A baby doll is being slammed by critics for a strange new gimmick: a refusal to eat food, Yahoo Shine reported.
Despite the fact that the doll, called Nenuco Won't Eat, won a Best New Toy Award at the U.K. Toy Fair on Tuesday, critics said that it encourages unhealthy behaviors - possibly even eating disorders - in its young target audience
"What are they thinking? It's irresponsible," Lynn Grefe, president of the National Eating Disorders Association, based in New York, told Yahoo Shine. "It seems clear to me they have no clue what eating disorders are, and that they're not tuned in or well-educated on how life-threatening they can be."
The doll, she adds, "belongs in the garbage."
According to Yahoo Shine, the latest in a series of Nenuco dolls, the plastic blue-eyed infant with the pink ribbon on its bald head reacts in similar manners as the other dolls by doling out kisses, closing its eyes for sleep time, sitting on a potty, and getting runny noses (tiny tissues are included).
However, the defiant Nenuco Won't Eat shuns food, turning her head away each time a child tries to feed her, an action reportedly enabled by a magnet hidden in the little blue spoon.
Already available in various European markets, the doll will be hitting U.K. shelves in February at a price of about $58. The doll, however, won't be sold in the United States, U.S. spokesperson for the Spain-based manufacturer, Famosa, told Yahoo Shine.
According to Yahoo Shine, "While eating disorders are more complex than the cause and effect of playing with a certain toy - cultural pressures to be thin, low self-esteem, feelings of no control over life, depression, a history of sexual abuse, and much more can be contributing factors - experts are still worried."
Many in the U.K. have spoken out against the toy, saying it "sends the wrong message to children" and is "deeply worrying."
"Promoting what is basically an anorexic doll seems unhealthy," a specialist at the U.K. eating disorder organization SWEDA said.
Calling the U.K. press coverage "ungrounded" and standing firmly by its new addition, Famosa responded to criticisms through a statement on its website, Yahoo Shine reported.
"Nenuco is a range of dolls designed by Famosa to recreate real life experiences between mothers and their babies and to foster role play and positive learning...'Nenuco Won't Eat' is based on one such positive experience," the statement read. "In attempting to encourage his or her Nenuco doll to eat, the child learns about healthy eating habits. The end result of this game is that the child clearly understands that his or her doll is mistaken in not wanting to eat, noting that in the end, thanks to his or her help and encouragement, the baby starts to eat properly. Famosa believes that this is the healthy, positive and fundamental learning message promoted by 'Nenuco Won't Eat,' and not any of the other out-of-context messages that have been attributed to it."
The statement goes on to say that the company's "dedicated team of toy designers includes a range of specialists such as psychologists and education experts."
"I don't think it's going to teach a 4-year-old to have anorexia, but it says that not eating is OK," Grefe said. "And who knows what's then going to go on in the mind of a 4-year-old? It's inappropriate."
How the doll's behavior might affect a child depends on many factors, eating disorder therapist Dina Zeckhausen, based in Atlanta, told Yahoo Shine.
For some, it will just be a silly toy. For others, it could play into already-laid groundwork, causing food issues, she said.
"Stigma about weight begins early - even 4- and 5-year-olds know that calling someone 'fat' is the meanest thing you can say," said Zeckhausen, founder of the Eating Disorders Information Network and author of "Full Mouse, Empty Mouse," the first children's book to address eating disorders in kids.
She notes that more and more 7- and 8-year-olds are developing eating disorders, and that Nenuco Won't Eat might give some girls the idea to start refusing food, too, just to see what sort of reaction they get from parents, "which can either reinforce it or not," Yahoo Shine reported.
Bottom line, when it comes to the new Nenuco, Zeckhausen advises, "Parents just need to be aware. If their kid has no food or body issues and things are pretty neutral around food and weight in the family, then it's probably harmless. Otherwise, it's probably not a good toy."
