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Wednesday, January 4, 2012

What Happens When Children See Breastfeeding?


They learn that it is normal, natural, and beautiful.



Me! Coping my Mom!





My Niece Emma Copying Me!
Barbie Breastfeeding Baby Doll
Breastfeeding his plush doll.
Breastfeeding his Doll!
They learn to feed babies.
Desiree's Kylee 18 Months Old
  



Code Name: Mama's son Kieran.






















They learn how Babies are fed!






31 comments:

  1. I love this was having a conversation with my sister abou thtis the other day and she thought it would be weird if a kid breastfed their baby doll. I said it would be weirder if a breastfed baby bottle fed their doll. I just found your blog yesterday thanks for this post it really made me smile

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  2. I love this. My kids have often sat and nursed some of their dolls, and stuffed animals. These pictures are just precious!

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  3. These pictures are so precious! Its just the sweetest thing to see a child breastfeeding their doll :)

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  4. Thank you I was trying to head off any possible negative reaction from the Sesame Street post! #BFBack2SesameSt

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  5. My DD is just 15mo ... I hope she nurses her dolls when she starts to play with them more! These pics are just adorable!

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    1. Thank you! I love to watch them play and mimic what they see! Especially when its so loving!

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  6. Love your blog!!! Let me know if you need any interesting breastfeeding pictures. I am more than happy to share mine with you!

    And thanks for the add on twitter!

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  7. Amazing pics! Had my son age 4 and daughter age 2 and a half do the same with dollies and teddies! I expressed with babies 2 and 3 and they even copied that! LOL Tabitha xx

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  8. Thank you all for the support! This has been an Amazing opportunity.

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  9. Hey there, I love that you started the push to bring breastfeeding back to Sesame Street. My nephew (who is 5) totally freaked out to see my breastfeeding my 9 month old, because he has been told that breasts are private parts. He was not breastfed and didn't know what was going on. It needs to be demystified.

    http://33and33.tumblr.com/post/11823096874/feeding-louis-this-morning-at-my-parents-and

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  10. Click on my name to go to the url of the little traumatic incident. I couldn't help but laugh at the time, but in retrospect, it makes me sad.

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  11. I had to chuckle with this - with both my children we were committed to breast milk but both had problems with "traditional" nursing...My 2 1/2 year old would pretend to use a breast pump!

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    1. I love that! It just shows how exposing children to real life breaks down barriers.

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  12. Have you ever seen a photo of a little boy nursing his cars?

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    1. Nope, I have never seen a photo of a little boy or girl nursing their cars... but I am guessing that's because cars don't nurse... I have plenty of photos of little boys and girls playing with their cars, pretending their cars are stuck in traffic, and crashing their cars. I think that's how BOYs and GIRLS play with cars.

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  13. Lani@Boobie Time, Cars don't nurse, and boys don't either. The photos of these male children pretending to nurse stuffed animals are a bit disturbing. It's not that I have anything against breastfeeding, (although I'm not an activist about it)It's just that I am against confusing gender identity!

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    1. Vannessa - last I checked both girls and boys breastfeed so why wouldn't a male child immitate what he sees as the norm? My daughter breastfeeds her stuffed animals in pretend play. Should I be worried because animals do not consume human milk? No, because it is a HEALTHY part of normal development. Children should immitate the world around them. It does not confuse them at all. Plus, gender identity is really over rated. Who cares if girls play with cars and boys play with dolls. Let children be children and enjoy child hood as they see fit. Please understand that I am not attacking you. I am just hoping that you can see that it really is no big deal if a breastfed boy pretend plays to breastfeed his toys. :)

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    2. Vannessa, Like the other commenters have said it is just pretend. No different then a girl pretending to be a construction worker, or another role that are typically male roles. It's a child developing nurturing skills that will ultimately make him a wonderful loving father, husband who supports his family.

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    3. Vanessa, pretend or not, it ultimately shows children, both male and female, that breasts are for babies, and not sex toys intended for male pleasure, etc. a trend ever so prevalent in modern consumer culture. I personally think its a very good lesson. And, I wouldn't worry about gender identity, because there are PLENTY of other stimuli all around our kids that tell them how little boys and girls are supposed to act/think/play/look, and by the time any of that means anything to the child they will know that boobs go on girls :]

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  14. Vanessa - they are preschoolers. They are learning to pretend. They are also showing their nurturing side - men have that too. Here is an article from Baby Center that explains how normal this is: http://www.babycenter.com/404_is-it-normal-for-my-preschooler-a-boy-to-like-girls-clothes_69414.bc

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  15. Vanessa-The intention of this post was simply to continue to raise awareness about the normalcy of breastfeeding. If children see breastfeeding as normal while they grow up, they will carry that with them into adulthood, and hopefully we can put an end to this sad state of affairs—hopefully the men and women of the future will hold the space and have respect for the nursing mothers they encounter, instead of seeing it as a disgusting thing. As for gender identity getting confused, no need to be concerned about that. Children will learn all too soon what their gender roles are, and a simple, innocent game of breastfeeding is not going to change that. Little boys will be the little boys they are, whether or not they pretend to nurse their stuffies.

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  16. I wish my daughter would nurse her doll, instead she brings it to me, presses it against my shirt and says "baby boobs! Feed baby!".

    (I'm not actually annoyed, more amused that she's already made the leap to understanding her boobs don't have the milk that mine do)

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Thanks for commenting!