Perhaps it's that Bebe Gloton comes with a tank top with colorful daisies in the place of nipples that kids can wear so the doll can suckle (ugh), or the weird noises it makes while doing so.
Reaction to the doll is mixed because, although some mothers find it understandably creepy, others say it is a wonderful toy that promotes breast-feeding. The idea is that girls are going to imitate their mothers anyway, so may as well give them a hot pink halter top and a baby to feed. (Kinda disturbing video is after the jump.)
Our take? Any toy that requires batteries or makes loud noises, especially the sound of babies crying, is totally annoying, educational or not. And nipple daisies? Horrifying at any age.
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Sunday 09 August
By carol
how do you buy this bebe gloton doll can you buy it in ohio in zanesville how can we get it
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Monday 10 August
By mary matysek
I think they need to let little girls be just that, little girls. I find that breast feeding is a personal choice. But to make a doll like that I think that you have gone too far just to make a buck. It is time we stop and think about letting these children be just that children. I am against this idea. I will choose not to buy this for my granddaughters.
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Wednesday 19 August
By Sarah
Then do you also believe that giving a little girl a pretend bottle to feed her baby doll is "ruining her innocence"?
Wednesday 30 September
By beatrix
they are letting little girls be little girls, children imitate their parents. my 3 and a half year old started breastfeeding her doll. *shrugs* personally I wouldn't buy the doll because she can just play with her doll that way.
I don't see why we have to have all these expensive dolls do all these special things instead if just buying or creating accessories to enhance their playtime. The last thing my kid needs is another doll, she has 8.
Sunday 25 October
By chuchi
Please educate yourself, this doll was not made to make a buck it was design by a toymaker that make educational toys in collaboration with some organizations in Europe that promote breastfeeding connected with the UN and children who helped to design the doll. So please don't be so closed minded and read more
Monday 10 August
By Eve
I think its tasteful, it doesn't not offend me.
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Monday 10 August
By Shannon
Offended, no... creeped out, yes! Breastfeeding is awesome & I very much support it. I think this doll is just over the top. The daisy nipples, fake sounds, just the whole idea of it. Baby Alive gives me the willies too so this just adds to it. I'll always openly discuss breastfeeding with my daughter but I won't buy her this doll or any other eating, pooping, bodily function toy.
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Monday 10 August
By K
WOW, getting them ready for their only role in life, that of mother, early, eh? creepy. it's not enough to sexualize little girls young, better learn 'em about popping up babies ASAP!
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Tuesday 11 August
By Sara
Okay, the sound is off on my computer so I didn't hear the apparently creepy noises, but I have to note the irony in K's comment. It sounds like you're a feminist, so if so, why connect breastfeeding with the sexual? I have more than an inkling that this is why this is creepy.
There isn't any strong, cogent analysis here for why people have such a bad reaction to this vid. Instead, people just feel "grossed out." I personally find it more upsetting that breast and thus breastfeeding is sexualized, and so women feel ashamed to breastfeed in public. This is more disturbing to me than this new toy, which I think is only creepy when women's bodies are thought of as sexual, mainly. I think, K, that you may need to widen your scope of feminist analysis....
Wednesday 12 August
By Molly
Um Sarah,
K's point is "why do we need to be teaching young girls how to take care of newborns?" That's what she means by sexualizing. We are reinforcing the notion of young girls being able to take care of babies and last time I checked if you want to get a baby, you have to have sex.
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Thursday 13 August
By Stacy
What about the boys who want to play with this doll?
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Saturday 15 August
By dgss
I'm not particularly disturbed or enamored with this doll. As a young girl I always preferred rag dolls who were soft and squooshy and nice to sleep with to animatronic dolls.
I had a baby alive and I spent about two weeks feeding it the most disgusting combinations of thingss I could to see what it would poop. After I got it that it pooped exactly what you put in, I was no longer interested.
Frankly to me, this seems like a toy a mother would buy a daughter to explain breast feeding but that for a little girl would become entirely boring after about 20 minutes.
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Friday 21 August
By Linnia
The concept doesn't bother me, though as a parent, the crying would drive me bananas. I think that this is one of those toys that would "break" after a few days. (A fun, parent friendly way, to recycle dead batteries)
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Saturday 22 August
By Heather
I think it's fabulous. My neice and my daughter would love this. They always steal my nursing pillow, lift their shirts up, and pretend to breastfeed their dolls. Because of this imaginative play (that is just as "normal" (or more so) as giving their doll bottles) they will be more familiar and comfortable nursing their 1st child than I was.
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Sunday 23 August
By Chanda*
Amen Heather! I do not discourage my daughter either....I struggled with nursing my first two children as a young mother....but with my third was finally secure and confident enough that I was able to nurse with no problems....I hope my daughter (and daughters in law...lol) has a much easier time of it. Speaking of children....I whole heartedly believe that pretending to nurse is just as (if not more) natural and normal for children than pretending to bottle feed....what do we think children used to do in their pretend play hundreds of yrs ago when bottles were either very rare or non-existant???? As to the doll? yeah I think its a little odd just because we don't often see such things. But I think nursing is a very private personal issue...a woman should not feel guilt or embarassment while nursing anytime or anywhere...put personally when nursing my own I choose to be as private about it as my circumstances allow. Would I whip it out in the middle of a public subway? Probably only if I had a nice large blankie to give me privacy, and baby just really could not wait until we got to our destination. But that's just my personal preferance. No nursing mother should EVER be made to feel embarrassed or be outlawed about feeding her child in the most natural way there is.
Sunday 23 August
By Liza
This is sick , and taking the whole playing "dress-up with dolly " and having tea-parties with dolly (which I enjoyed as a child) WAY, WAY TOO FAR. There are no more boundaries, and the lines between what is appropriate and inappropriate to expose or teach our children is blurred. Teen pregnacies are already way too high in this country, and COSTING us. Toys such as these which target children, make the idea of having and caring for a baby so overtly literal and manage to associate this with simply playing, and having "fun". I don't get it, but am not surprised it's European.
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Sunday 23 August
By Lauren
Absolutely not! That video is horrifying. Little girls do not develop breasts until puberty for a reason. When an adult woman decides to have a child she then has the opportunity to research and learn about all the things she'll need to know and make a decision about if she wants to have a child naturally or if she wants to adopt. If she is unmarried then she also has the option of going to a sperm bank. Breast feeding is an individual choice one that a woman makes once the time has come based on how she feels. I've been told that you should be comfortable with yourself and who you are if you want to breast feed because it makes the whole experience that much easier. I have a daughter who is almost 5 years old and I am also 6 mos. pregnant. I plan to breast feed unless physically I am unable or the baby is unable. However I am concerned that my older daughter will try to mimic me and I worry about the questions she's going to ask. I plan to answer her questions as honestly as I can but I will not allow her to imitate me with her baby dolls. I just dont think it is appropriate.
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Tuesday 25 August
By sidonie debonnaire
young girls have an instinct to care for babies, dispite the fact that they dont have breasts etc. refusing to let her mimic you will send her the message that nursing is wrong and shamefull. it doesnt make girls more promiscuious or likely to have babies younger. the daisy nipples are weird and i was creeped out by the video and would not buy it for my daughter but breasts are more natural than bottles and its the sexualisation of breasts and the social taboo which makes the idea of little girls pretending to nurse fake babies with non existant breast so horrifying. i dont think it should be. it a normal part of growth as a girl, curiosity about motherhood...surely. boys pretend to kill people girls pretend to be mothers.
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Tuesday 25 August
By amy
why do so many people think of boobs as genitals?i mean really. but i can see why one might think its creepy, developed breasts are a sign of approaching physical and thereby reproductive maturity,so its a bit weird to be like oh hey creepy plastic thingy so you can practice even harder at not acting your age.but other than that ... it looks like something i would haveplayed with for a while till i got reeeealy good at having it not cry.then i would have been passed oveer for less annoying-noise-y toys
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Thursday 27 August
By Kathi
I am amazed at the number of people who are shocked at the very normal act of breastfeeding. I am also shocked that breasts are considered more a sexual object than a normal functional part of the female anatomy. The only purpose behind the breast after all is to produce milk. My daughter mimicks everything I do. She puts her babydolls to her breast and I have also purchased cloth babydoll diapers to she can stop using pampers micros. All these things are normal. Would you hide a poopy diaper? Is it wrong to let your child see where the pee comes from? What about dolls that drual? I am all for nursing moms and I hope more of them overcome that stigma that seems to be out there in the U.S. about nursing. In the end you have to make your own decisions and not sit on the fence. Why would a nursing mother hide that very beautiful natural act from her older child? Just what are we teaching our children? I am already looking for this doll for Christmas. I think it is fantastic. Though, yes, the sounds did sound a bit fake and noisy. I think that is due to the audio reproduction however.
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