Do your kids have bottles for their dolls?

[Aerynne]

I used to be totally anti doll bottle when I just had a dd since our babies don't take bottles. Now I have a ds, too, and realize he may not want to pretend to nurse his doll (or maybe he will, or maybe he will and his dad will have a problem with it). So I'm wondering if I should get him some bottles. Of course if I do I will get dd some, too, in the interest of being fair.

I fed my dolls with toy baby bottles and still turned out to be a huge bf advocate.

What do you all think?

[Codi]

We don't do bottles for doll's.

[Heather Micaela]

I used to not allow bottles but now it's not my hill to die on.

I avoided bottles with the older kids' dolls. I used to try to get my kids (even the boy :shifty) to pretend to nurse, but they never wanted to. They would once in a while want ME to nurse the dolls, but would not do it themselves. But they would feed the dolls play food and use a cup.

The younger 2 when exposed to a bottle they loved it because it fit the baby's little mouth and they loved the disappearing liquid. At first I just allowed the juice one and then eventually allowed the milk one. They would say "wa-wa" (water) and "joo" (juice) because I still did not use the word bottle.

Now they know the word bottle because of water bottles and such but it just is not a big deal. I do not think the toy bottles alone will discourage breastfeeding and many BF moms pump :shrug3

[mollobe]

I think they're fine, as long as the child sees bfing as "normal" too. If bottles were the only thing they played with at feeding their dolls, then I would make sure to talk about it with them to make sure they know. :shrug3

[Heather Micaela]

I think they're fine, as long as the child sees bfing as "normal" too. If bottles were the only thing they played with at feeding their dolls, then I would make sure to talk about it with them to make sure they know. :shrug3
:yes My 6 year old told me she wished that I would use a bottle so she could help feed the baby to come and I told her that bottles are to be used when BFing cannot be done, or cannot be done all the time. And that since I was very blessed to not have a problem in that area, that we did not really need to use a bottle.

[Pragmatist]

My dd had a doll that came with a bottle. It was used a few times, but now I don't even know where it is. She nurses her babies much more frequently. I don't encourage or discourage bottle use.

[MomtoJGJ]

We HAVE bottles, but the kids use them as sippy cups for their babies... they nurse them and when they get old enough they nurse AND give a cup/bottle.... they really do pay attention don't they?

[Llee]

I was surprised to see Dressy Bessy at 15 months (when she was given her first doll), hold the bottle up to its mouth like a pro. I think she just liked that something fit in the mouth. She's tried putting the doll's thumb in its mouth too, but no go. I just laugh, because she's still nursing and doesn't suck her thumb. Like Heather said, not my hill. Now, tearing a page in a book, that's a hill. :)

[Serafine]

:no

[Vicki_T]

We don't have milk bottles for dolls, though dd1 did have a 'water bottle' that she's now lost. She nurses her dolls, or gives them cups and plates from her play kitchen. I don't make a huge deal out of it (maybe some people would think I do :shifty ) but I do feel that having bottles for dolls normalises bottlefeeding, and I'd rather that breastfeeding was normalised :shrug

[Mokek Kwe]

I might keep the bottles that come with dolls, but put them "up", so if she wants to play like her daddy is babysitting for her doll or something, idk. at this point I think I'll ditch bottles that come with dolls.

[KatieMae]

When Lilia got a dolly, I tossed the bottles, but also the little boxes of baby rice cereal, etc. I kept the little jars of food & the spoon and the small open cup, so they just feed the baby and pretend it drinks from the cup. I've never pushed pretending to nurse either though so :shrug3

[Eesti]

We do both here. My girls nurse their babies a lot.

[HomeWithMyBabies]

My boys have no interest in baby dolls, but as a little girl all my dolls had bottles. I grew up with an understanding, and I don't even know from where, that I would breastfeed my babies.

[TuneMyHeart]

We do both here. My girls nurse their babies a lot.

Same here. I don't make a big deal out of it. Things I've "banned" have backfired on me, lol.

[scrappyknits]

my dd has baby bottles for her dolls - and she pretends bf's them, too. We've done daycare for so long, having little ones in our home that drink from bottles, so she knows what they are for, and that they are for when mom can't feed baby herself.

[Niki]

:yes I allow them. Like Mollobe said, as long as they see bfing as normal too.

[cheri]

We have them. My dd nurses the dolls, but she also feeds them out of the bottle.

I asked her recently one day what was inside of the bottle, just out of curiosity. She rolled her eyes and said, "it's milk that came out of mommy's breast"

[MaybeGracie]

My son has breastfed his animals (and firetrucks, and dinosaurs, and...). If he wanted a bottle for them, I'd allow it, but until then I don't see any need to have one in the house.

[Peacemama]

I let my younger girls have them and you know what? They dont even use them. They do nurse their dolls, and feed them pretend baby food, but the bottles go unused by them. My son uses the bottles hehe.

[AdrienneQW]

My son has breastfed his animals (and firetrucks, and dinosaurs, and..)

Ohhhhh... the mental image of a little guy breastfeeding a firetruck! :hearts

I chose to toss the bottles that came with Celeste's babydolls. One of my very favorite memories was when she opened a dolly our cousins gave her for Christmas, took the little bottle out, looked at it for a long time, then stuck it in her ear. :laughtears She just had no idea what that thing would be used for. :heart

It ended up being a non-issue; babydolls never captured her imagination and they all ended up being donated pretty quickly. Stuffed dogs, on the other hand... :no

[Sweet Life]

My kiddos see bf'ing in action all the time. They also sometimes see a bottle if I've expressed milk. Two of my children were adopted and were formula fed. That said, we talk about God's design for feeding children (bf'ing) as well as reasons why we sometimes need to use bottles. :shrug3

My kids have bottles for the babies, but usually choose to breastfeed. :)

[tofufoofoo]

I will try and hide them when DD is old enough to get that sort of toy... however I have not been very successful with my current toy restrictions so IDK... :(

I played with those bottles w/ "milk" and "orange juice" that disappears when you tip them and ended up being a huge lactivist... sooooo :shrug3

[Eesti]

The other day my 2yr old decided she needed to nurse her fork at dinner and declared rather loudly "F@$% nursing Mommy!" LOL. She was trying to tell me that her fork was nursing but it came out as an expletive. HA.

[3boysforme]

I don't have any babydolls at my house. But, my middle ds nurses his stuffed animals all the time. I think it's the sweetest thing ever.

Also my 5 y/o saw a bottle recently and was like "what's that?". I hope they grow up and encourage their wives to BF because it is so normal for them.

[Garland]

My daughter prefers to "nurse" her dolls, which she does very often. But she has also seen me give bottles to our foster babies, and we have a toy baby bottle as well. She doesn't play with it much, usually it sits on a shelf in her toy kitchen. Nursing seems to be more convenient for her. :giggle

---------- Post added at 10:45 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:44 PM ----------


I played with those bottles w/ "milk" and "orange juice" that disappears when you tip them and ended up being a huge lactivist... sooooo :shrug3

Me too! I LOVED those disappearing fluid ones when I was a kid. But I still believed that nursing was the way to go.

[Heather Micaela]

My kiddos see bf'ing in action all the time. They also sometimes see a bottle if I've expressed milk. Two of my children were adopted and were formula fed. That said, we talk about God's design for feeding children (bf'ing) as well as reasons why we sometimes need to use bottles. :shrug3

My kids have bottles for the babies, but usually choose to breastfeed. :)
I wanted to address the "normalization" issue. I do get that bottle can do that, but I think the overall environment will do more to establish what is normal. Everyone around them that nurses will do so in public. The babies that are bottle fed have special circumstances.

So for us it would be like getting a doll with a wheelchair. Some use them, but not most :shrug3

And honestly I think mine see them more as sippy cups.

[mommy2ella]

We don't have bottles for Ella's dolls, but she did get a hold of one at a play place and wanted to feed the dolls with it. I just said, "Oh, she's having some pumped Mama milk!" without even thinking. :lol I don't know if she remembered driking pumped milk from a bottle sometimes as a baby, but she sure knew exactly what it was for when she saw the bottle. :shrug I'm not totally against getting a doll with a bottle if that is what she really wanted, but I'm not super excited about the idea. She does like to nurse her dolls as well, though - or wants me to nurse them (I'm actually surprised she wants me to "nurse" her dolls, as she's pretty possessive about the breasts....we were watching her friend the other day and he started saying "milk" and she asked him, "You want milk?" and looked hard at him for a minute and then got between he and I and said, "These are MY mommy's boobies for milk for ME". :haha Sorry - tangent. :giggle

[MaybeGracie]

She does like to nurse her dolls as well, though - or wants me to nurse them (I'm actually surprised she wants me to "nurse" her dolls, as she's pretty possessive about the breasts....we were watching her friend the other day and he started saying "milk" and she asked him, "You want milk?" and looked hard at him for a minute and then got between he and I and said, "These are MY mommy's boobies for milk for ME". :haha Sorry - tangent. :giggle

:lol Too cute!

[MomtoJGJ]

I think my girls do find it easier to nurse their babies than to use the bottles we have (like I said, they use them as sippies) Because they know that they can nurse anywhere, but to get the bottle requires them to at least walk across the room, if not go all the way upstairs, to get the bottle and then bring it back to where they are... by that time they can be finished nursing!

It sounds like I'm making a joke, but I overheard my 6 and 5yo playing baby and the 5yo started nursing and the 6yo said "get the cup" and the 5yo said "I'll just give her untches because it's easier"

[VeryBlessedMama]

Nope, but it wasn't a choice that I made. My daughter hasn't been given any and she's never asked for one (she naturally started nursing her baby). If she really wanted one I don't think it would bother me. Of course, I don't love the idea of filling the house with plastic toys and such so I might object on that point.;)

[Niphredil]

We have toy bottles. Both my girls have had to be formula supplemented at some point, so, unfortunately, it is something they both see as normal. At 15 months N begged us for a "boppy" for her baby so she could eat & go to sleep. On the other hand she carries :rolleyes2 her sister to me and says "She's bothering me. Give her some milkies." :lol

[Radosny Matka]

We don't have bottles, but then again, we only have 3 dolls - 1 plastic headed doll (I did cut off the paci and threw that away :shifty) and 2 homemade waldorf dolls. The plastic headed doll did not come with a bottle, but I would have ditched it anyway. My older son never really played with the doll. My youngest does, and he had no problem pretending to bf.

[Dana Joy]

All of my bigger kids took bottles while at daycare, and the littlest has watched me feed over 10 childcare clients bottles. I have no problem with them playing with bottles for their dolls if they want to.

[Barefoot Bookworm]

Yes, we have a baby bottle in the house and they see me bottle nursing their baby sister because I'm unable to breastfeed. When I was a child, I both nursed and bottle fed by dolls.

[MuseMama]

My girls sit and nurse their babies. I have pictures somewhere. :)

[craftymama]

We don't do doll bottles. I just can't bring myself to do it, even though I had them as a child. My 3 yo DS pretends to nurse his stuffed animals and dolls. He doesn't even know what a bottle is :lol! It weirds my DH out sometimes when DS pretends to nurse, but I think it's cute :)

[Ajani]

DD has bottles for her babies. They came in a set of stuff she got for Christmas from someone. Neither of our kids got formula, but the bottle thing doesn't bother me.

[mommy2abigail]

I used to take them all and throw them away, until I saw that she would turn ANYthing into a bottle and feed her baby. Now I let them stay. I don't think it will have any bearing on how she feeds her babies in the future. :shrug3 I also had my dd2 at home, in front of dd1, and when we play 'midwife' she ALWAYS goes to the 'hospital'. :giggle

[14yrslater]

:giggle My ds nurses his stuffy dogs!