Bebé Glotón
The name isn’t helping…
In English her name is Gluttonous Baby, or possibly–according to Google Language Tools–Baby Wolverine. Wait, what? Hold on a sec. Google’s translation has really thrown me for a loop so I’m going to have to consult our resident Spanish Language Expert. (We have an expert for everything here at Thundersquee!) OK, our expert has weighed in on the side of the “gluttonous baby” translation, and given that and the absence of X-Men or giant weasels on the product’s packaging, I am going with “Gluttonous Baby.” Now that that’s settled, let’s move forward.
Glutton Baby (True translation be damned, I like the name better that way) is a new toy from the Spanish toymaker Berjuan . Much like the Baby Alive of yore (which is nightmare fodder I had forgotten about until just now. “She poops clear, mommy!” *shudder*) her mouth moves in a semi-sucking way, except, well, she breastfeeds. That’s right, your daughter (or son) can now breastfeed, just like mommy–or daddy if he really works at it.
Glutton Baby’s purpose is to introduce the concept of breastfeeding early in life, and to promote it as a natural thing to do. The kit contains a bra type thing with flowers instead of nipples that your toddler wears to use as sort of pretend breasts, and the way things seem to work is that Glutton Baby cries when she’s hungry, so your child picks her up, and Glutton Baby’s proximity to the flower-nipple thing activates the doll’s suckling action. (It’s hard to explain, and little odd, so here’s a video. Note the baby kind of sounds like a cat in heat.)
Now, don’t get me wrong. I am a proponent of breastfeeding whenever possible, but do you want your toddler suckling things? In my experience, toddlers lack judgement because they are…toddlers, and that fact could lead to some strange scenarios in which you have a lot of splaining to do. I’m far from a puritan, and the idea seems weird to me. Is it just the application of the idea that’s weird? Am I the one who is weird? (Don’t answer that.) What do you think?