Vegetables in Underwear is ridiculous, potty training fun

So, our youngest is 3 and knows that he should use the potty, but doesn’t most of the time.  He’ll use it just prior to bath time, but won’t tell us during the day if he has to go.  Vegetables in Underwear is a silly book about vegetables, in underwear and being ridiculously happy about it.  A large piece of broccoli strips down to their red underwear and runs across the pages where they meet their other vegetables wearing underwear.

The eggplant is happy wearing underwear.  The carrots, beets and celery are all very happy too.  The radish has big underwear and the potato has little underwear.  Side note:  there is an index of all of the vegetables wearing underwear on the inside and outside cover.  That’s a handy reference guide for knowing who is who in the vegetable underwear wearing world.

You’ve got new underwear, old ones, for boys and for girls.  During all of this the broccoli, wearing the red underwear is serving as our narrator and guide.  At the end of the adjectives broccoli says that “underwear is for big kids and underwear is for babies”.  On the next page broccoli admits that they made a mistake and that underwear is for big kids and diapers are for babies.

This is where the magic of Vegetables in Underwear happens.

While reading this book to our 3.5 year old he immediately picked up that broccoli was calling him a baby.  At first he didn’t have a reaction to this.  However, the next day he started taking his pants and diaper off in the mid-morning and late afternoon.  He wasn’t going to the bathroom (thankfully), he was just walking around the house or watching television.  What’s important is that he was not going to the bathroom.  He was holding it and that is the first real step in being successful at potty training.

At the end of Vegetables in Underwear broccoli gathers all of his friends, gets dressed and reveals that the best part about underwear is that you can wear it anywhere as long as you put your clothes on top.

This book is happy.   Vegetables in Underwear is fun the read regardless of age, but it’s certainly meant for children 2-5.  Our oldest has been using the potty for years but still found the book funny and laughed along with the illustrations.

I don’t know if this is the book that will finally push our youngest over to the potty side.  It certainly is helping him understand that big kids go to the potty while babies still have their diapers.  As it stands Vegetables in Underwear is a fun book with lots of big, vivid illustrations that will help children visualize what they need to do.  Parent will enjoy the book too as it’s one that will resonate with them.

Update: our 3.5 year old has started showing an interest in the potty! He goes sometimes and doesn’t sit for too long. That, plus when he accidently goes when he’s in underwear he realizes that it’s not what he should be doing.