Psychologists Warn of the Dangers of Reborn Baby Dolls

Reborn baby dolls are not a new concept: they represent the art of doll-making taken to the next step, where hours and hours are invested into a handmade doll that looks just like an infant in most respects. Psychologists warn grieving mothers that these dolls are not the solution to their problem.

These dolls have real human hair (or the closest thing to it), very naturally-looking eyes and some of them can even drool at the side of the mouth for an extra touch of realism.

They have been used in the treatment of Dementia and Alzheimer but, as of late, they’ve also become very popular with women who have lost a child and are trying to find something to lull the pain, the Daily Mail says.

Orders for reborns are soaring in the US and the UK, the British publication informs, which has prompted specialists to issue a warning about them: used in the long run, they do not solve the problem, they simply mask it.

“Particularly popular in Britain and the United States, some of the ‘reborns’ are ordered by those mourning lost children, while others are simply collected by doll-lovers,” the Mail writes.

“Briton Nikki Hunn, a graphic designer who now makes the dolls, told Le Quotidien newspaper that she had created around half a dozen of the dolls for women who had lost a child, although most of her clients were passionate about dolls,” adds the publication.

While doll collectors will simply buy these reborns and have them displayed somewhere around the house, some of the mourning moms are treating them just like they would children, which is making psychologists very concerned.

“When you have mourned your child, what do you do with the doll? Do you bury it? If people have lots of love to give and no baby, there are lots of living human beings who need care,” Ingrid Collins says, as cited by the Mail.

Of course, not all psychologists are against these lifelike dolls being used as a substitute for a lost child: there are also those who say that they can be used as “tools” to deal with loss and pain, but only on the condition that it be a short term thing.