Teaching bottle-fed baby that breastfeeding is normal

[bedheadmaestro]

So my 16-mo daughter is suddenly at the age where she wants to feed her baby dolls. She has been bottle-fed longer than she was breastfed, and she still has a nighttime bottle, so she doesn't really 'get' the concept of breastfeeding, even though she sees other babies nursing often. When she feeds her dolls, of course it's with her bottle. I am trying to model putting the doll to my breast or hers, but she doesn't get it (yet). The bottle is normal for HER so it's what she naturally does, but I would prefer that she puts dolls to her breast. I am sure I am confusing her to the max. Do I just drop the issue? Are there any good books that show breastfeeding?

[Abraisme]

There is a babydoll that's specifically designed around breast-feeding, it's worth a shot..

http://www.thingamababy.com/baby/200...byglutton.html

[Super~Single~Mama]

Honestly, I wouldn't worry about it. You said that she see's other babies nursing often - have you pointed that out to her? (if the other mom's are comfortable with you talking to her about it, and showing her the baby getting milk of course - I wouldn't just walk up to a stranger and say "Look, her baby is drinking milk!")

Instead, I would make sure she is cuddling her babies close while bottle feeding them! If you can talk to her about BF'ing, and show her other babies BF'ing, she'll get it eventually. But right now your the best mom in the entire world - and she wants to do everything the way you do it! Showing her that other people do things differently is good - but you don't want to give her the impression that she is fed the "wrong way" - ykwim?

I hope that didn't come out wrong, I'm trying to tell you what her point of view might be. Anyway, I think both BF'ing and bottle feeding can be very positive, just like either one done the wrong way can be negative.

[EzzysMom]

My exclusively and still nursing 2 year old also feeds her dolls bottles despite never taking one herself. I think it's a losing fight out than to just point it out or play along and do it yourself. She'll do what she wants.

[crunchy_mommy]

my first thought was to take away the bottle, and tell her she doesn't need it unless she has problems with her 'milk' But I have a 16mo too and I don't think he'd be too happy if I took something away from him!! I think she is too young still so I really wouldn't worry about it, but maybe talk about nursing, read stories with nursing moms (probably easier to find nursing animals *sigh*) in them, talk about how animals nurse their babies, etc. I actually feel frustrated seeing more bottle-feeding stuff (dolls, books, etc.) and I think I confused DS. I started calling bottles in books 'cups' but now he thinks all bottles are cups (he's never had a bottle) so I obviously went about it all wrong.

ETA: OOO if you have a hand pump that you're not using, you could show her how to express milk for her bottle to feed the baby

[Swandira]

I have no idea why, but my four-year-old, who continues to nurse almost every day, likes to bottlefeed her dolls, though she's rarely seen bottle-feeding modeled. At your DD's age she never breastfed them, and now she only nurses them sometimes.

I can remember breastfeeding my dolls, though I was never breastfed (my mom had friends who nursed their babies in front of us), but I was probably five or six at the time I'm remembering.

Nealy

[spmamma]

DD didn't truly get it until I had DS. She nursed until she was 25 months and even then she fed her babies bottles. Once I had DS, though, it clicked. One day she just lifted her shirt and started nursing her doll. Now everything from the bears to the giraffe get booby milk. It's so cute!

[laohaire]

Yup, exclusively nursed for 4.5 YEARS DD bottlefeeds her baby dolls. We don't have a bottle in the house.

BUT the dolls come with bottles as accessories and Dora feeds her twin baby siblings with a bottle (despite mom apparently having a homebirth in that episode, lol) and so on and so forth. The marketing is universal and apparently works.

I think there is something about having a prop, a gadget, that just really appeals though.

[bedheadmaestro]

I do have one of those breastfeeding dolls where the baby's mouth snaps onto the breasts that I could use. I guess I always see those cute pictures of little girls and boys nursing their dolls, and it brings up all my unresolved breastfeeding issues when I see her feeding dolls a bottle. I won't have any more babies of my own, and the babies she sees nursing are customers in the diaper store I work at. Most of them are newborns with really nervous new moms who are not too crazy about attention being drawn to them, even if it's just my daughter crawling up onto the couch and staring at them, which is what she does She seems very interested in the act of breastfeeding, but I don't think she connects it with 'feeding.'

[Super~Single~Mama]

If the other new moms are nervous about it, maybe you could quietly, in a non-confrontational way encourage them! Saying something like, "see, that mommy is breastfeeding her baby! Isn't that so sweet? Here, lets play over here. (or, do you want to breastfeed your doll?)" While distracting your dd so that she isn't climbing on top of them.