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Baby Dolls Raise a Stink In More Ways Than One
Corrine Vigna, 4, of Alexandria, left, whispers to her mother, Nancy Vigna, about her No. 1. Christmas wish: Baby Alive Learns to Potty, above. The doll talks, eats and answers nature's call. Mistakes can happen, though: "Uh, oh, I had an accident" is in her repertoire of programmed phrases, along with "I'm hungry," "Mmm good," and "I made a stinky." Critics of such realistic toys wonder if some things are best left to the imagination.
(By Dominic Bracco Ii For The Washington Post)
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"Potty training is an important developmental milestone for nearly every child," Michael Shore, vice president of World Wide Consumer Insights for Mattel, wrote in an e-mail. "At around the age of two, many kids are demonstrating signs of readiness which include key motor skills, language skills, the ability to follow directions, etc. At this age, research has proven that dolls serve as effective tools to teach by imitation rather than relying entirely on a potty training child's limited language skills."
Shore goes on to explain that the Little Mommy Gotta Go Doll was "uniquely designed with innovative features to model both types of potty training behaviors: 'poop and pee' " and that these "unique actions" help encourage "successful potty training."
Indeed, potty training dolls have become all the rage since 2006, when writer Teri Crane (the self-proclaimed "Potty Pro") published her book "Potty Train Your Child in Just One Day," and her doll-using method was endorsed by TV's Dr. Phil McGraw. Now, the market is saturated with dolls like Potty Patty, Potty Scotty and anatomically correct, vanilla-scented Emma and Paul dolls.
Child development experts, not surprisingly, are again on the opposite side of market forces in the potty wars. Claire Lerner is director of parenting resources at Zero to Three, a nonprofit organization that promotes the health and development of infants and toddlers. She said that such claims of instant potty training are "unfair and exploitive" and that whether a child uses a doll, potty training, as it has for centuries, takes the time that it takes.
"Toilet training in this country has taken on a life of its own and become so much more complex than it really needs to be," she said. "And parent anxiety about it has just, unfortunately for everybody, often made it much more stressful. Toymakers are clever. They tune into what's on the minds of parents." In her view, children don't need a doll to learn how to use a toilet. And they don't need a doll that poops to have fun. "You just don't need to go that far," she said.
That's something Alexandria mom Nancy Vigna, a military planner, thinks. But the pooping Baby Alive is the only thing her 4-year-old daughter, Corinne, really wants for Christmas, Vigna said. (That and a Barbie cash register.) "The last thing she needs is another doll," Vigna said. Her daughter is so enamored with diapering that she pines to change her younger brother and plasters her baby dolls' behinds so thoroughly that they look like they're wearing cocoons. "This is the baby doll she's been waiting for. It makes a real mess," Vigna said, sighing. "I'm not looking forward to it."
Then Vigna had to excuse herself. Her 21-month-old son, like Baby Alive, had just made a stinky in the bathtub, and she had to go.
