Home Dolls....

[Pandora II]

Calling all mothers of little girls!

I''d like to buy Daisy a doll, however I was always a strictly teddy-bear child and never had one. She is very interested in them in shops and at playgroup.

What is a good age to give a first doll? Would 18 months be good - or should you wait till they are older/younger?

What is best... soft body or all plastic?

Good brands?

I''d like her to only have the one doll, so should I get a ''baby'' doll or a more grown-up type?

Thanks!

 

[partgypsy]

Oh boy! My youngest loves dolls: baby dolls (also real babies too), the 18 inch dolls (we have American Girl and our generation dolls here), and Barbie dolls. Good luck with sticking with one!l; you will find that one doll is not enough, she will see them in the shops and point them out, always want another one. A baby doll is a nice to start with, with a rubber head and soft cloth body. She will love to feed it a bottle and take its clothes on and off. My 3 year old after a long phase with baby dolls is now very much into her older sister''s barbie dolls. She loves to take all their belongings out and arrange them on their furniture and set up tableaus with them eating and so on.

 

[akmiss]

Cloth dolls are best for very young children. Kathe Kruse makes wonderful cloth doll but they tend to be a little pricey.
www.kaethekrusepuppe.de/index.php?seid=6&katid=144&open=98,144&se=6

 

[Tacori E-ring]

This was T's first doll and probably still her favorite. She loves the magnetic binky. The doll is completely soft and they sell accessories. I think it is adorable. She also has a cabbage patch kid doll (b/c how could I resist?) and a few groovy girl dolls from a generous donor. I feel like she is always playing with them. We have a little high chair, stroller (she would love one) and pack 'n play. My mom bought her Target's generic version of the American girl dolls (to keep at their house) and at 2 I think she is too young for that one. I like the dolls with soft bodies b/c she loves to cuddle them.

 

[TravelingGal]

My two cents is to buy a doll that doesn''t give YOU the creeps.

I just bought a doll that came with a set (bassinet, stroller and high chair). Amelia hates it. This poor doll is literally on the bottom of the Amelia-playmate food chain. Maybe it''s because it''s the ONLY doll in a sea of stuffed animals? And it''s not as cute? She will kiss and feed and hug the other stuffed animals, but the doll will get mentioned (because she likes saying "baby") but be tossed aside. I think she actually hit the doll once (which made me wonder, is my kid gonna be a bully??

)

So for us, not a success. I remember there was always a villian stuffed animal in my posse of critters, so it seems that the doll is going to be it for her.

Maybe get a doll that doesn''t look like a baby would be my two cents. And soft. Because when she chucks it and it hits you, it will hurt less.

 

[packrat]

London has a few different dolls..couple w/the hard head and soft body, another all hard and one I got from Etsy that is all soft-which is my favorite but it''s not easy to clean and it''s a "primitive" type so mom had to sew a leg back on after Trapper got a hold of it. She makes other dolls tho, and animals..spendy I think but they''re really cute. (plus you can pick hair/dress fabrics etc) I''d just start out w/a less expensive soft one, or mostly soft one cuz like Tgal said, they hurt less.

 

[Pandora II]

Date: 3/23/2010 5:49:04 PM
Author: TravelingGal
My two cents is to buy a doll that doesn''t give YOU the creeps.

I just bought a doll that came with a set (bassinet, stroller and high chair). Amelia hates it. This poor doll is literally on the bottom of the Amelia-playmate food chain. Maybe it''s because it''s the ONLY doll in a sea of stuffed animals? And it''s not as cute? She will kiss and feed and hug the other stuffed animals, but the doll will get mentioned (because she likes saying ''baby'') but be tossed aside. I think she actually hit the doll once (which made me wonder, is my kid gonna be a bully??

)

So for us, not a success. I remember there was always a villian stuffed animal in my posse of critters, so it seems that the doll is going to be it for her.

Maybe get a doll that doesn''t look like a baby would be my two cents. And soft. Because when she chucks it and it hits you, it will hurt less.

LOL! I was given a doll - one of the Tiny Tears ones that cry and wet themselves (and go mouldy inside

) by my grandparents when I was 6... I turned round to my sister and handed it to her saying "There you go, twins..."

I was never forgiven!

 

[Pandora II]

Thanks for all the contributions so far...

I don''t count Barbie in the ''doll'' category - we had ''Sindy'' in the UK (who had knickers and a smaller bust

) - so I expect to have those knocking about. I mean more ''big'' dolls of the sort that you push around in prams etc

I love the old rag-dolls, but I think she''s going to want a nasty chunk of plastic too.

So, 18 months is a better age than a year?

 

[Tacori E-ring]

Pandora, T got her baby Stella for her first birthday. She liked it from the start but around 20 months is when I notice her role playing and mothering her dolls. She is a little mommy and even puts them in time-outs

 

[TravelingGal]

Your story is hilarious.

I gave Amelia her first doll around Christmas time...about 20 months? She had a ton of stuffed animals before then. She started getting into them right around Christmastime.

I would say if you find something you think she would like, buy it! If she''s interested in it at a year, she can keep it. If not, take it away and give it to her later on. Amelia''s love for stuffed animals came on fast, furious and suddenly...kind of like how she is with everything.

 

[TravelingGal]

Date: 3/23/2010 6:33:35 PM
Author: Tacori E-ring
Pandora, T got her baby Stella for her first birthday. She liked it from the start but around 20 months is when I notice her role playing and mothering her dolls. She is a little mommy and even puts them in time-outs

Bingo! Maybe it''s the magic age!

 

[Tacori E-ring]

Date: 3/23/2010 6:35:22 PM
Author: TravelingGal

Date: 3/23/2010 6:33:35 PM

Author: Tacori E-ring

Pandora, T got her baby Stella for her first birthday. She liked it from the start but around 20 months is when I notice her role playing and mothering her dolls. She is a little mommy and even puts them in time-outs

Bingo! Maybe it''s the magic age!

Seems to be a magic age for a lot of stuff. T also loves her stuffed yo gabba gabba dolls.

She has them kiss. Is that strange?

 

[qtiekiki]

Date: 3/23/2010 6:35:22 PM
Author: TravelingGal

Date: 3/23/2010 6:33:35 PM

Author: Tacori E-ring

Pandora, T got her baby Stella for her first birthday. She liked it from the start but around 20 months is when I notice her role playing and mothering her dolls. She is a little mommy and even puts them in time-outs

Bingo! Maybe it''s the magic age!

Maybe 20 months is the magic age. M got a doll (hard head, arms and legs with soft body) from our cousin for Christmas. She was 15 months, and had been playing with a tons of stuffed animals and dolls already then. But she didn''t bother with the new doll at all. Even with the toy stroller, she would just push her stuffed animals around. Just last week, we opened the toy highchair and PnP for her, and she''s been playing with the doll. Not constantly, but definitely more than before.

 

[Tacori E-ring]

Awww...they make a boy baby stella doll now. He is so cute! I also love that you can buy the doll a sleep sack. Here is all of their products.

 

[cdt1101]

Date: 3/23/2010 7:11:26 PM
Author: Tacori E-ring
Awww...they make a boy baby stella doll now. He is so cute! I also love that you can buy the doll a sleep sack. Here is all of their products.

Oh he''s so cute!! I wonder if my DH would mind me getting it for Lex

Eventhough Lex would probably just throw him around, since that''s all he does these days...so rough...gotta love little boys

 

[Tacori E-ring]

Date: 3/23/2010 7:30:35 PM
Author: cdt1101

Date: 3/23/2010 7:11:26 PM

Author: Tacori E-ring

Awww...they make a boy baby stella doll now. He is so cute! I also love that you can buy the doll a sleep sack. Here is all of their products.

Oh he''s so cute!! I wonder if my DH would mind me getting it for Lex

Eventhough Lex would probably just throw him around, since that''s all he does these days...so rough...gotta love little boys

I have a few friends that got their little boys a doll when they were preggo. Guess they thought it would help them understand their new sibling. One of the dads kept hiding it. He was so angry. Personally I don''t see anything wrong with a boy playing with a doll. After all dads play/nurture with their children too. It''s a good trait to encourage!

 

[cdt1101]

Date: 3/23/2010 7:33:39 PM
Author: Tacori E-ring

Date: 3/23/2010 7:30:35 PM

Author: cdt1101

Date: 3/23/2010 7:11:26 PM


Author: Tacori E-ring


Awww...they make a boy baby stella doll now. He is so cute! I also love that you can buy the doll a sleep sack. Here is all of their products.

Oh he''s so cute!! I wonder if my DH would mind me getting it for Lex

Eventhough Lex would probably just throw him around, since that''s all he does these days...so rough...gotta love little boys

I have a few friends that got their little boys a doll when they were preggo. Guess they thought it would help them understand their new sibling. One of the dads kept hiding it. He was so angry. Personally I don''t see anything wrong with a boy playing with a doll. After all dads play/nurture with their children too. It''s a good trait to encourage!

I actually don''t think my DH would mind since that particular doll isn''t really "girly." And I agree, that it is a good trait to encourage. I think I decided I''m getting it for Lex''s 1st b-day

 

[Blenheim]

George also loves playing with dolls at playgroup, although he''s really more fascinated with their faces than trying to father them (as of yet). I''ve seen the Baby Stella boy doll in person and it is really cute. But we ended up going with this doll for one of George''s first birthday presents, as I stumbled upon it at the local consignment store and the price was definitely right.

Even if kids start playing ''better'' with dolls around 20 months, I figure that he can grow into it, you know? If you want to get Daisy a doll, then go ahead and get her a doll.

 

[Pandora II]

My brother got a Barbie for his 12th birthday - he wanted a girlfriend for Action Man and we wouldn''t lend him ours. I used to find her tied to chairs and wearing leopard-skin bikinis that he''d made for her...

I was a really sweet older sister and told all his friends at school that he''d got a dolly for his birthday.

I''m going to hunt one down and then decide if she gets it for her birthday or I hold onto it till Christmas when she will be nearly 20 months.

 

[iheartscience]

Ha, all your doll stories are hilarious, Pandora!

My nieces really love the real looking babies. (Well 2 of my 3 nieces-the other one isn''t that into dolls-she likes stuffed animals more.) They all have the baby version of the American Girl doll called the Bitty Baby. link (My doll-loving mom bought them for all 3 girls.) I think they have soft bodies but hard heads and hard arms and legs.

 

[ts44]

I had a rag doll growing up, a lovely one with a light pink gingham dress and a simple embroidered face of two blue dot eyes and a pink mouth, with brown yarn hair wound into two tight "princess Leia" buns. My sister had one with a blue dress and blonde yarn hair. The whole doll was made of white muslin and soft. My absolute favorite doll, until I grew old enough (6 or 7) to start pestering mom for Barbies. If I ever have a girl, that''s what I would get her. I think a family friend stitched them for my sister and I, and I bet I could make one if I tried. I also had an Amish rag doll, which if you haven''t seen one, are made faceless because of the prohibition on "graven images." It sounds creepy but really wasn''t at all.

 

[waxing lyrical]

I love Waldorf dolls. I got my girls Waldorf dolls Christmas of ''08. They love them. I don''t care for plastic dolls at all.

 

[MustangGal]

I might have to look into one of the boy dolls for Kyle, I like the ones Tacori and Blen linked. Wonder what DH would say...

 

[Pandora II]

Date: 3/25/2010 6:34:23 PM
Author: ts44
I had a rag doll growing up, a lovely one with a light pink gingham dress and a simple embroidered face of two blue dot eyes and a pink mouth, with brown yarn hair wound into two tight ''princess Leia'' buns. My sister had one with a blue dress and blonde yarn hair. The whole doll was made of white muslin and soft. My absolute favorite doll, until I grew old enough (6 or 7) to start pestering mom for Barbies. If I ever have a girl, that''s what I would get her. I think a family friend stitched them for my sister and I, and I bet I could make one if I tried. I also had an Amish rag doll, which if you haven''t seen one, are made faceless because of the prohibition on ''graven images.'' It sounds creepy but really wasn''t at all.

The Amish Doll sounds great. Off to look for one!

I had a rag doll that my mother made - I have a feeling she might even have some of the bases made up in a box somewhere that just need the faces embroidered, the hair added and clothes. I''d love her to have one of them.

Don''t all kids want to bath their dollies? That wouldn''t work with a rag-doll.

Here''s a pic of Daisy last November with my grandmother''s doll - My grandmother is 93 this year, so it''s a pretty old doll! (The cardigan is the only thing I knitted my poor daughter, when I think how many things my mother made for me I feel really guilty!)

 

[Pandora II]

Thanks everyone for suggestions!

After lots of research, I finally went with the Corolle Classic Bebe Charmeur.

It''s not cheap (although I got a really good deal) but gets great reviews, has a soft body and yet is poseable, is machine washable and therefore ''bathable'' and looks cute rather than creepy! Also has lots of accessories and clothes for future birthday/xmas presents.

I got to see one in person yesterday and it looks good quality - even better, I saw it because Daisy had noticed it in the shop and had to be pryed away from it which bodes well!

I''d like her to have a rag doll as well, but perhaps as a later present when she will look after it.

 

[Tacori E-ring]

Daisy will love it!

 

[lili]

Pandora--
Wow...I''m very impressed w/ your knitting skill.
That cardigan is beautiful.

Daisy looks like she''s a doll girl.
My DD prefers stuff animals instead.