on the potty. That means no one else will use it, like big brother.

They'll love telling other people where to go to use the loo, especially as it's now a room they get to use too.

If you have a bar of soap, pretend it's very slippery, and you can't hold it! Have fun letting the soap escape from your hands and ask your little one to try and catch it! Wriggling it out of their hands under the tap is a sneaky way to get small palms and fingers clean.

Oh no, have you spotted some germs on their hands? Try describing what these teeny-weeny beasties look like. Better wash them all away to keep little hands nice and clean. Maybe you could point out those special places (between fingers!) where the germs like to hide.

Germs are hard for your little one to understand because they're invisible. Try covering their hands in a mixture of mud and water to show them what germs would look like, and then get them to wash it off. This should help them to understand how important it is to clean their hands!