Have you noticed that none of the popular cartoon characters wear nappies? Use that to your advantage! This fun craft and activity will help the toilet training process by making your child want to model their favourite cartoon characters – and not wear a nappy.

What you’ll need:

• Pictures of cartoon characters from magazines, old pictures books or colouring books
• Blunt safety scissors
• Craft sticks
• Glue

What to do

Look through magazines, old picture books or colouring books and find pictures of your toddler’s favourite cartoon characters. Help your toddler use blunt edged scissors to cut them out. Show your child how to put a thin line of glue down half of the craft stick. Glue the picture of the character onto the stick. Allow to dry at least an hour before using.

After they are dry, have your child sit down and put on a puppet show for him. Have each character “walk” out and ask him, “What’s my name”? After the child answers, ask, “Do I wear a nappy?” Your giggling tot will answer with a “No!” Then march the next character out and repeat with all the puppets. At the end, have the characters continue the conversation by asking your child questions such as:

• Do you wear a nappy?
• Do you have a potty like I used to have?
• What does it feel like when you have to go to the potty or toilet?
• Do we want our Pull-Ups® underpants to stay wet or dry?

End the puppet show by having the characters tell your toddler what a big boy or girl they are, and that they know very soon they can wear big kid underwear like they do.

You can expand on the conversation by asking questions about the characters. For example:

• Does [character] wear a nappy?
• Where does [character] go to the bathroom?
• What character do you think is own [character’s] underwear?

This will lead to a very interesting conversation!