Potty training is no fun, but it doesn’t have to be the biggest challenge in toddlerhood either. All these books are made to help kids and parents make this transition as smoothly as possible. Having taught children who were actively potty training and potty training my son last year, I can tell you this advice. Never push, never punish and never shame. So if your child isn’t open to these books, leave them hanging around and chill, they will be. No one ever goes to college in Buzz Lightyear pull ups!

It Hurts When I Poop!: A Story for Children Who Are Scared to Use the Potty by Howard J. Bennet was a life saver for us. Many kids start holing their poop after one painful one, and that happened here and we went from no issues to fussing, fighting the potty and finally he admitted he was scared it will hurt. Of course holding it made that worse but try to explain that to a frightened toddler. This book was amazing. The story is long, I skipped some text with my son , but read it all for myself since it’s packed with awesome information for parents too! The book explains digestion, why it hurts and how to make it better on a kids level as well as in more detail for parents. I can’t recommend this more for parents who’s children have hit this very common but very distressing problem.

The Potty Book for Girls by Alyssa Satin Capucilli is a favorite of my son. He loved this book, and when I got it back out of the library to write this post he immediately wanted me to read it. The text rhymes, the pictures are sweet and honest . I think what my son loves so much is that it shows the challenges, she wets herself, she pees on the floor and her parents are encouraging and positive. There is also a companion book The Potty Book – For Boys which interestingly my son had no interest in reading.

A Potty for Me!: A Lift-the-Flap Instruction Manual by Karen Katz is a great introduction to potty training. If your toddler is showing interest but neither you nor they are ready to go head first into underwear yet this lift-the-flap book is a great way to play with the idea and concepts of using a potty.

Have You Seen My Potty? Mij Kelly is such a cute book. A little girl on a farm has lost her potty and goes looking for it , asking all the animals if they have seen it. They don’t know what a potty is but have discovered this awesome poo pot that is keeping their farm so much cleaner since figuring out how to use it. My son laughed hysterically through the funny rhyming text and so did I . Making the potty a fun thing is really beneficial and this book does just that!

Even Firefighters Go to the Potty: A Potty Training Lift-the-Flap Story by Wendy  and Naomi Wax is another favorite of my son but I wasn’t as impressed. It’s hard my son loved it and since he loves Firefighters, Policemen etc.. knowing they use the potty too was great motivation for him. My concern was that there were very few women in this book. I think it’s important to show women being astronauts , police officers, and construction workers. The text was funny, the flaps were fun to reveal but I am on the fence, even though my son loved it.