Miniature Monday: Dolls with Cleft Lips and Palates

A/N: Another repost from my doll blog - this was inspired by the #ToyLikeMe campaign which is seeking better representation of disability in the toybox. There is an interesting article HERE about the history of toy diversity.



Cleft lips, alveolus (dental ridge), and palates can come alone or together, in the form of a unilateral or bilateral cleft, and affect about one in every 700 babies born in the UK. It can cause speech and language problems, along with difficulty in feeding and ear infections which can lead to hearing loss. In the worst case scenario babies with a severe cleft, without specialised feeding aids or suffering from associated problems, can die - something which still happens to over 3,000 people every year. Find out more at CLEFT, CLAPA, Operation Smile, or the Smile Train.

My better (worse?) half was born with a cleft palate, so I do have a bit of a personal interest in the condition. I'd love to get Marianna a doll with a cleft one day so she can have a doll like her daddy. :)

Anthony and Marianna.

* All pictures found on Google Images, I make no claim to ownership *

Baby Isabella and Baby Isaac

Created by Tiny Wide Smiles, these dolls are modified to have a left or right unilateral cleft, or a bilateral cleft. They are $50 each but the order period for each batch is quite short, so you need to keep an eye out for updates. You can read more about the Kickstarter that launched the dolls HERE, or check out the Tiny Wide Smiles facebook page. There's a super cute blog of a little girl being given a Baby Isabella HERE.

Cairdeas Doll

Provide a cloth doll and postage costs, and Cairdeas Doll will use embroidery floss to sew a scar matching your child's for free. Read more HERE.

Cleftline Bears

Produced by the Cleft Palate Foundation, these custom made bears have stitches across their lip to represent the scars left by corrective surgery. The bears cost $10 each plus shipping and handling. Read more HERE.

Plush Cleft Doll

Produced by Tiny Wide Smiles these plush dolls come with unilateral or bilateral cleft smiles, and retail for $15. The image above came from the baileyjadekodra blog, check out the full photo shoot HERE. You can purchase them through Tiny Wide Smiles or at cleftopedia.com.



As is often the case with dolls who differ from the 'norm', most dolls with cleft lips or palates are OOAK (one of a kind) dolls created by parents or doll artists.

Amber Carr

These gorgeous Blythe dolls were customised by Amber Carr and sold through the Rockabilly Hoodlum store on eBay.

Christie Durant

Sweet Peas Forever Reborn artist Christie Durant has created some amazingly lifelike baby dolls with cleft lips / palates, representing the condition before and after surgery.

Devon Rescue Dolls

This repainted and customised Bratz doll is currently up for auction on eBay to raise money for CLAPA (Cleft Lip and Palate Association). Devon Rescue Dolls also have an etsy store HERE.

SixStringKate

A mum on babycenter.com customised a Cabbage Patch doll for her son. Read more HERE.

Teruna Kowaii

Work in progress project of a BJD elf with a cleft lip. Read more HERE.

Marisa

#ToyLikeMe challenge doll created by Emma Cayley.

For more like this, please click the image below: