July 29th, 2011
01:33 PM ET

'Breast Milk Baby' manufacturers to display toy at Las Vegas expo

Children no longer have to deny their dolls the benefits of breast milk.

A Spanish toy manufacturer will begin U.S. sales next week of a classic baby doll with a high-tech twist: the simulation of breast-feeding. Berjuan Toys will be at the ASD trade show in Las Vegas, which starts Monday, with hopes of meeting with retailers who might want to sell the Breast Milk Baby. Those who don't want to wait can buy one online.

HLN's Robin Meade and Jennifer Westhoven couldn't agree on how they felt about the toy.

The doll, which comes in six different combinations of race and gender, comes with a cropped shirt that makes possible a toned-down version of nursing. In the news release on Berjuan's site, the company explains how the toy works.

"The Breast Milk Baby simulates the breast-feeding process by including a fashionable halter-top that a young girl can put on like a vest, and when she brings the Breast Milk Baby doll’s mouth up to the pretty flower decoration on the vest, the doll makes a soft, suckling sound," the announcement says. "The two flowers on the halter are positioned where the nipples would be, and when the mouth of the doll is brought close to the embedded sensors in the flower, the baby makes motions and suckling sounds."

Berjuan's announcement acknowledges the mixed responses that have been aimed at the Breast Milk Baby.

"Some critics say that the doll [is] over-sexualizing young girls or forcing girls to grow up too quickly, but the company and those in support of the doll say that it teaches young girls natural motherhood," the news release says.

No word yet on what this will do to the market for imaginary baby formula, nor on what the proper etiquette is for breast-feeding one's doll in public.

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Filed under: U.S.
soundoff (52 Responses)
  1. Cesar

    @Blahbie: I'm your daddy.

    July 30, 2011 at 9:17 pm | Report abuse |
  2. joe

    cool. most are viewing this so harshly...what about bratz dolls or the tons of other unnecessary products? i say bring it on and stop reinforcing the use of bottles....yes, even toys do that because impressionable minds play with them...duh

    August 1, 2011 at 11:09 am | Report abuse |
  3. Sheila

    Wake up America! Breastfeeding is "normal" bottle feeding is not. Why do you think we have so much obesity, diabetes and cancer in our country? "Formula" sounds so high tech when in fact it is killing us. If you ban the breastmilk baby doll ban the bottle fed baby doll. Formula is dead. It has no living organism's that babies and children need for optimum health and development. No matter how much they advertise "closest to breastmilk" it can never even come close. I praise the creators of this new breastmilk baby. The only people who oppose this are ignorant about breastmilk. The women who oppose it are the ones who have been made to feel inadequite about their ability to care for their own children. Women take the best of care during pregnancy so their baby will be healthy. Why then do they give their precious newborns anything other than breastmilk. They trust who knows what in a can over the perfect food our body makes.. Will we someday start growing our fetus outside our bodies because we can't trust our body to nourish the baby growing inside us? Programs like WIC provide formula free for mom's who won't breastfeed yet they "promote breastfeeding." This is a farce. Just like formula companies who say closest to breastmilk. Stop the madness, stop formula companies and the WIC Program from keeping women down and allowing our country to continue on the downward spiral of disease. I say put one of these new dolls in every home. Maybe it will even educate the adults. Get real USA.

    August 22, 2011 at 1:04 pm | Report abuse |
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