How do you explain the really tricky stuff? With picture books.

Whether you find it all rather disgusting, or whether you find the whole subject hilarious, at some point all parents need to explain some of our bodies' baser functions to our children.

If you're in the more uptight camp, the books I've rounded up in this post are here to help you. It seems that the Japanese have identified a real market for this sort of basic picturebook, explaining how and why we go to the toilet, break wind, and several other phenomena you wouldn't want mentioned at the dinner table.

I have no doubt that many are bought for novelty value, especially in translation. They do make a great gift for new parents, in a 'welcome to the world of messy diapers' sort of way. The 'My Body Science' series, in particular, seems to hit a very good balance between humour and information.

Of course, king of the genre is Everyone Poops (2001), which we've mentioned many times before. It's by Taro Gomi, who has also produced many delightful preschool board books and colouring books for the older child.

I am guessing that it was the popularity of this title that began the trend, and opened up the gates for them all to be imported to us in the west.

Difficult, distasteful, or just plain disgusting topics that are always on a young child's mind are also covered in The Gas We Pass (Shinta Cho), The Holes In Your Nose, Breasts, and All About Scabs (all three by Genichiro Yagyu).

Opinions on Amazon seem divided, with official book reviewing organs generally dismissing them as crass and borderline offensive, while seemingly-genuine parents regularly report how the books have become their kids' favourites, or have helped them deal with real-life issues such as a pea up the nostril, potty training and suppressing fart jokes.

As adults, we have mainly lost our sense of wonder and learned to quieten any curiosity we may still have about our bodily functions. Once we start to think about it though, it's easy to see how, to a young child, these subjects could be fascinating or even frightening. At least we have a range of no-nonsense books to rely on, should we need to.

Do you have any of these books? Let us know how you've found them, in a comment.