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Locally made lifelike baby dolls used in nursing homes as therapy dolls for people with dementia

Posted at 5:08 PM, Dec 13, 2016
and last updated 2016-12-14 14:13:53-05

The dolls look like real babies and they're used in local nursing homes.

Lorain County artists Rachel Smith and her sister Kathy Cadle make the babies.

Many of them are used as therapy dolls.

Smith said the dolls calm and relax nursing home residents and even bring back good memories from when they were new parents.

"A lot of people who develop dementia, they end up shutting down," said Cadle." They lose that sense of purpose in their life because they have a hard time functioning, and when they introduce the babies, it does something. It gives them purpose again, and they feel like they're taking care of something, and it brings them back out of their shell."

They're so lifelike that a woman searching Facebook thought they were real and victims of human trafficking!

A police officer showed up at Cadle’s house to ask a few questions.

"He asked to see the baby, and I brought it in, he shook his head, I wasn't expecting this at all, like 'wow hey there's a cop,'" Cadle said. "I said 'nobody is going to believe this, can you take a picture with me, and I can post it?' He said sure OK, and that was nice."

Their story has generated so much publicity they’re getting calls from British Columbia to Brazil from people who want to buy the dolls.