Goodbye flour sacks and egg babies! Programmed babies are taking over and they have arrived at the Young Parent Center in Ames.

The latest in parenting education, “Baby Think It Over,” is a doll that is programmed to cry and has the need to be tended to like a real baby.

“The programmed babies provide a pretty realistic example of the time commitment that it takes to care for a child,” said Marlene Hubbard, program coordinator at the Young Parent Center. “The baby is supposed to be a discussion tool and show the responsibility that it takes to care for a young child.”

The programmed baby provides a simulation exercise of what it is like to care for a real child. The baby is programmed to cry if it is held roughly or in the wrong position, needs to be tended to or wants to be left alone.

The baby is meant to be a type of pregnancy prevention tool. It is not meant to be a punitive device or give teens a negative view of parenting, Hubbard said.

“The babies have proven to be pretty effective at discouraging teens from having babies, but occasionally a teen will get attached to the baby, producing the opposite result,” said Mary Jurmain, president of the baby company.

The babies can be programmed with different temperaments, ranging from “easy” to “crabby” or “sick”. There are even drug-exposed babies, meant to encourage the prevention of both pregnancy and drug abuse, Jurmain said.

“Parents” of these programmed babies are asked to first sign a parenting contract and then take a pretest which consists of questions about the kind of skills they think it takes to care for a baby.

The couple then must complete a log of their parenting activities. After a couple of days of caring for the baby, the “parents” take a post test and critique themselves on how well they think they did.

The “parent” must provide care by tending to the baby. The “parent” has a tending probe, which is a key attached to their wrist with a wristband, that can be used to stop the baby from crying after it has been tended to.

The key also discourages the “parent” from handing the baby over to a babysitter, because the baby will continue to cry until the key is used.

If the “parent” gives the key to someone else, they would have to cut the key off of their wrist bracelet, so it would be obvious the parent turned over care.

The baby actually has a device that monitors the care it has been given. Lights on a box inside of the baby indicate if the baby has been neglected. Through this device, the baby can actually “score” its care givers.

The programmed babies, nicknamed Wesley and Grace, cost about $1,000 a piece and were given to the Young Parent Center by an interested donor.

The babies have not been used yet. They will be used in schools or groups to give teens a real look at what parenting is all about.