It’s potty training season! These days, Letterkenny Babies Facebook page receives frequent messages from parents asking for tips and advice about how best to potty train their tot.

It might be prompted by the milder weather, as kids tend to run around stripped to the bare minimum during potty training or it might be that preschool days are looming and there’s a sense of urgency to get the job done. One way or another, potty training is often a summer job.

There’s no doubt about it, it can be a very daunting task.

There are many different strategies that parents can try out, but the bottom line is, you know your own child better than anyone and that provides you with great insight to help get them trained when the time is right.

For some kids, buying them pants with their favourite characters on, whether it’s Spiderman or Peppa Pig, can really help them embrace the process. Bringing them shopping to proudly pick their own pants and even to pick their potty can help get them on board with the process.

Make sure you have plenty of tracksuit bottoms or shorts that are easy for them to pull down independently and buy cheap plastic sandals for the job too. The last thing you want is for the good Clarks shoes to get drenched in pee!

Lining their car seat with puppy pads during training is also a handy tip. Setting a timer every half an hour and bringing them to sit on the potty to try to pee can really help at first. Heap praise on them just for complying, even if the pee is a no show!

A lot of parents (including myself) have false starts with potty training. You do need to persevere and accept that there will be accidents for a few days, but if it’s really stressful for both you and the child, it’s perfectly fine to whack the nappy back on for at least a fortnight before trying again.

The first time I tried to train my son Evan, his younger brother Conor was at the crawling stage. Evan peed on the kitchen tiles without me noticing. Poor Conor crawled through the puddle, his hand slipped and banged his face on the floor. Both boys covered in pee. Both boys crying. Both boys in nappies for the foreseeable!

I waited a few weeks and tried again. This time round, I used the main tool in my parenting kit; bribery! I went to the pound shop and bought about a dozen small toys – cars, dinosaurs etc, and I wrapped them all individually. I told Evan they were his pee pee presents. He could open one every time he peed in the potty.

He did have a few accidents, but the motivation to open a cheap present really helped him to focus on the task!

Even after they figure out how to pee in the potty, getting them to stay dry through the night is a whole other ballgame. In our house, as soon as the potty training started, there was no more lying down for nappy changing. We opted to ditch nappies entirely and moved on to pull-ups for night time.

So, we had pants and ‘bedtime pants’ as we called them. No more nappies. I think the clean break from nappies did help with the training.

When it comes to potty training, patience is key and accidents are inevitable.

They’ll get there though and you’ll find yourself doing a pee pee victory dance before you know it!

Louise Flanagan is an admin of Letterkenny Babies facebook page and author of the children’s book series, Dragonterra and Dream Beasts. www.dragontera.ie