While bum jokes have been around forever – I’m looking at you, Chaucer – the poo emoji has a lot to answer for. Her view is echoed by seven-year-old Iris, who sensibly points out that: “The poop looks rainbow and poop never actually looks rainbow. My kids have poo emoji toys at home”, says Gavin Oattes, co-author, with Andy Cope, of Brill Kid – The Big Number 2, a new book that helps kids become confident.

Christmas gifts 2021: Poo-inspired toys are everywhere, but

With more than 900,000 children in the UK affected by continence difficulties, there’s plenty to discuss. I don’t see the play value in it at all, and I can imagine them ending up straight in landfill on Boxing Day,” she says. In recent years we’ve seen instant messaging and smartphones fuelling the presence and visibility of the poo emoji which itself generated an upsurge in poo-related products.There was laughing, screaming, lots of hands over faces – I was breaking all the rules of polite conversation and what they expected from a ‘respectable’ grown-up and they loved it – but also realised just how gross it is. Ochota is an ambassador for Toilet Twinning, a charity that enables families living in poverty to build lifesaving loos. Born in 2010 and voiced, in 2017’s Emoji Movie by Sir Patrick Stewart, poo has gone from being utterly unmentionable to pulling up a (loo) seat alongside letters of the alphabet. Lindsay Meyer-Nicholas, owner of the independent Toyville in Bristol, tells me that while she doesn’t have anything against poo-based games and toys, “especially if they have an educational angle”, she does not sell Lil Live Pets’ Gotta Go range.

Poop Toys - Temu Poop Toys - Temu

There’s something disturbing about this,” says Deirdre, a mother of two, when I ask what she thinks of a unicorn that excretes jelly beans. But he might not get as much of a thrill from it as some other kids, because his mum talks about poo all the time! Let them play with toys and games if that helps them to talk about poo and feel more comfortable,” says Lynden.And while I still can’t say I’m ever so keen on wrapping up a Shoot The Poop game on Christmas Eve, as five-year-old Edmund told me: “Fart Ninjas are funny because farting is funny. Anthropologist, broadcaster and mother Mary-Ann Ochota suggests that the rise of poo based toys this year might be, “because we’re all looking for a bit of safe transgression in an otherwise terrifyingly topsy-turvy world?

Poo Stress Relief Ball Fake Poop - Novelty Gifton - Stretchy Poo Stress Relief Ball Fake Poop - Novelty

When it comes to kids, however hard we try to give gifts of magic and wonder, it usually ends up being more of the same old crap. David Westman, The Entertainer’s spokesman, tells me that “toilet humour is no flash in the pan and has always been a cornerstone of the toy business, starting with products like fake dog poo.