Baby Annabell Brother Interactive Doll

It seems that in this day and age, that gender stereotypes still exist, whereby, it is felt that boys should not play with dolls, or things that are deemed ‘girly’ as that is somehow doing them a disservice. I hate this and I for one, am not not one of those people!

When it comes to buying toys for my sons, I try not to limit what they can choose to play with. If they want a superhero, that’s fine. The same with if they wanted to pretend to be a daddy, that’s okay too.

A Baby Annabell brother doll with blue eyes and no hair is dressed in a blue babygro with a sheep illustration and a pink badge, lying on a grey blanket with cloud patterns.

So when we had the chance to receive the Baby Annabell Brother Interactive Doll I thought it would be a great way to let the boys play ‘daddy’ for a bit and give them that bit of responsibility.

Baby Annabell’s brother is quite different to regular dolls though, as he is interactive. So not only an you hold him and play with him, pretending he’s a baby, but he also drinks water, cries, and even reacts to the environment that he is in, making him feel just like a real baby (but without the dirty nappies!).

A young boy in an orange hoodie sits on the floor, smiling as he feeds a Baby Annabell doll dressed in blue with a toy bottle.

Baby Annabell’s brother, or ‘Bob’ as my children named him (and what I now shall call him), is still a delicate little baby and needs plenty of sleep. To get Bob to sleep, you have to treat him as a real baby and rock him in your arms. If he cries, you just need to gently stroking on his cheek to calm him down and he will then fall asleep immediately.

Just remember though that Baby Annabell’s brother will not stay asleep unless he is laid horizontally. Then can be woken up by lifting her into the upright position. To get him back to sleep, gently stroke him on the cheek and he will be content, he’ll sigh and then go back to sleep.

A young boy in a blue shirt sits on a sofa, gently holding a Baby Annabell doll dressed in a blue outfit and hat with a dummy in its mouth.

When he wakes up, it’s time for something to eat. What’s amazing is that when you give him his bottle, with real water!, he will move his face moves as he sucks, just like a real baby. but don’t forget to wind Baby Annabell’s brother after his feed otherwise he will cry for a while and will not burp. To get him to burp, you just gently pat his back and then the doll will go back to his happy, smiley self.

And then, that water that you just fed your baby, will be the tears that come out when he gets upset. To calm him down you need to pat his back, give him the dummy or a bit more bottle. If those fail then you can also stroke his cheek.

A toddler in a yellow shirt leans down to kiss the forehead of a Baby Annabell doll dressed in blue, lying on a grey blanket with a red rug partially visible in the background.

When you give Baby Annabell’s brother his dummy, he will make realistic mouth movements and sucking sounds and will open and closes her eyes. By removing his dummy, Baby Annabell’s brother will start to babble, but after giving the dummy 3 times, he will cry.

The interactive doll is amazing. To look at him, you might just think he’s a regular doll, but he does all these extras. He can drink water, cry, sigh, sleep and even move his face. And if he’s set down for so long, he’ll automatically switch off to sleep too.

A young child sleeps in bed, covered with a blue blanket and cuddling a Baby Annabell doll dressed in blue. The pillow has comic book characters printed on it.

After a few weeks of playing with this cute doll, the boys have not only gained a beautiful toy that they can cherish, but the Baby Annabell Brother Doll

has also given my sons a little bit of responsibility of getting to look after someone.

And you know what, there is nothing wrong with boys playing with dolls. What are people worried about, that they might turn out to be good fathers and role models. Now that’s something that I can definitely live with!