Best doll to prepare toddler for new baby?

[seethebeauty]

Hey all,

My little girl will be 22 months when her new baby brother arrives and I've read that getting the older sibling a doll to play with can help prepare them for the new arrival. I was just wondering if anyone can please recommend a particular doll / certain type of doll? Not sure if it's best to just have any kind of doll she can cuddle or a very realistic one...

Many thanks! X

Honestly mine has loads of dolls, but it didn’t help prepare her in anyway really. What did was talking about it lots over many months so she knew what to expect and putting in place plans for who would support her in those early weeks. We put together an activity box with some special treats for the birth and first few days (mine was actually literally there for the birth as I had a home birth), we divided up tasks so one of us could be fully focused on her and the other on baby. You may need to think about who can help you with things like bathing or bedtime if you won’t have a partner home at those times, who can come take your older one to the playground for a few hours to give you a break, etc.

We had a soft bodied but plastic limbed doll around that age. It was light enough for DD to carry as some of the all plastic ones can. be heavy. Think ours was from ELC.

We had an Usborne book about “The New Baby” that was very simple and clear. About mummy going to hospital, visiting them there and new baby coming home.

We never stopped older siblings touching the baby but we always encouraged them to stroke their legs and feet. This kept them away from their face.

We also put a baby gate on the main living area and baby proofed it. So that when I was feeding I had less to worry about as the toddler was contained. Also all their toys were in the same room as us.

Another thing that I was told that sounds a bit strange is if you are doing something for the toddler eg. getting it a snack or drink, something quick - don’t immediately stop it if the baby cries. If the baby cries for 30 secs or 60 secs it won’t know but your toddler will quickly notice if it gets ditched every time the baby starts crying.

Have a change mat and basket (with nappies, wipes, vests, babygro etc) in the main area the toddler spends time. I only ever went upstairs to use the proper change table for DC1.

All mine were around 2 when the next one arrived. The toddler always enjoyed guessing if the baby had done a wee or a poo when the baby needed its nappy changed.

Have a look at rubens barn babies. It's what we've got my DD for when baby arrives. They're anatomically correct and have belly buttons and tongues etc. They fit newborn clothes and slightly weighted.

They use them as empathy dolls for children with autism and old people with Alzheimer's.

We bought a doll for my DS before my DD was born. I'm not sure if it made much difference to how he felt about his newborn sister, but he liked pushing it around in a buggy while we walked miles getting the real baby to sleep! So in that sense it was useful .

Really helpful, thanks guys! Really worried about how my daughter’s going to handle it as at 22 months I am not sure she will understand what’s going on… Going to try all these tips, thank you.

Doll didn’t work for my DD because she’s just not interested in dolls. My age gap is 23 months and I agree with fresh about not dropping everything as soon as the baby cries. I also talk to both girls - so tell DD1 that I’ll be there in a second as I’m feeding/changing DD2 but also tell DD2 that she’ll have to wait for a minute as I’m sorting out DD1s dinner or dressing her or something so that DD1 can hear that she’s not always dropped!

I haven’t had any jealousy from DD1 so it’s been a nice age gap for me.