Breast Milk Baby Doll Teaches Kids to Breast-Feed

Filed under: In The News, Weird But True, Toys

Are you one of these people who find yourself ever-so creeped out by the sight of a woman breast-feeding her baby in public?

Oh, you ain't see nothing yet.

Picture a 7-year-old girl -- or boy, for that matter -- strapping on little flowered falsies so a baby doll can suckle the imaginary breasts -- complete with slurping and gurgling sounds.

A lot of adults could do without that particular image.

However, the folks at Berjuan Toys in Spain think their new Breast Milk Baby is a dandy way to teach children how to breast-feed an infant. After all, you don't want to start second grade without mastering that skill.

"The Breast Milk Baby will revolutionize our nation's attitudes to good infant health, while letting little girls share in the wonder and magic of motherhood," company executives write on their website. "The Breast Milk Baby lets young girls express their love and affection in the most natural way possible, just like Mommy!"

For $99, kids get a very hungry doll and an apron-like top with painted flowers in lieu of nipples.


Not everyone likes this concept.

"Only a morally corrupt so-called parent would condone/justify this doll being sold and marketed for young girls who have yet to reach puberty and menstruation age," posts one reader in response to a story in the New York Daily News.

But one father tells "Good Morning America" he thinks the doll is a good idea.

"We'! ve got a nother baby due in June, and I think it's going to be a really neat way for our daughter Grace to identify and connect with Mom," J.C. Renners tells the news program. "It's an interesting concept."

Dennis Lewis, the U.S. spokesman for Berjuan Toys, tells the San Francisco Chronicle some people have even filed complaints on behalf of God. But he's not convinced God is all that miffed.

"About 20 percent of the messages have been hateful and mean," he tells the Chronicle. "We're being called perverts and pedophiles for promoting feeding our babies the way God intended? Churches all over the world are filled with images of Mary nursing baby Jesus, and yet we can't imagine letting our daughters learn how important breast-feeding is for our society?"

America clearly has a problem with breasts, he adds.

"As Americans we've been duped into believing there's something shameful and taboo about breast-feeding, but the truth is that this idea was created to sell more baby formula," he tells the Chronicle. "The Breast Milk Baby is a serious product, created by a small family-owned Christian toy manufacturer who strongly believes in the benefits of feeding babies the natural God-given way. Our dolls are beautiful and well made, and we're proud of them."

"We stand by our statement: Little girls need to learn to breast-feed."

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