The first realistic baby dolls were designed by a doll artist called Lee Middleton. She shocked the doll world with her amazing baby dolls that were designed to look and feel just like a real baby. With a weighted baby doll body and real infant features, little girls believed their baby doll was a real infant. They had feather-thin hair, bodies that smelled like powder, and the dolls flopped in your arms just like a real baby, so you had to hold up their heads. Shop baby dolls your little one will love to take care of!
At Beach House Gift Boutique, we carry a selection of vintage lifelike baby dolls for both children to play with and adults to collect.
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With the introduction of a realistic baby doll in the doll world, it opened a whole new door in the collectible baby dolls market. Many doll companies introduced new, first baby dolls, like the Ashton Drake Company, that designed the popular “Oh So Truly Real Baby Dolls.” They were so real that when they were left unattended in a car, people tried to save the doll! They were sought after and became highly collectible dolls.
The Madame Alexander Doll Company had what was known as Baby Huggums, the first baby doll for toddlers. They added a new body style to their Baby Huggums doll, making it a weighted baby doll that was even a great play baby doll for girls as young as three years old, when most lifelike dolls were created for older girls.
The doll market changed even more when a doll company from Spain created realistic baby doll bodies that were the gender of girls or boys. These baby dolls became popular when a family had a baby and the older sibling could now have a real newborn doll to take care of, just like their mommy’s real baby.
The Adora Doll Company added Toddler Time baby dolls that featured dolls that were older than an infant. These dolls were in a toddler stage of life with hair you could play with and bodies that could sit up and were not floppy. They had adorable facial features with full eyelashes, movable heads, and high-quality doll clothes. You just wanted to hug them and carry them with you wherever you went! Today, the Adora Toddler dolls are still played with and highly collected.
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