Tags
Baby Dolls, companion, crawling dolls, drink dolls, fashion, feeding dolls, infant, lifelike, mid 1800s, National Toy Hall of Fame, specific function, talking dolls, Toys, wet dolls
Baby Dolls
Crying, cooing, sleeping, eating, drinking, and wetting. What aspiring mom (or dad) doesn’t want a lifelike baby doll with all those features? But before the first baby doll appeared in the mid-1800s, girls were limited to companion-style dolls or elaborate fashion dolls —- neither suited to cradling or cuddling. Unlike companion dolls, with which children play tea party and dress-up, baby dolls have a specific function in imaginative play. Children primarily treat baby dolls as they would infants -— they are toted around in strollers, fed from high chairs, and rocked to sleep like newborns. Creating a doll that looks like a baby is no easy task. Since the mid-19th century, doll manufacturers have worked to produce dolls that look and act like infants. In 1922, doll designers reached a new level of realism with the Bye-Lo baby, a doll crafted to look like a three-day-old newborn. The 1930s saw the proliferation of drink and wet dolls such as Betsy-Wetsy and the Dy-Dee doll. Nowadays, baby dolls come with an array of functions that allow them to eat, crawl, play peek-a-boo, and even respond to a child’s voice. Every baby doll -— from the simplest version to the most technologically advanced -— serves a special function in cultivating nurturing and parental roles in children, while promoting open-ended active play. Baby dolls were inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame in 2008.