I keep a doll in my office to demonstrate breastfeeding. I keep it behind my desk because it’s really there for demo, not for children to play with. But that doesn’t stop children from wanting to play with it.
Generally, I let the children play.
One child, however, had a serious question: “Where’s this baby’s bottle?”
I told her that this baby didn’t have a bottle, that this baby was breastfed.
At first, mom tried to find something else in my office to take the place of a bottle. Could her daughter use the banana from the puzzle as the baby’s bottle?
She tried, but the banana just didn’t quite work.
Mommy realized that she’d just about missed a teachable moment.
“That baby doesn’t use a bottle. She gets milk from her mommy.”
Child’s eyes got wide – her mind was blown.
Milk from mommy? What a novel thought.
Small steps towards normalizing normal.