An American mother makes lifelike ‘reborn’ replica baby dolls for women who have lost their own to help them cope, some of which come with real human hair and are scented to smell like a real baby. Karen Elliott, 46, has donated reborns to children’s hospitals and care homes in the US to remind patients with dementia of their children.
Karen’s grandchildren live in America, so she has reborns as a comforting replacement for them and has even made some for her eldest daughter, Rachel, 27, and her grandchildren, Caleb, six, Emily, five, and Hadleigh, three months, which they treat as real babies. Karen has two reborns – Roxy, a newborn, and Jupiter, a 10-month-old, who is made with real human hair and smells like a real baby.
Karen, from Tennessee but now living in Morecambe, Lancashire, claims reborns act as a comfort for many people who have lost babies, with her most memorable creation being for a friend who lost twin girls. She explained: “One died after three days, and the other one was four days old when she passed away.
