Can “Breastfeeding” Dolls Encourage Natural Instincts in Little Girls?
As a chiropractor whose patients are the very young and the wonderfully “old,” I have seen chiropractic work for all ages. But, interestingly enough, I have seen less overall health issues in my young patients who were breastfed at least for the first six months of their lives and also in my female patients who breast their children! So, as you can imagine, I am a great proponent of breastfeeding! Therefore, when I read that there is a toy doll that is currently marketed in Europe under another name, but is making its way to the United States this spring under the name, “The Breast Milk Baby,” I saw the doll as having the potential to teach little girls that breastfeeding is natural.
My daughters grew up feeding their Tiny Tears dolls with tiny baby bottles filled with water. Although both of my daughters were breastfed as babies, the message may have been: feeding baby with a bottle is natural, or at least as natural as breastfeeding, which those of us in the health care profession have learned in the past twenty years or so, is not the case. That said, my own daughters bottle-fed their dolls, but breastfed their own children. Perhaps this was due to my influence (which, of course, I’d like to take credit for), but it may also have had to do with their own maternal inclinations.
Are toys really the messengers when it comes to what is likely an individual feminine instinct? Or, is it the demands of single-parenting or today’s requirement of two-parent incomes really the culprit? In recent years, more institutions, including the World Health Organization, have recommended breast over bottle, especially for the first six months. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP), despite more than 70 percent of women in the United States giving breastfeeding a try, only 43 percent of mothers kept it up for the first six months of their children’s lives, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The dolls come with a breastfeeding halter top that activates a suckling response from the doll when placed in contact with the chest area. They also emit a cry when they need to be burped. So far, opinions on the dolls are mixed, namely over whether playing with the doll sexualizes young girls or encourages them to pursue motherhood above other aspirations later in life.
I, for one, don’t know if this addition to the already “near-human” characteristics of today’s toy babies will influence tomorrow’s mothers. There are many demands on mothers of today and there will likely be even more in the future.
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