The Breast Milk Baby Nursed on Today

Kathie Lee and Andy Samberg with The Breast Milk Baby (video clips below)

This morning on Today, Kathie Lee pulled out the controversial petaled top and nursed her Breast Milk Baby on air, highlighting to viewers the innocent manner in which this breastfeeding doll works. While her co-host, Hoda, came at the subject with less admiration (using the world "weird" more than once), Kathie Lee made a number of clear and valid points in favor of children's normal mothering play - part of which involves the natural feeding of human babies. She says:

Nursing your child is the most natural thing in the world. Men don't believe it, but that really is the reason God gave women breasts - it is for the nurturing of your children.

[As for the dolls:] It's play. I've been to Europe a lot. And in Europe they have a very different attitude toward breastfeeding. They whip 'em out anywhere they are to feed their children, and I think that's a healthy thing. Here, you can grab a woman's breast or booty anywhere, but heaven forbid the mother try to feed her child. I think we really have things kind of screwed up.

I don't think there is anything wrong with teaching your child how to nurture a baby someday.

What's the difference between [this and] playing with a Barbie who is fully 'matured' if you know what I mean...?

At first, when Bebé Glotón was released (2009) and some lactiphobic persons were in an uproar about the doll, I found it slightly peculiar, albeit laughable. Were people really this offended by a doll that mimics the normal feeding of a human baby - an act that is entirely beautiful, basic, and deserving of celebration and seeing, even by other 'babies' themselves? But this year, when the U.S. market version of the doll - The Breast Milk Baby - hit store shelves, we saw an even more frightening backlash against the suckling little doll. Maybe it is in part because we are so incredibly nipplephobic in this nation, while at the same time being extremely erotophobic, sexist, degrading - even of women by women [see: Female Chauvinist Pigs], all the while grossly confusing the nurturing, vital (for health and normal development) act of feeding our young vs. using (or abusing) the female breasts for non-essential means. (1) Really, the outcry surrounding The Breast Milk Baby mirrors a deep societal ill - one that reflects and impacts the psychological wellness of our adult population. The doll itself, however, does not phase or negatively impact our children.

Would I spend $100 on The Breast Milk Baby? No, probably not. My two year old nurses his (yes, his) babies just fine via imaginative play without the fancy petals, moving mouth, overly-hungry-cries, or hefty price tag. But, if someone gave my child the baby as a gift would I be put off and scared about what it may do to his developing psyche? Absolutely not. In fact, the more breastfeeding - of both real human babies and toy dolls - that children see, the better off they will be.

What other species would possibly negate and criminalize the normal feeding of their own young? What other mammal (defined as such due to our need of mother's milk) would ridicule children's play that imitates the most tender, most vital, most mothering act there is? By doing so, we are, in essence, committing species suicide - killing off our own, through the slow, painful death of degeneration, disattachment, and illness (acute and chronic), generation upon generation. (2, 3, 4) If our children cannot break free from this absurd state of lactiphobic, disattached parenting, their own youth are in for even bigger problems. When breastmilk and nursing are no longer at the center of the mother-baby relationship, all else built upon that crucial time in life is constructed on unsteady ground. (5, 6, 7)

So, kudos to you, Kathie Lee. For standing up in defense of play that imitates something many gently parented little ones the world over dearly love and need: the feeding of babies close to our heart.

Related Reading:

Bebé Glotón: The Breastfeeding Doll

Bye-Bye Baby: Bebé Glotón SOLD OUT Worldwide

**Win a Free Breast Milk Baby** (May Contest)

Nursing a Costco Receipt

Breastfeeding Resource Page (books, websites, articles)

Notes:

1) Levy, Ariel, (2006). Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture.

2) Gerhardt, Sue, (2004). Why Love Matters: How Affection Shapes a Baby's Brain.

3) Heller, Sharon, (1997). The Vital Touch: How Intimate Contact With Your Baby Leads To Happier, Healthier Development.

4) Palmer, Linda, (2009). The Baby Bond: The New Science Behind What's Really Important When Caring for Your Baby.

5) Small, Meredith, (1999). Our Babies, Ourselves: How Biology and Culture Shape the Way We Parent.

6) Grille, Robin, (2006). Parenting for a Peaceful World.

7) Liedloff, Jean. (1986). The Continuum Concept: In Search Of Happiness Lost.