Doll is like all the others... but needs to be breast-fed

We’ve got dolls that wet, crawl, and talk.

We’ve got dolls with perfect hourglass figures. We’ve got dolls with swagger. And we’ve got plenty that come with little baby-bottles.

But it’s a breastfeeding doll whose suckling sounds are prompted by sensors sewn into a halter top its little girl owner wears that caught some flak after hitting the US market.

Dennis Lewis, is the US representative for Berjuan Toys, a family-owned, 40-year-old doll maker in Spain which has introduced the dolls to the US.

The dolls look like most others — until children don the little top with petal appliques at the nipples. That’s where the sensors are located, setting off the suckling noise when the doll’s mouth makes contact. It also burps and cries, but those sounds don’t require contact at the breast.

Little Savannah and Tony, Cameron and Jessica, Lilyang, and Jeremiah aren’t cheap at $89 (€70) a go. But Lewis now has them listed at half price on its website in time for Christmas.

“With retailers it’s been hard, to be perfectly honest, but not so much because they’ve been against the products,” he said. “It’s more they’ve been very wary of the controversy. It’s a product that you either love it or you hate it.”

Critics cite an unspecified yuck factor, or say it’s too mature for children.

However, one expert loves it. Stevanne Auerbach, a child development expert in San Francisco, also known as Dr Toy, evaluates dolls and other toys for consumers — and has lent official approval to Breast Milk Baby.

“We’ve had a lot of support from lots of breastfeeding organisations, lots of mothers, lots of educators,” said Lewis.

“There also has been a lot of blowback from people who maybe haven’t stopped to think about really why the doll is there and what its purpose is.

“Usually they are people that either have problems with breastfeeding in general, or they see it as something sexual. Breastfeeding in Europe is acceptable and the doll has been successful there.”

Lewis considers Breast Milk Baby “very much less sexualised” than Barbie dolls or the sassy Bratz pack.

* www.thebreastmilkbaby.com