Breast-Feeding Doll Too Real for Comfort?
A Toy That Mimics Breast-Feeding on Girls' Chests Is Causing an Uproar
By LAUREN COX
ABC News Medical Unit
Aug. 7, 2009—
American girls own dolls that pee, dolls that suck on a bottle, dolls that burp or sit on a potty -- and all are accepted as appropriate by most adults.
But a new doll that breast-feeds has pitted expert against expert and mom against mom over whether this toy has gone too far. None can seem to agree if the Spanish-made Bebe Gloton doll is natural, useful or disgusting.
The doll, sold in Spain, allows children to imitate the act of breast-feeding by using a special halter top that comes with the toy. The halter top is made from a colorful material with two flowers positioned where nipples would be.
When the mouth of the doll is brought close to a sensor embedded in the flower, the baby makes motions and sounds consistent with suckling.
The company that makes the doll, Berjuan, was unavailable to comment. But a viral video demonstration on YouTube has been met with remarks that the doll is over-sexualizing young girls, or forcing girls to grow up too quickly, or teaching young girls about a natural part of motherhood.
"I heard people talking about it but, honestly, I thought it was a joke," said Ilina Ewen, a writer for the Deep South Moms and her own blog Dirt and Noise.
"There are just things that I think kids are too little to understand," she said.
Ewen worried that if her two boys, ages 4 and 6, saw the toy, they would be confused because neither had been breast-fed.
Yet Ewen admits she has seen many young girls mimic the behavior after watching their mothers nurse their infant siblings.
"They don't understand they just see other moms doing that. Let kids use their imagination and play with a doll and not deal with what it can do," Ewen said. "There's no need to turn it into something that's anatomically correct. Not at this age."
But other mothers see this as a perfectly normal toy not worthy of such controversy.
Why Does Breast-Feeding Doll Breed Controversy?
"I can't believe what upsets people," said Jessica Gottlieb, a mommy blogger and mother of a "school age" boy and girl.
Gottlieb has seen her own daughter mimic breast-feeding after watching her nurse her infant son. She thinks all the talk about how the doll sexualizes children says a lot about society.
"That they [critics] would jump from a breast-feeding doll ... that you would take a child feeding and would automatically sexualize it says more about you then the doll," she said. "It's a doll. If you don't like it, don't buy it."
Even pediatricians, child development and toy experts can't agree on whether the nod to support breast-feeding in the Bebe Gloton (loosely translated as baby glutton) would be healthy for young girls.
"My take is that anything which reminds young girls that their bodies are something other, and more, than sex objects, is a very good thing," said Dr. Ronald Cohen, medical director of the Mothers' Milk Bank in San Jose, Calif.
"On the other hand, encouraging young girls to want to have babies at a very young age may not be so great," said Cohen, who is also the director of the intermediate intensive care nursery at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford University.
But mom-blogger Carrie Lauth doesn't see a difference between encouraging adult play with a toy stroller or toy bottle and encouraging adult play with a breast-feeding doll.
"It's definitely something I would consider buying for my daughters because I've purchased in the past items that mimic what I do, like little baby slings for their dolls," said Lauth, a writer for Natural Moms Talk Radio.
"I think it's a fantastic idea, I don't' understand why it's a controversy," she said.
That line -- where playing parent meets the reality of parenting -- seems different for each expert too.
Psychologist Jay Reeve, CEO of the Apalachee Center in Tallahassee, Fla., said Bebe Gloton's realism goes too far.
What Psychologists Think of the Breast-Feeding Doll
"Of course, children have played 'parent' with dolls for centuries, but this new twist seems to focus not on what babies are like as much as jumpstarting a focus on breast-feeding," Reeve said. "I'm always a little disturbed by toys, games, or products that have the impact of accelerating childhood identification with being a full-blown adult."
Yet toy expert, professor and author Diane Levin, said the problem with Bebe Gloton isn't the breast-feeding. Levin has a problem with any toy that limits the play to a single activity.
"It's not good for children to have everything structured for them," said Levin, co-author of "So Sexy So Soon: The New Sexualized Childhood and What Parents Can Do to Protect Their Kids."
Levin has witnessed girls pretending to breast-feed dolls -- especially after seeing their mothers nurse siblings -- and thought it perfectly natural. But she said play, including boys playing soldiers, needs to be spontaneous and initiated by the child.
"As kids get used to instructive toys, they need more structured toys," Levin said. "We take the creativity away."
Copyright © 2009 ABC News Internet Ventures
I forgot the link: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Parenting/story?id=8271555&page=1
I keep seeing and hearing about this and honestly can't figure out what the fuss is all about. My DD sometimes nurses her dolls and I'm proud of that. Normalizing breastfeeding is important.
I think it's a great idea.
Personally, I would never buy it. 'Cause honestly, my kid can nurse her own dolls. But some parents do like to buy their children these dolls that do everything just like real babies... So why not ones that nurse too?
Interesting that we never see anything in the mainstream media about bottlefeeding dolls, which are very common and normalize formula feeding.
"There are just things that I think kids are too little to understand," she said.
Really, what is there to understanding breastfeeding. Kids with younger siblings are exposed to it every day. Kids who go on trips to farms, zoos's, or have pets with babies, are exposed to it...its natural, and I don't see this as any kind of corruption.
"On the other hand, encouraging young girls to want to have babies at a very young age may not be so great," said Cohen, who is also the director of the intermediate intensive care nursery at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford University."
How does this doll promote having babies at a young age, any more than a doll that dosn't brestfeed? Dolls drink bottles, come with strollers, and cry as well....does that also promote having babies at a young age? This statement is silly.
I probably wouldn't by the doll, because it sounds expensive.....but I dont see any problem with it.
wow... i remember when i wanted a pregnant barbie doll when i was like 5 and couldn't have one... i made my mom buy one for me when i was 18 haha. While I was pregnant, it sat on my dresser :-)
as for breastfeeding dolls, people were disgusted when i told them my friend's breastfeeding toddler breastfed her dolls. I do not get how it's ok for kids to play with barbies with mini skirts and tube tops-- and that's not sexualizing our kids-- but breastfeeding ohhhh no.
I think dolls that pee and suck regardless of what it is on are ridiculous. I think it so much better for kids just to have a regular doll and use their imagination.
Maybe if more children plated with dolls who nurse rather than feed them a bottle, more women would grow up wanting to nurse their children because they would feel it's more "normal"
Exactly! People need to be exposed to breastfeeding as children, so that breastfeeding would be more accepted. It is so sad that breasts are so sexualized that it's alright for me to wear something that shows a ton of cleavage and it's fine, but when I'm feeding my baby in public, it makes people feel weird/nervous/etc...
I honestly think that the breastfeeding doll is a great thing that would be very beneficial, especially here in the United States, where it seems like formula is becoming more and more of the social norm.
Playing with a breastfeeding doll does not promote little girls to want to have babies at a young age any sooner than any of the other baby dolls that little girls already play with. That's just ridiculous.
But yeah, give your little girls a doll in a mini skirt with unrealistic measurements to play with so that she grows up with a bad self body image, eating disorders and thinks that the only thing that she can hope to grow up to be is a sex symbol and marry a "Ken".
It really is amazing how backwards society and the media can be sometimes.
I agree with charlie. I dont see the point of a doll that does anything. I think children will use their imagination to play and thats the best route.
I don't agree it is bad for children at all though.
Regardless of whether you think dolls that feed/pee/cry/whatever are pointless (and I do agree with you on that), I think there's a bigger issue at play. The fact is is that bottle-feeding dolls *do* exist and are pretty much universally accepted. With those dolls seen as "normal," it's somewhat alarming that a breastfeeding would be seen as abnormal, inappropriate, or even "disgusting," as the article says. It seems really revealing to me that so much of the response to this doll is that it's somehow "over-sexualizing young girls." It's like, even though breastfeeding has been validated by scientific research as being a positive thing and it's become at least somewhat taboo to speak badly of breast feeding outright, those remarks, and the equating of nursing with a sexual act, become somehow acceptable when directed at this doll. I think that what we see in response to this doll reflects the undertones of our societies response to breastfeeding in general.
ugh society, and all of its ideas on what is normal, sucks.
Breasts and breastfeeding are way oversexualized in our culture. Women should be able to walk around in the summer with their tops off, just as men do.