DS (12 months) LOVES his books. He loves to take them down off the shelf and "read," chew on them, and tear them apart.
I want him to have access to his books but they are all going to be destroyed soon. Should I let him have his board books (and pack away a few sentimental ones with his hardback picture books?)
Any other suggestions?
Attached his a pic of his favorite book and one of him "reading." 
honeydew / 7622 posts
I let her have a few board books she could destroy. Also check out indestructibles. The urge has passed mostly at 16 months.
wonderful clementine / 24134 posts
They make like plastic bath books that would be good. Or just cheap ones from the target dollar spot. But yes we separate nice books from board books for before bed and board books I don't care if they are torn up.
blogger / grapefruit / 4836 posts
I see no point in having books if they won't be used. They can always be replaced. Board books only until 3 in our house. There is no way my toddler could have handled paper pages before then 
persimmon / 1095 posts
We have lost so many. Some I was thankful to lose. We will just get more cheap ones. I won't keep him from his books. Any books that I really like are not available to him. He has destroyed a few books in the past two weeks and is now 21 months.
nectarine / 2667 posts
My daughter just finished terrorizing an Indestructibles book. I let her maim the board books, too.
cantaloupe / 6634 posts
@Mrs. Lion: You are right. What's the point of a book that can't be read? And what's a little added fiber to his diet? 
I knew I could count on a fellow teacher.
pineapple / 12053 posts
Also one that let her kids chew the books. They get eaten but we still use them! DD1 gets a kick out of me telling her that she ate the books we read to DD2!
pear / 1558 posts
Our LO has access to nearly all her books, but she has been a little rough on many of them. 
It totally bums me out & we try to limit the damage & talk to her about being "gentle" with her books, but I do want her to enjoy picking out the ones she likes & looking at them herself, too.
pomelo / 5326 posts
Hmmmm I may be the odd one out. Growing up, my mom was very firm about "treating books like friends." I've always encouraged DD to take good care of her books and not to rip out pages, draw in them or chew them. She caught on pretty fast to be gentle with them. She reads a ton with us and on her own and our books are in good condition. We only just recently, in past 6 months, made the switch away from board books.
wonderful pear / 26210 posts
It didn't even occur to me to make them inaccessible. My son had access to them from the beginning, but I just chose carefully (in terms of what I left out in the open).
nectarine / 2210 posts
Dd is 18 months. She has about 3 lift the flap books where she's ripped the flap off. Also yesterday she ripped a board book in half. Although it was one from when I was little so it wasn't in the best condition. But overall she still is pretty good with them and we leave a pile out in the living room for her to play with.
persimmon / 1483 posts
I encourage them to be gentle, but they have access to all their board books. My 2.5 yo has several paper books now and we keep those away from the baby for obvious reasons.
nectarine / 2317 posts
My DD did this from about 10-13 months now at almost 15 she "reads" to herself every day, but no longer chews on them. I tend to redirect when I saw her chewing and when we read pop up or lift the flap books we tell her to be gentle with the book. We got a few indestructibles books during that phase and they were great.
clementine / 756 posts
I let him play with the board books. The actual paper books, he doesn't have access to unless one of us is reading to him. When we read him paper books, we generally give him a board book to play with so he isn't tempted to try to tear the pages of the book we're reading.
wonderful kiwi / 23653 posts
Hopefully the phase pass soon? Or keep the really nice books out of reach? DD never had the urge to chew on them!
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