Our New Year’s resolution for 2019 was to get Baby Bookworm toilet trained.
Not a glamorous start to January but I’m very much over changing nappies and he’s seemed ready for a while. We just needed to take the plunge and cross our legs it would work.
With the disruption of our latest (and last!) house move and Christmas out of the way, we went cold turkey yesterday and BB started wearing big boys pants. And so far, so good…
I think it helped that he’s been using a potty sporadically at home and most days at nursery for a few months. We’ve also been reading a few books on the topic to prepare him for the process.
Here are three that we’ve found most useful and crucially, he’s enjoyed looking at.
1. Goldilocks and the Three Potties by Leigh Hodgkinson. £6.99 (paperback), Nosy Crow
The familiar fairytale is retold with a little toilet humour when young Goldilocks wants to wear big girl pants that are just right. Once she has her trusty underwear, she needs to find the perfect place to pee – not too big or too small.
Author-illustrator Leigh Hodgkinson strikes a lovely balance between laughs and encouragement as our heroine has accidents and wees that won’t come. The mixed media artwork is folksy and charming too.
It’s a book that says potty training is nothing to get your knickers in a twist about and Baby Bookworm is keen to read again and again. Available from Amazon
2. Pirate Pete Potty by Andrea Pinnington and Melanie Williamson. £6.99 (board book), Ladybird
I picked up this chunky book with a sound button on our trip to Seven Stories a while ago and then lots of people told me it had helped their own potty training journeys.
Pirate Pete is ready to wear pants like his parents and big sister, so his mum takes him to pick out a potty and underwear. What’s nice about this book is that it explains all aspects of the process simply. The cheering sound button is good for offering encouragement your own child if you keep it by the toilet.
The book is aimed at boys, with a Princess Polly version for girls (I’m not really a fan of these gender stereotypes but appreciate boys and girls potty train differently). You can also download themed reward charts from the Penguin website to help your child. Available from Amazon
3. No More Nappies: A Potty Training Book by Marion Cocklico. £6.99 (board book), Campbell
I’m a fan of Campbell’s Big Steps series of picture books and this one is endorsed by early years expert Dr Amanda Gummer.
The story follows Millie and Mo as they tackle the move to pants and a potty, with some brilliant flaps, sliders and wheels to keep kids engaged. The illustrations are colourful and fun, too.
Unusually, this book is also designed to help parents, with reassuring tips running along the bottom of the pages to ensure you are on the right track. Available from Amazon
You may also like…
8 brilliant books about starting school
Stories to make sense of moving house
Lisa Stickley reveals how her daughters inspired The New Baby
Books with Baby 