I had one of my most cherished and proud parenting moments at the cottage recently when Lucy spontaneously lifted up her shirt and pretended to breastfeed her dolls.

(OK, so she used her bellybutton. But the premise was there.)

It’s always bothered me a bit that so many baby dolls come laden with bottles and pacifiers. I suppose it’s hard to package a boob in a box, but I often wondered if it was sending a one-sided message to kids (mostly girls) about feeding options for babies.

I guess this Spanish company thought the same thing, because check this out: Bebe Gloton (Gluttonous Baby)

From The Consumerist:

“A Spanish toy company has a new doll out that allows girls to play-breastfeed. Girls put on a special halter top with daisies over their nipples and draw the doll in when it cries. When the doll’s lips press against the girl’s pink daisies, the baby makes little suckling sounds.

Shockingly, not everyone in the media can appreciate the hilarity of Bebe Gloton. Manny Alvarez, the health editor at FoxNews.com, claims the doll will speed up maternal urges and contribute to unwanted pregnancies:

“Pregnancy has to entail maturity and understanding,” Alvarez said. “It’s like introducing sex education in first grade instead of seventh or eighth grade. Or, it could inadvertently lead little girls to become traumatized. You never know the effects this could have until she’s older.”

Unlike the thousands of dolls that come with little milk bottles.”

Lucy was very interested in breastfeeding, especially at the beginning. She wanted to know where the milk came from, how Alice got it, what it looked like, what it tasted like (she had a few drops off my fingertips, pronounced it “YUK-ee!” and that was the end of that) etc.  She dubbed it “Mumma Milk” and told everyone that’s what SHE drank, too.

But we also taught her that sometimes women can’t breastfeed, or choose not to, so formula works as well. We had Alice on one bottle of it a day from an early age, and she now drinks it exclusively since we’re done breastfeeding.

Hopefully we’ve shown our girls the best of both options.

Possibly related posts:

1. Product review: Good to the planet (and baby!) bottles
2. Safe sippys and bottles in all the right places
3. The secret about my boobs
4. Baby care instructions
5. When boobs go bad, there’s help to be found