‘Breast Milk Baby’ Raises Eyebrows Among Parents

Appropriate or just plain gross?

First they could cry, then they could wet and now baby dolls can breast-feed, or at least imitate it.

What is called the ?Breast Milk Baby? is raising eyebrows and will soon be showing up on store shelves across the country. Not all parents, however, will be welcoming the doll into their kids? arms.

Some parents say the three-to-six year old girls who play with baby dolls are much too young to understand what breast-feeding even is.

Others argue the new doll is the perfect tool for teaching little girls how to become nurturing mothers.

Some say kids already grow up much too fast, but like it or not, the buzz surrounding the Breast Milk Baby is growing even faster.

?Most of the time when we see dolls we see them with bottles and so I was like, ?Wow, someone came out with a breastfeeding doll,?? Amy Brown, a lactation counselor, said.

Brown says she was shocked when she first saw the doll — but not because of what the doll does. Instead, Brown said, quite the opposite. She is impressed with the educational tool she feels it will be for little girls.

?This breast-feeding doll I think is a really exciting new toy to help little girls learn what is the norm for how we should be feeding our babies,? Brown said.

But other mothers argue this doll pushes the limits too far and said methods showing how to feed a baby should not be imposed on girls who are just beyond baby years themselves.

?Kids just need to be kids. They don?t need to be rushed into being a mommy,? another woman said. She said that if her young daughter asked for the doll, she would not buy it for her.

The company video shows a 6-year-old girl wearing part of a halter-top that covers her chest. She is seen attaching the baby doll?s open mouth to a magnetic flower in place of a nipple… and voila! ? the doll makes a sucking noise, imitating breast-feeding. The doll also cries and burps, like a real infant.

?Little girls do that anyway (when playing with dolls) so they don?t need kinda like the fake little boob thing they put on,? another woman said.

Mariana Villalobos said she breast-feeds her 1-year-old son, Javier, and says she is hopeful this doll will help change the standard.

?I think it?s great, I think it?ll help make breast-feeding normal,? Villalobos said. ?I don?t think a mother would normally explain to a daughter or a son what bottle feeding is, but perhaps a parent would explain what breast-feeding is because in this society they have to explain breast-feeding.?

The Breast Milk Baby is currently only sold in Europe and there is no scheduled release date for the U.S.

?That is part of growing up; learning and watching what your parents are doing, so yes, I do think it has a place,? Brown said.