This is a (very) partial list of children's books showing bottle-feeding as the normal (usually only) way to feed a baby. Such books undoubtedly contribute to the bottle-feeding culture we live in. Our children grow up with bottle-feeding books and bottle-feeding toys. They also observe bottle-feeding commonly in everyday life. They might occasionally see a breastfeeding mother if they are very careful observers. Most of them probably never do. These children then grow up, and many of them become parents. For these parents who have grown up in this culture, the default assumption is likely to be that they will bottle-feed their baby. Breastfeeding has to be a conscious choice made by a few committed parents who have taken the trouble to learn what's really good for their baby and themselves (rather than assuming as most of us do that what we see everyday everywhere is probably the right thing to do). This is all terribly wrong. It's high time we raised our children with breastfeeding books and toys, and let them see babies nursing in their everyday life so they grow up expecting to breastfeed their babies if they become parents one day.
Here is the book list. I have only given titles, not authors, publishers and years (I'm not expecting anyone to go out and look for these books!). Most of these are children's books; a few are books about babies for adults. They all have pictures of baby bottles. None of them has a picture of a breastfeeding baby. Many of them have pictures of poor parenting practices such as propping a baby with a bottle, leaving a baby in a bassinet at the hospital nursery with a bottle, etc.
There are hundreds of books like these that show bottle-feeding as the only way to feed a baby. I was planning to list all the ones I've seen here, but I quickly got too depressed. I collected the books in this list in two days of strolling through bookstores and libraries before I gave up.
From Aaron to Zoe: 15,000 great baby names (Bottles on cover (front and back))
I'm a big sister (Bottle on table, bottle given by big sister)
The baby (Bottle given by brother, bottle on floor)
Tell me again about the night I was born (Bottles all over, babies in hospital nursery with bottles in bassinets, "Tell me about my first bottle and how much I loved it")
Little baby Bobby (Bottles in diaper bag, bottle on ground, bottle in stroller)
A baby sister for Frances (Cover: bottle given by mother, first page: cover picture; text: "mother was feeding Gloria, the new baby")
Babar and his children (Doctor says Babar's babies aren't gaining weight quickly enough, and tells them to give the babies six bottles of cow's milk with a tablespoon of honey. Same page has babies bottle-fed by Celeste (mother), Babar (father), and an old lady. No suggestion of nursing is made in the text or pictures (though one might assume that the babies were nursed prior to cow's milk is added to their diet))
The book of babies ("Eating" page: text reads "bottle of milk--drink it up!" (with picture). No breastfeeding in this "book of babies")
You deserve to feel a little better after this undoubtedly depressive list. Luckily, more and more children's books that feature breastfeeding are being published. Go ahead and look at my list of breastfeeding books.
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Bottle-Feeding Books Wednesday, 21 January 2009 Breastfeeding - Bottle-Feeding Books This is a (very) partial list of children's books showing bottle-feeding as the normal (usually only)...
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