I just discovered this company and thought I'd throw it out to the forum. There is a rather disturbing (well, to me it's disturbing) share about getting a doll for a patient who is hallucinating about giving birth soon and wanting to breastfeed. In my opinion, take it or leave it, I think this product is much more acceptable as it can travel with the patient anywhere she goes.
https://joyforall.com/?gclid=CjwKCAjwnZaVBhA6EiwAVVyv9Cb9BNH4G5e10QW4GcQi71gqUVWMCxVLpuMdQ1i1wB5Cs0z0GiTRXhoClR4QAvD_BwE
Validation is a real strategy in dealing with dementia but there is such a thing as taking things to ridiculous extremes - if someone believed they were a surgeon or a police officer you aren't taking them into the OR or out on patrol. If a woman believed she was pregnant then you could just allow her to enjoy the happy anticipation.
For someone desiring a lifelike faux animal, their cats are absolutely the best. They are designed to be held in laps and just interact with good cat behaviors.
In the second month of mils chemo, cat scratch fever put her in the icu. We put her real one in boarding for a month, after which she insisted on it back. If she gets worse enough to be put in rehab or snf, I’m going to get her one of these cats.
Also, mil was in her first chemo entirely during the pandemic. With complications, this entailed 10 hosps. We presented her with a small bear won at a fair years ago, tags still intact. The bear went with her as the only object she could cuddle for comfort. When I had to go to surgery, I brought my bear too.
If you go into a Memory Care ALF, you're likely to find a whole lot of baby dolls and both men & women carrying them around 'caring' for them as if they're real babies. They bring comfort to these elders, and that is the whole purpose of them. What you and I think about them, and whether they're 'disturbing' or not, is irrelevant.
Someone else may purchase the chicken you've linked to for their loved one suffering from dementia and a friend or family member may find IT disturbing. The main thing is that the chicken brings YOUR loved one with dementia some level of peace and comfort, that's all.
So different strokes for different folks, is the point.
Baby dolls CAN (and do) indeed travel along with dementia patients wherever they go, much like real babies travel with their mothers. What we do with these folks is WE enter THEIR reality, that's the only way to go. (The dementia has caused them to have traveled back in time to when they were young mothers/parents and that's why they're wanting to cuddle and care for babies again). Anyone telling you otherwise is mistaken or worrying about the wrong things in life!
My mother had advanced dementia and was quite agitated during the last few months of her life. If I thought I could make her happy and comfort her by sending in a man in tights on a flying trapeze, then I'd have sent in a man in tights on a flying trapeze, quite happily and without reservation. That the rest of the world would look at us like we were crazy would be something that wouldn't faze me in the least. Until & unless a person has lived the nightmare of dementia/ALZ, they have no idea about it at all.
Whatever is 'acceptable' to the dementia sufferer is, and should be, 'acceptable' to us and to everyone else they come into contact with. Once we accept that they are living in a different reality than we are, we're all set. Be it a baby doll or an interactive stuffed animal, they're both great ideas to help comfort elders without the need for psychotropic medications!
Some people have little cards made up that say something to the effect of, "Please know that my mother is suffering from Alzheimer's so I appreciate your patience with her."
Thank you for providing this link which is another useful tool for caregivers to have in their toolbox when caring for loved ones suffering from ALZ/dementia.