Keepsake? You can keep them...

As the mom of three girls, I confess I sometimes treated my infant daughters like baby dolls. Cute as they were, I made the most of their babyhood by dressing them in lots of pink and yellow clothes, putting bows and ribbons on even the thinnest whisps of baby hair, and even adorning their tiny feet in soft crib shoes made to look like patent leather "Mary Janes."

I wouldn't put black on my babies unless it was a black velvet Christmas dress trimmed in scotch plaid. I never dressed them in miniature versions of grown-up clothes because I wanted them to look as sweet and innocent and unspoiled as they were. My motto became "Innocence is the new black," and when I look back at pictures of my girls as babies, I'm filled with a sense of joy because they were just so stinking cute (even when they were just stinking!).

But being a baby girl isn't what it used to be. Forget sugar, spice and everything nice... how about stilettos? Yep, baby stilettos from a company called "Heelarious." The founders are two women who say their product -- a crib shoe that has a soft, collapsible high heel on it -- is meant to be a "keepsake" of baby's first shoe.

These baby pumps are now sold worldwide. Soon, they're going in the ostentatious gift bags handed out at this year's Emmy Awards, so before we know it they'll be all the rage in celebrity baby photos. Which means in no time Walmart will knock off the design and sell a cheap-enough-for-your-baby version.

Stilettos for babies? "Heel-arous"? I think not. In fact, I think it's vile.

Our culture is absolutely fixated on sexualizing everything from our cars to our yogurt to our pet supply stores. Now we're going to vamp up our baby girls at perhaps the only time in their young lives when we -- their parents (read: mothers) -- can truly protect their inherent innocence and childhood dignity. But what do we do? Put tiny stilettos on our baby girls -- not just pink or black but in animal prints, too! -- and take loads of pictures so that we can have a "keepsake" of our own inexplicable exploitation.

The makers of these shoes are two young women. Suppose two young men had come up with the idea of dressing baby girls in sexy shoes? We might think, "Geez, that's sick...what kind of men think about that sort of thing?" Is it because these folks are women and one is a mom that their idea is considered cool and hip?

Here's my take: It is neither cool nor hip to put sexy clothes on a baby or a young girl. Dressing in an overtly sexy or provocative way exploits a girl's innocence and sends her a strong message that her sexuality is important in the way she is perceived and the way she should comport herself. It's ICKY.

Bottom line? If you want a keepsake for your baby girl, keep her innocence... for as long as you can.