One of the most dif­fi­cult aspects of being a child with inflam­ma­tory bowel dis­ease or any chronic med­ical con­di­tion is the iso­la­tion of being dif­fer­ent from other chil­dren. Chil­dren with ostomies often feel “dif­fer­ent” from their peers and may have low-self esteem if they feel like they don’t fit in. Ostomy Dolls are a great way to be both the “friend like me” and a teach­ing tool for chil­dren. Ostomy Dolls are warm, hug­gable dolls for chil­dren who need some­one with whom to share the ostomy experience.

Ostomy Dolls are anatom­i­cally cor­rect so that chil­dren can under­stand the phys­i­cal aspects of their con­di­tion. The dolls can be used to span the psy­cho­log­i­cal gap between treat­ment and aware­ness. When seen first on their doll, a scar, a catheter, or an ostomy stoma are far less fright­en­ing for chil­dren. Dolls can also be used to demon­strate basic care so that chil­dren can under­stand why their par­ents must do cer­tain things to ensure the child’s health.

Once they recover from the surgery, many chil­dren with ostomies are free to run, swim, climb trees, and par­tic­i­pate in group sports. The ostomy itself should not keep a child from nor­mal activ­i­ties, how­ever, there may be under­ly­ing phys­i­cal causes that led to the ostomy that cause restric­tions for some chil­dren. Ostomy Dolls are a unique form of play ther­apy because they remain with the chil­dren through­out their treat­ment. The goal is to help chil­dren with ostomies view them­selves in a pos­i­tive manner.

So far we have only found two dolls avail­able for pur­chase. If you know of any more, please con­tact us* with the link so we can share this impor­tant resource. (* See our Con­tact Page)

Ostomy Bud­dies:  These dolls are pro­duced by the Shadow Bud­dies Foun­da­tion which was founded by a mother whose child had phys­i­cal lim­i­ta­tions. Her goal was to pro­vide emo­tional sup­port through edu­ca­tion regard­ing ill­ness, dis­abil­ity or med­ical treatments.

To find out more about Ostomy Bud­dies, visit the Shadow Bud­dies Foun­da­tion at www.Shadowbuddies.org