Why Do Some Dementia Patients Get Attached to Baby Dolls?

If you ever visited a loved one in a dementia unit, you probably saw one or more baby dolls around. Let’s talk about it.

Depending on the stage of the disease, dementia patients may travel in time. Their bodies are right there, sitting on the couch of the facility, but their minds may be in a different time of their lives. They commonly mistake peers or caregivers for family members or friends who used to be part of their lives decades ago. They revive emotions and reproduce meaningful relationships from the past.

 For some patients, the disease brings back busy times when their babies deeply needed them.

A study published at the National Library of Medicine in February 2022 about doll therapy brings conclusions that may interest everyone at some level involved with Alzheimer’s and other dementia diseases.

What’s Doll Therapy? “A non-pharmacological person-centered therapy to promote attachment, company, and usefulness to minimize challenging behaviors.”

Everyone needs some emotional attachment, and we like to be helpful. It doesn’t change when we develop dementia, but the disease affects how we satisfy these emotional needs.

In Doll Therapy, the patients dedicate themselves to “care of their baby dolls.” The same patient may alternate moments when they believe it’s a real baby with others when they know it’s only a doll.

The study finds the following benefits in Doll Therapy:

• Reduced psychological and behavioral symptoms of dementia.
• Improved emotional state with diminished disturbing behaviors.
• Enhanced communication with the environment.

The staff or family members need to follow some guidelines to get only the best of Doll Therapy, as an article published at Very Well Health website highlights:

• Follow the patient’s lead. Is it a baby or a doll? As we mentioned before, treat the doll according to what it represents to the patient at the specific moment. Instead of offering the doll, let the patient establish the terms of the relationship.
• If you note that the patient is getting overwhelmed to the point of missing meals or activities to care for the “baby,” offer solutions, like assuring that someone is “babysitting.”
• It doesn’t benefit everyone. Some patients simply don’t show interest in realistic dolls, and it’s ok. There are other non-pharmacological therapies you may try.

Via Health Services is the mother company of Via Iris, the first memory care unit only for women in Central Iowa.