Ban the Doll Bottles: Today I Taught My Daughters To Nurse.

While baking with my youngest daughter (almost 3) the other day, I made a startling discovery.  We were mixing milk powder into the batter and she said "that's what you used to put in my bottle when I was a baby, right?"  My jaw dropped.  She was never formula-fed. Where did she get this idea from?

I breastfed all my babies, and when I nursed my youngest, my middle child nursed her doll too.  I loved it.  But that was then, and now that all my babies are weaned and growing up, I discovered that my two daughters no longer remember how they were fed.  Most of their dolls come with baby bottles, and while I am not condemning bottle feeding, I discovered that my daughters now thought that babies were fed by bottles, not breasts.  After thinking about it for a little while I realized I don't have any close friends who breastfeed anymore so they haven't seen it since I nursed them years ago.

I love these MamAmor Dolls that nurse their babies.

I gathered my daughters close in my chair with me, reached for the computer and showed them pictures of breastfeeding women.  I pointed, explained, pointed to myself and to them.  I talked about our goat and baby goats.  They got it.  Now I see them happily breastfeeding their dolls again.  Could those plastic dolls that come with plastic doll bottles affect the way girls mother later in life?  Who knows?  Maybe banning the doll bottles will give girls the understanding they need to, once they are mothers, nurse their babies.

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