Reaching a loved one who has cognitive issues because of Alzheimer’s disease or some form of dementia can often be difficult if not impossible. When Aimee and Marvin Potts saw how their grandmother with severe dementia found comfort in holding a baby doll, they came up with an idea for Ladies with Babies, a nonprofit dedicated to bringing doll babies to patients with cognitive issues.
When Patricia Straub—known as Grandma Pattie to her family—developed dementia at age 85, her circle of friends and family found it ever more difficult to have conversations with her. The inability to communicate is one of the main symptoms of dementia and Alzheimer’s.
“Someone at the facility where she lived at that point gave her a doll baby,” Aimee Potts said. “We saw the change almost immediately. It was a beautiful thing—Grandma Pattie could talk to us about her baby. She would dress it and care for it. Grandma Pattie had had eight children in her lifetime, although three had passed away as babies, and her reaction to this doll baby was an instant smile. We finally had something that we could talk to her about.”
Potts also observed behavioral changes. Whereas her grandmother had feared a lift used to move her from her wheelchair to her bed, once she held her doll baby, she became calm.
The idea of donating baby dolls to dementia and Alzheimer’s patients took shape in 2020, although it wasn’t until 2022 that Aimee Potts, along with her husband Marvin, established Ladies with Babies as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization
Although most of the patients receiving the dolls are women, the occasional man may wish to hold one as well, Potts said.
“Usually, people working at the facilities help us identify who might benefit most by having a doll,” Potts said. “But there was an older gentleman who requested one. He used to be a pediatrician, and he also had a younger brother who had passed away. He came to an adult day care center, and the workers saw him hold a doll. The next day, he reported dreaming about his own children as babies.”
Although studies are yet few on the benefits of doll therapy, Potts says she has seen only positive responses.
“I hope to see more research into doll therapy,” she said. “I’ve seen patients who have become combative as a symptom of dementia become calm when given a baby doll. It
relieves their stress. And look at it this way—there are no side effects with these dolls as there are with medications.” To learn more, visit www.LadieswithBabies.org.
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