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Sunday, May 13, 2012

It's (just like) a breast!

I received an unsolicited promotional email today from XXXX bottle company* explaining how their "innovative nipple design" will make babies think they're feeding from a human breast and thus relieve any mother's worries that her baby will confuse breast and bottle (or rather, prefer bottle over breast).
In a spectacular turn of logic, XXXX bottle company explained that it is the perfect solution for attachment parents who wish to preserve a strong emotional bond with their babies. This is what the company wrote to me:
A breast was the talk of the web yesterday because it made the cover of Time Magazine. The story highlights Dr. Bill Sears, a 70 year old proponent of “attachment parenting.” The cover photo, however, is of Jaime Lynn Grumet, a 26 year old mother and blogger in Los Angeles who posts photos of herself breastfeeding her 4 year old son.

Attachment parenting is the theory based on the notion that the strong emotional bond forged during early childhood has lifelong benefits. This cover has hit a nerve with consumers nationwide and features how some mothers have a hard time “letting go” as their children get older.

For mothers that feel this way, XXXX is the answer. XXXX is the modern bottle that is breast like in appearance, so that when new mothers introduce this bottle to their infants, babies are less likely to have a problem transitioning between breast and bottle
First off, XXXX company's understanding of attachment parenting is seriously skewed. Attachment parenting isn't simply about not being able to "let go" of children transitioning out of babyhood.

Whatever a mother's parenting style, I don't think that the bottle's "natural feeling and latching experience" will alleviate fears about nipple confusion! Just because the "soft silicon nipple is textured and colored to resemble skin" doesn't make it anything like nursing from a real human breast. You're still missing the mother's scent, warmth, and body sounds. You're missing the ebb and flow of milk as the mother's breast responds to the baby's hunger. And of course you're missing the changing composition of breastmilk as it begins thin, sweet, and watery and ends rich and creamy.

The nipple's design is supposedly "based on the psychological dynamics of feeding." Huh?

I just don't think babies are so easily fooled.
* No free advertising for this company! 
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9 comments:

  1. SO LAME!!!!
    The Feminist Breeder also had a hilarious post on that e-mail she got too.

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  2. Seriously?

    My breasts are definitely not that round ;)

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  3. So if it's "colored to resemble skin" I guess it comes in shades other than Caucasian? No? Hmmm.

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    Replies
    1. what?? There isn't one generic "skin color"?

      I feel some photoshopping magic needs to be done. Anyone up to the task?

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  4. Ummm. My nipples? Do not look like that. I have pinky-pancake targets on my breasts. There's no way that bottle would fool my baby, and I have no intention to "let go" for quite some time. Sheesh.

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  5. This is hardly the first boob-shaped bottle to come on the market, and wont likely be the last. Nobody who really gets the purpose of BFing would ever be fulled. It's silly. A bottle is a bottle. a breast is a breast. No need to covertly disguise one as the other.

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  6. Their email doesn't even make sense, and how I read it, they are contradicting themselves. They say that attachment mothers have a hard time "letting go" yet they provide an easy way to do so. Huh? If I WANT to breastfeed, why would I want your bottle? The paragraph about the bottle makes it seem like it's for the baby, but the previous paragraph implies it's all about the moms. Which is it? I think that xxxx bottle company just wanted a way to insert themselves into the mix, but they picked the wrong crowd!

    Great post, Rixa. And uh, yeah, my boobs don't look like that either (although maybe they did when I was 20 and hadn't had kids yet?) :)

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