Aussie woman reveals how super realistic baby dolls 'saved her life'

An Australian woman has revealed how becoming a 'mother' to a set of ultra realistic dolls helped cure her chronic illness and now she's trying to raise awareness for the form of therapy. 

In an essay written for lifestyle site Mamamia, Patrizia Bartolomei explained that her life and health went downhill after she lost contact with her three sons, almost 20 years ago. 

"I grieve for my kids. They're not dead, but I grieve for them because I can't talk to them… I don't know what's going on in their lives," she wrote.

"I couldn't cope. I kept crying all the time. I would just cry and cry and cry." 

Bartolomei wrote that she struggled with depression and fibromyalgia, and was placed on 15 medications by her increasingly helpless psychologist. 

"[Then] three years ago, I got so desperate that one day I just typed 'realistic-looking baby dolls' into Google and [Reborn doll artist] Annette Kravchenko's videos popped up," she wrote. 

"I spent hours and hours looking at her tutorials and her babies that looked so real."

Bartolomei sought out an Australian artist who created 'reborn dolls', which are dolls created to resemble a human infant with as much realism as possible.

"The minute she put that baby doll in my arms I just burst into tears. It gave me a nurturing feeling, the feeling a mother gets when she holds her newborn."

Now Bartolomei "has quite a few babies" and she takes her dolls everywhere she goes, complete with a pram and car seat.

"It's changed my life completely. I'm down to three medications. Even my GP can't believe it," she revealed. 

"Just because I'm 64 and I have a pram and I have a therapy baby, it doesn't mean I'm crazy.

"When I'm out with one of my babies, most of the time, people think she's real. But my psychologist said to me, 'Don't fool people, because it's not right'. 

"If people say, 'Oh, your baby looks gorgeous,' I always say, 'Thank you. She's my therapy baby'." 

As an advocate for the form of therapy, Bartolomei has a YouTube channel where she documents her life and a Facebook support group for other 'reborners'. 

"There's about 20 of us and we meet up every three weeks," she explained. "I want people to be able to find a certain amount of peace, like I have."

There are several online retailers of reborn dolls in New Zealand and similar online support groups for Kiwi 'reborners'. 

Baby Talk: What to do when your child refuses to share with others?

DUBAI: It’s a situation mothers stand confused and embarrassed in the face of. No attempts to explain to the child help, and no reprimand works.

When a child refuses to share a toy with others, it’s simply because they’re defending what they consider an “extension of themselves,” and accepting to share that toy with others means, for them, that they’ve given up “a piece of themselves.”

The truth is that children under age three tend to consider every one of their toys their personal property, even in public play spaces, where they refuse to share them even with a friend. Therefore, quarrels among children are usually about ownership of things or games.

How can a mother behave in a situation like this?

At home, have them choose the toys and things that they like a lot, and agree with them that these are “just theirs” and will not be shared with anyone.

In turn, explain to them that it’s all right if some of the other toys are shared with the friends they love.

Don’t force them to share with other children when they refuse, but show them how wonderful it is to share by saying, “Okay, you can play with your truck now, but it’s all right if you lend it to your friend when you’re done.” When they do, hug them and say, “Look how happy he is that you lent him the truck!”

 Lay down a few rules for shared playtime, by saying, for example, “You can take the toy that no one is playing with; otherwise, you have to ask your friend to lend you the toy they have. If they do, lend them the toy of yours that they pick out.”

Use a timer if the competition for a toy gets heated between your child and another child. Tell them that each of them will have the toy for five minutes and will then give it to the other. Let the beeping of the timer judge between them. Children under three years old may not understand sharing, but they may like the game of exchanging toys at a certain time.

If the children continue to quarrel over the toy, take it away and say that they’ll have to make do with the other toys; then they’ll be obliged to accept the principle of sharing because they’ll find that it’s in their best interest.

Remember that you have to set a good example for your child on the subject of sharing, by dividing a sandwich with their father in the presence of the child, for example, or drawing their attention to your neighbor’s intentions, saying “Look, our neighbor will take the vacuum cleaner and will return it to us in a little while.”