Books For Children About Babies, Breastfeeding & Families

Alisha Bourke

Welcome Home is a Children's Book designed to educate and prepare children for pregnancy, labour, birth and the first postpartum moments. It takes the reader, on a journey of discovery from pregnancy, to midwifery care and preparation for a home birth. As you flip through these brightly coloured pages you will be greeted with ways to prepare for all the natural occurrences in labour and delivery. Which include noises Mama could make, different positions Mama needs to move into to get baby into the right position to be born, a baby crowning, details of blood loss, placenta and breastfeeding. This book was designed as a conversation starter for you and your family, a chance to prepare for a home birth, to instil that birth is a beautiful natural occurrence and something that needs not to be feared.

Giles Andreae

There's a house inside my Mummy

Where my little brother grows,

or maybe it's my little sister

No-one really knows.

A gentle and tender story of a little boy waiting for his little brother or sister to arrive. Told with humour and a simple rhyming text, this is the perfect picture book for all expectant brothers and sisters!

Jasmine Seymour

Baby Business tells the story of the baby smoking ceremony that welcomes baby to country. The smoke is a blessing — it will protect the baby and remind them that they belong.

This beautiful ritual is recounted in a way young children will completely relate to.

Breastfeeding

Tupera Tupera

This baby is not comforted by a teddy bear or toy. This baby wants only one thing: milk!

When baby is hungry, neither his teddy bear, his ball, nor even his shiny tambourine will soothe him. This tribute to the nursing baby - and even more so, to the breastfeeding mother - will read as conventional to babies and toddlers but as taboo-busting to parents. Celebrate the natural magic of growing a baby with this simply worded, expertly illustrated, and shockingly honest shaped board book. Perfect for nursing babies, older siblings, and expectant parents. A sure-to-be favorite baby shower gift!

Victoria de Aboitiz

When a little girl’'s baby brother is born, she begins to investigate the mystery of the breast as she sees her mother breastfeed the new arrival.
This beautifully illustrated book reminds children and adults alike of the special bond between mother and baby, and is especially suited to be read with older siblings of breastfed babies.
Honourable Mention for Illustrations, FEDECATA, Spain

Ellie Stoneley

A beautiful book for children and their families, Milky Moments celebrates the joy of childhood and mothering, and normalises breastfeeding as a part of day-to-day life. Delightfully illustrated scenes are complemented by lyrical rhyming text which gently draws the reader into the lives of the families depicted. The hand-painted illustrations are set in a variety of locations including a playgroup, a shopping trip, parks, hospital and at home. The children's ages range from newborn to 5 years old, baby and child breastfeeding positioning is accurate and realistic, and the love and attention to detail in the book were inspired by the guiding principles of the La Leche League and the author's own personal experience. Inspirational, intimate and fun, Milky Moments is not only a book to treasure, but also a book that will educate and inform on the importance and normality of breastfeeding - however old you are.

Alisha Bourke

When you came out of my tummy, the first thing you looked for was my breast.
This beautifully illustrated book tells the story of the powerful bond shared between a mother and her newborn baby.

Nathalie Beauvois

Baby is hungry. What can she eat? Red strawberries, yellow bananas, green avocado, or an orange peach? Not quite yet. How about mom's milk, the most delicious and nutritious food of all

This board book with rounded die-cut pages celebrates the magic of breastfeeding while presenting babies with other delicious natural foods and introducing them by color. With simple text and beautiful illustrations, Mama, Can You Feed Me? is an appreciation of breastfeeding mothers everywhere. A great resource for nursing babies and expectant parents, the book includes two pages of basic information about breastfeeding at the back.

Michael Elsohn Ross

Celebrating the warm and loving bond between mammal mamas and their babies, this lushly illustrated book shows little ones doing what comes naturally-nursing. A perfect choice for cuddling up with a breast-feeding child or preschoolers who wonder how new babies get fed.

Ida Therén

A children's book (ages 0-4) about a day in a toddler's life, with its attachment parenting parent. The gender of the parent and child are not set. A walk in the park, meeting a dog, learning to walk. Babywearing, co-sleeping and lots of love!

HUGHES / BROWN

Around the world, little ones are carried in many different ways: in slings, on shoulders, in backpacks, on hips, in baskets, and in loving arms. Up! depicts ten places around the world, from Afghanistan to northern Canada, Peru to West Africa. In each place, a mom, dad, grandparent, aunt, uncle, cousin, or sibling lovingly carries a baby.

With various family configurations and settings ranging from a busy outdoor market to a high-rise apartment kitchen, the book wholeheartedly celebrates diversity. Gorgeous cut-paper collage art adds warmth and brightness, and brings the lyrical text to life. Repetition of the phrase "Upsy-daisy" on each spread lends familiarity, and reminds readers that love for a little one is a universal feeling.

Laurie Elmquist

From a carrier, a baby peers out at the trail. Leaves rustle overhead, and a turtle stretches toward the sun. Everything shimmers with light, including the jeweled wings of a dragonfly and the star-shaped lilies. This delightful board book takes the reader on a walk accented by the soft sound of footsteps on the trail and grounded by the rhythmic rocking of mother and baby moving through the forest. Travel along on their serene journey with Laurie Elmquist's lyrical verse and Shantala Robinson's warmly painted collages. A beautiful book that will be treasured by anyone who loves the outdoors.

Wamoro P Njenga

Goodnight Kuu~Kuu takes you on a sweet adventure as young Katoto describes the encounters and surroundings as the mother-child bond inevitably keeps growing. Katoto takes in a whirlwind of cozy, familiar sights and startling scenes, skittering movements and bouncy rides, scary sounds and socializing laughter until Katoto must say goodnight. An endearing story told by Wamoro P. Njenga with artwork by award-winning illustrator Anne Sibley O"Brien.

Melissa Panter

​Keeping your baby close is important to you, ​and so important for your baby. In "Mama Holds Me Close" your child can read about Mama possums, alligators, otters and more, all holding their babies just like you hold your little one! Read it while holding your precious cargo in your arms.------ "Mama Holds Me Close" is a babywearing themed book that tells the different places and occasions a mother carries her child, using illustrations of animals that also carry their children.--- Melissa Panter has also written and illustrated other books, such as "Mama, Who Drinks Milk Like Me?" a bright and colorful children's book supporting breastfeeding is written in a cheerful and curious voice. -- This is an updated edition.--Visit Melissa Panter's website to see how you can get a free print-your-own coloring book version of this book with your purchase of this book!

BERNHARD EMERY

Through a steamy rain forest in Brazil, along a river in Papua New Guinea, across a frozen inlet in the arctic, this book takes young children on a far-reaching journey to discover how babies worldwide are carried and what they see from their unique vantage points. "This is an exquisite book, for the detailed, folk-art style gouache illustrations, its overall design, and the wealth of information it includes."--"Kirkus Reviews"

Rena D. Grossman

Whether tucked in a blanket, peeking out of a basket, riding in a backpack, or wrapped in a parent’s arms, babies worldwide are carried in unique ways. The simple, rhyming text of this board book introduces children to the ways their global neighbors travel. The beautiful photographs show that all babies are nurtured by their loved ones. (Part of the Babies Everywhere™ Board Book Series)

Liz Garton Scanlon

Following a circle of family and friends through the course of a day from morning until night, this book affirms the importance of all things great and small in our world, from the tiniest shell on the beach, to the warmth of family connections, to the widest sunset sky.

Katherine C Havener, Sara Burrier

Nursies When the Sun Shines is a godsend to parents of nursing toddlers, exhausted from late night wakings for milk. Beautiful watercolor illustrations and a sweet, lulling verse help young children understand the concept of night and day. Night time, the book explains, is for sleeping. "Nursies," on the other hand, happen when the sun shines. In Nursies, a toussle-haired toddler is snuggled up in bed with mom and dad, ready to go to sleep for the night, the family's grey striped cat snoozing soundly at their feet. When the toddler wakes at night for "nursies," mom shows her baby that it's dark outside, and assures baby that she'll have nursies when the sun shines. Later, with brilliant sun streaming through the window, the toddler knows it's time for nursies. The book closes with a heart-warming illustration of a nursing family: the toddler, nuzzled up to mama's breast, daddy kissing toddler's head, and even the family cat purring a love song. Nursies is a groundbreaking children's book, the first-ever to focus on night weaning. Its goal is to facilitate communication between parent and young child, thereby making the process of night weaning as gentle and easy as possible.

Brett Hillary Aronowitz

Bright, colorful pages illustrate, Everything Changes Including Me, a picture book, told in verse, from the perspective of an older child. This delightful poem, along with its semi-realistic watercolor illustrations, aims to introduce the nursing and weaning toddler to the concepts of growth and change as tied to various activities during different seasons and weather, and include a time when mommy's milk is gone.

Julie Dillemuth, Vicky Pratt

Mama's milk has always been a part of Jack's life, but that's changing now that he's a toddler, and that's hard. But Mama's cuddling arms, lullaby voice, and thump-thump heartbeat won't change, even when the milk is gone.

The end of breastfeeding can be a deeply emotional transition for a mother and child: a major source of comfort for a child is going away, as is a big component of a woman's identity as a mother. This book addresses the psychological aspects of weaning, focusing on the mother-child relationship and additional ways a mother provides comfort.

This book is for toddlers and moms who are getting ready to start weaning, or are already in the process of weaning from breastfeeding.

Bryan Mellonie

Have you ever wondered why a butterfly lives for only a few weeks? Or why a tree lives for hundreds of year?

You may have been sad when someone in your family, or a favourite pet became sick and died.

There is a beginning and an ending to everything that is alive. In between is a lifetime. Dying is a much a part of living as being born.

Jessie Oliveros

What’s Happening to Grandpa meets Up in this tender, sensitive picture book that gently explains the memory loss associated with aging and diseases such as Alzheimer’s.

James’s Grandpa has the best balloons because he has the best memories. He has balloons showing Dad when he was young and Grandma when they were married. Grandpa has balloons about camping and Aunt Nelle’s poor cow. Grandpa also has a silver balloon filled with the memory of a fishing trip he and James took together.

But when Grandpa’s balloons begin to float away, James is heartbroken. No matter how hard he runs, James can’t catch them. One day, Grandpa lets go of the silver balloon—and he doesn’t even notice!

Grandpa no longer has balloons of his own. But James has many more than before. It’s up to him to share those balloons, one by one.

Chris Gurney

One day, Dad told me that Nana had died suddenly. I didn't know what to do. Everything felt wrong. People said she had gone to a better place. I wondered how she could go to a place that was better than here with me. A book to help children understand grief, Chris Gurney's sensitively written prose shows children it's okay to feel sad, and that we can find comfort in simple things.

Evocatively illustrated by award-winning illustrator Lael Chisholm, with vibrant colours and flowing lines.