Born Ready Jenn: I Am A Scientist.

Unofficial Summary Of The Last 8 Years

Four kids in six years, all raised as nappy free babies. Slings and swings and wees on trees. Sewing, school runs and starting a business. Factories, fortitude and fabulous Flaparaps! Inspiring pottying parents around the planet. Too much time spent coding while co-sleeping, day dreaming while night-nursing and mentally writing a million more blog posts that actually came to pass.

Jump to: Official Bio | Career | Born Ready | Classes and Talks | Flaparaps | In The Media | Constipation | Parenting | Viral Video | Connect with Jenn

Born Ready Jenn: Official Bio

Baby-Led and Toddler Potty Training Expert

Jenn Philpott is the mother of four children (born 2007,09,11,13), all raised on sound principles that don't quite conform to the cultural norm. She educates parents on the benefits and practicalities of relying less on nappies and more on human evolution to manage their babies' bottoms.

She firmly believes that parents do have some control over when their toddlers are 'ready' to potty train, and is happy to explain why - with insight, empathy and good humour.

Jenn welcomes enquiries from journalists and bloggers seeking an interview or expert opinion. (Connect with Jenn.)

Career

Jenn has a scientific background and a PhD in BioInformatics. She worked as a marine sciences lab technician (both on land and at sea) at the University of California, a genome lab software developer back in England, and then an IT constultant in the finance industry, before taking maternity leave in 2007.

When her first daughter was 10 months old, she returned to work 3 days a week in The City. She quit to become a full time mother when her second daughter was born, and didn't think about working again until her 4th child was walking.

Born Ready

Although she researched cloth nappying options extensively before starting a family, she never considered not using nappies at all! When she discovered baby-led pottying (aka elimination communication / ec / natural infant hygiene / blpt) she felt she'd stumbled into something that ought to be on every parent's list of choices rather than a well kept secret.

In 2008 she started advising other parents through online forums and in 2010 launched the Born Ready website. Eight years in the pottying community is long enough for her to have seen members of her groups potty one, two and even three of their babies from birth through to fully potty trained! (And know that she encouraged them through all the inevitable ups and downs along the way...)

"I met Jenn when I was just starting out on my baby-led potty training journey almost 8 years ago. Since then she has continually offered me advice and support when I needed it, and was invaluable when I wrote Nappy Free Baby. Thanks Jenn for your generosity and practical common sense!"
Amber Hatch, Author of Nappy Free Baby, 2016

Mainstream Appeal, Unconventional Ideas

Jenn's down-to-earth style appeals to parents who don't identify with the 'crunchy' image of eco-parenting, but are attracted by the logic of evolution.

And rightly so! For this is a technique that's open to everyone, whatever kind of nappies they use or parenting style they choose - and Jenn has experienced many different perspectives first hand.

Jenn has used cloth nappies and disposables. She's been a working mum and a stay at home mum. She put two potty using babies in a local nursery, and then kept two at home all to herself! She worked long but regular hours in the City while employed and breast fed at the laptop in the dead of night while starting her own business.

She started out with fairly mainstream parenting ideas and can recall exactly how those ideas changed as she researched other influences. She remembers being a first time parent, and can look back on her own concerns with the experience of a mother of four.

She therefore connects with all sorts of parents and appreciates that everyone prioritises different aspects of parenting. She understands that different families make different choices for very valid reasons, and the same family can change their approach many times as their circumstances change.

Classes, Consulting and Public Speaking

Jenn has been advising parents on baby potting via internet forums and social media since 2008. She's run pottying workshops and classes, both in person and online since 2014. She regularly teaches Continueing Professional Development (CPD) classes in potty training and baby-led pottying for the Home Affairs Training Academy in central London, educating child care professionals and nursery nurses.

She is an entertaining and engaging speaker, able to inspire audiences to think differently - whether the topic is nappies, potty training, parenting or online business.

Babies are SO clever. They understand their bodies and can communicate with us about things we never dreamt. Going 'nappy-free' from birth is a natural extension of baby-led parenting but it can sound wacky - or just unrealistic - until you have it explained to you. Born Ready gives you all the information you need but if you're lucky enough to hear Jenn talk in person, you will be in no doubt that her approach is entirely possible and a great idea.
Dr Gill Rapley, health visitor and midwife, author of the best-selling book Baby-led Weaning, researcher.

Jenn’s encyclopaedic knowledge of the philosophies and developmental processes around infant hygiene and her passion for the subject combine with her enthusiastic and dynamic teaching style to make her courses unforgettable.
Renata Kasperkiewicz, Founder of The Home Affairs Training Academy.

Jenn consulted with Creative Homes to enhance their approach to creative toilet training: The Toilet Sailor Experience (read more):

Jenn’s expertise and practical knowledge around toilet training was invaluable to further developing our creative approach to toilet training. Jenn is clearly very passionate about the subject and has a great energy for the work that she does. Consulting with her has introduced us to new ideas around toilet training that have proved to be very effective within our own practice.
Helen Maier, Creator of The Toilet Sailor Experience, Creative Homes

Flaparaps - The Perfect Backup Nappies

Jenn designed Flaparaps - the drop-flappy nappies that are perfect for baby-led potty training - as a way to make her own life easier. In 2015 she teamed up with a British factory to provide Flapraps to the international pottying community. Starting from scratch, she was able to put quality and ethics at the centre of her manufacturing decisions and is extremely proud of what she's achieved.

22 Countries And Counting!

A year later she had sold Flaparaps to pottying parents in 22 countries on 6 continents: UK (England, Scotland, Wales), Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Japan, Hong Kong, Thailand, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, United States, Mexico and Chile.

'We LOVE our Flaparaps!', 'Best nappies I ever tried!', 'These save my sanity!', 'Flaparaps are the future!', 'Flaparaps are truly a marvellous invention.' 'have changed in the park/ beach/ home/ easily on my lap in a public toilet without a changing table. Also at night it's very easy to silently change out a pad' 'SO much easier to potty!' 'Surpassed my expectations!'
Amazon Five Star Reviews (read more from Amazon and more from Born Ready.)

Shortlisted in Voom 2016 #pitchtorich

In May 2016 Jenn entered Flaparaps into Richard Branson's Voom competition. She qualified for the shortlist and gave a 3 minute pitch as part of the World Record breaking pitchathon. Watch her pitch to the judges here but start with her entry pitch below.

In The Media

Featured in the business section of the Romford Recorder, 26-Apr-2016: Upminster mother exports self-designed Flaparap nappies to 22 countries.

Interviewed on The Dan Lassman Show on Time 107.5fm, 7-May-2016. Listen to a clip below:

Interviewed on BBC Hereford and Worcester on Malcolm Boyden's radio show om 10th June 2016. Malcom's listeners all remember getting their own kids on the potty at a few months old and don't like This Modern Advice to delay potty training, so we get a very positive response. He plays the Katherine Ryan clip from when she nominated nappies for Room 101 and also an interview with his producer Kalpana. Kalpana talks about her son, Miles, who uses Jenn's Chest Slap Potty Sign at 11 months old. Pretty good going!
Part 1:
Part 2:

Provided an expert perspective for The Sun newspaper 13-Sep-2016: Kids go commando as nappyless trend bids to solve toilet troubles and save families cash.

Provided an expert perspective for The Daily Mail newspaper 14-Dec-2016: The mothers who potty-train babies from BIRTH: Believe it or not, it's the new parenting fad. Experts say it's risky, but these proud mums insist it's good for baby - and the planet.

Interviewed for Woman's Own magazine about baby pottying when my youngest was 2 weeks old. (Print publication only.)

Popular Posts Beyond Pottying

Constipation

Jenn's articles explaining chronic constipation in young children have been welcomed by parents and childcare professionals alike.

Poo isn't something we readily talk about, even within the family. Yet constipation can be a real problem for many children - and their parents. Jenn's straightforward and commonsense explanation of why constipation happens, how to spot it, and what to do about it taught me stuff I didn't know, even after years of working in family and community health. If you have a child, you would do well to check it out.
Dr Gill Rapley, health visitor and midwife, author of the best-selling book Baby-led Weaning, researcher.

This is a really excellent blog. As a children's nurse myself, I understand the problems associated with constipation. This is a well written and well-informed, evidence-based piece that I wish was available to all parents as it addresses such an important topic.
Rebecca Mottram, Children's nurse.

Parenting

Jenn's post listing 5 tips to gain a toddlers' cooperation is a firm favourite among those who take her workshops - and will give you a glimpse of life in the Born Ready household.

"One of the most helpful blog posts you wrote was how to have a harmonious household with toddlers: we have consistently applied the idea about how to encourage them to relinquish objects!"
Vibrant Kate, writer and mother of one. (More reviews.)

The Info-Cartoon

Jenn's one-minute-long cartoon showing how using a potty is as easy as changing a nappy racked up 32,000 views on facebook in less than a week.

I caught one! I caught one! Actually I caught a wee and a poo so two!!! I've been talking to hubby about ec for months and he was very dismissive of the whole idea. I showed him the cartoon yesterday and he did his usual rolling of eyes.

This morning baby started farting so I said shall we try. He laughed a little as I went through to the bathroom, where the second I sat baby on the toddler seat he peed! Baby started wriggling so I held him over the toilet and heard a splash just as hubby came to see what the commotion was!

Amazed and impressed hubby (especially when I got him to do the bum wipe and it was so clean!) excited mummy, and confused but loving the attention 7 month old.
Gillian Nowill, very excited mother of one.

(See more reactions from pottying parents.)

Connect With Jenn

Email: jenn@bornready.uk

Phone: Jenn says "Introduce yourself via facebook message and it will come straight to my phone. Or better still, contact me via email. I'm happy to chat, but I'm frequently focussed on keeping small children out of roads, so conversation isn't always practical!"

Facebook: Jenn runs pages for Born Ready and Flaparaps and a baby-led pottying support group.

Twitter: Isn't her strong point, but if it's yours then go for it. @bornreadyjenn