<< it may be as simple as little girls want to grow up to be like
 their mommies and feeding babies is the most fun part.  Sadly, most
 mommies in recent generations, fed their babies with bottles, in the US
 anyway.  By the time these little girls are grown up, they simply
 associate babies with bottles, just like they were taught. >>

I think little girls also really like accessories and chatchkes that belong
to the baby.  My girls (5.5 and 3), who know perfectly well that, in their
words, "healthy babies breastfeed," sometimes tell me, "Oh yes, this baby
mostly nurses from her mother.   But right now I am the babysitter and I am
just feeding her this bottle for a few minutes until her mother comes home to
nurse her."    My best successes in persuading them to play bottle-less-ly
have been by substituting more baby-friendly accessories -- so we have
several doll slings & snugglies, doll hair brushes, doll wash cloths, doll
diapers, doll cups and doll spoons, etc.   Real babies are pretty interactive
without a lot of equipment, but dolls need a lot of artificial stimulation to
be equally lively, it seems...  :)

Elisheva Urbas
NYC

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