A mother who came up with a unique plan to help her toddler sleep backfired after he became obsessed with the ‘creepy’ doll head she gave him.
Ilarni Clark’s 14-months-old son used to play with her hair to help him sleep. But as he got older, having her hair pulled gives her a headache.
So she decided to use a doll’s head with a similar color and length to hers. It seemed like a perfect idea until little Harry became attached to the head and now he won’t eat, sleep or leave the house without it.
“It started because Harry wouldn’t settle unless he was twiddling with my hair. He’s done it since he was a baby,” Ilarni shared.
“I couldn’t leave him with his dad because he doesn’t have any hair to play with and he just wouldn’t sleep at all.
“A week ago I put something on Facebook saying I needed some help because I constantly had a headache and couldn’t sleep because he was pulling my hair out in the night.
“People commented on Facebook and said to get a Baby Annabelle or some extensions, but I didn’t think it would work.
“Then one of my friends who’s a hairdressing trainee messaged me saying she had a spare hairdressing doll if I wanted to try it.
“The doll hair is the same colour and same length as my hair. I don’t think he notices it’s any different. He took to it straight away. He absolutely loves it.
“Then it started getting weirder.”
Ilarni admitted that the doll’s head freaked them out numerous times but Harry doesn’t want to give it up.
“In our bed, there’s me, Callum, Harry – and the doll’s head. It has given me a few frights in the middle of night.
“For the first couple of nights I shouted ‘Callum, there’s someone in the room!’ We’ve both done it.
“He carries it around everywhere he goes. He won’t eat his breakfast or his meals unless the doll is with him. We went to go to town and I said, ‘come on, we’ll go in the car’ and he was halfway through the door with it.
“I refused to take the doll’s head with me, and he had an absolute meltdown and screamed. I had to distract him with something else.
“I’ve gone over and given the doll a kiss by accident instead of Harry. It takes about half an hour to get back to sleep because you get such a shock.”
But it seems the doll has a positive influence on little Harry as he can sleep without having to be rocked.
Ilarni added: “At the weekend, my partner’s mum rang me and he’d fallen asleep on his own. He’s never done that. I normally have to rock his pram to go to sleep. He needs to be moving to sleep normally.
“I’ve tried everything to get him to fall asleep on his own, but yesterday he got on the sofa, got his doll head and fell asleep for an hour and a half.
“This is the secret – get a creepy hairdressing doll. He does normally sleep through the night, but last night he was a nightmare.”
She added: “I took the doll head off him because I don’t let him sleep with it while I’m asleep in case the hair goes round his neck. He woke up and noticed, then screamed for about three hours.”
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