Baby Alive Doll had maggots

[queen of the caramels]

I just picked this up from another board I'm on. Any truth to this.

I looked into this doll when my daughter said she wanted it because i had worried about it...i found out that in the 80's they had to take this doll of the market because they oped a bunch up and they had maggots in them...now they are putting this doll back on the shelf...I personally wouldn't buy one just in case they haven't perfected it...I wouldn't want maggots crawling around my kids room...

[Eddylizard]

Well depending on the composition of the doll, I suppose from an uneducated viewpoint that if it was stuffed with kapok, there could be some sort of larval infestation in it, being as it is the fibre from the seedpod of the kapok tree, and lots of things live in trees. Probably not maggots, as their eggs are laid and develop in meat and carrion, but maggoty enough to the untrained eye.

Further investigation would probably require knowing which particular doll "this doll" is. I would have thought if they were selling it now, even if they did have a problem in the 80's they would have resolved it by now.

[Brad from Georgia]

I think the problem is they bought a "Baby Used to Be Alive" doll by mistake.

[queen of the caramels]

I've been A-Googling and think I've discovered the problem was a lack of cleanliness when "feeding" the mush into the doll.

I've also sent an e-mail to Hasbro and am awaiting the result.Cos I never thought of contacting th manufacter .

[Auntie Witch]

My niece has one. We hate it. And I can see easily how it could become infested. The thing doesn't have a very big mouth, but it only "poops" if you make it, and the holes for feeding and evacuation are large enough for a fly to enter. So if a kid feeds their doll without making it potty afterward, or rinsing it out, or if they try to feed it something other than what it's supposed to eat (some flour mixture, that I suppose is supposed to dry up before it could draw flies), then flies could be attracted to it. Of course, it would probably start to smell first, but if it were hidden in the back of a toy box or closet, it might not be discovered until too late.

I am never going to buy my daughter one of those. Even when I was a kid I thought they were lame. What I wanted was a My Buddy or a Kid Sister.

[moonlight]

Originally Posted by Brad from Georgia

I think the problem is they bought a "Baby Used to Be Alive" doll by mistake.

Wow. That was my first YOMANK in a long time.

I wanted one when I was little, but my mother wouldn't consider it. She knew people who had them and the little tubes full of the food would smell and they were supposed to be really hard to get clean (which makes sense - try cleaning a crazy straw well). Baby Tender Love was cooler anyway.

[lynnejanet]

I heard this back in the 80s when the dolls were popular, and never doubted it, because the things were disgusting, and I could easily see how fly larva would get into the inner workings of the doll.

A girl I babysat had one, and it smelled to high heaven. Being kids, they would feed it just about everything they could get down it's gullet, and lots of it was mushy and sweet. I never witnessed maggots coming out of it, but sometimes the food would stay in for hours or days before it "pooped" it out. I've always thought it was the weirdest concept for a doll, ever.

Forget worrying about whether or not it has maggots or flies in it - hasn't anyone just looked at the FACE this doll has and just wanted to run away screaming? It's the scariest thing since Chucky in the Child's Play movies.





YIKES!

[Artemis]

Ah, it's HIDEOUS!

Do you actually feed it real food or toy food? People were talking about the smell...does the toy food smell that bad?

[Xia]

Aaah! It should be called Baby Alien Alive or something. It looks nothing like a human baby!

The "food" that you give the doll is apparently made of sorbital. Not sure what, if any, the other ingredients are. I would guess however that the smelliness people were commenting on was most likely from children trying to feed their doll something other than the "doll food."

[queen of the caramels]

I've had a reply from Hasbro.

Thank you for contacting us. We appreciate your taking the time to share your opinions with us.

Please note that when the Kenner Company was only purchased by Hasbro Inc. in 1991, therefore this product was not manufacytured and distributed by us back then. Please note that if back then, children fed real food to the dolls, there would be a strong chance that this would create problems with the doll.

The Hasbro Baby Alive food packets, along with the drink packets, come with instructions on how to flush out the doll.

All of the ingredients in the mixes are used in everyday foods. Here are thr ingredients list: algin, silica, sorbitol, citric acid, potassium sorbate, yellow 5, blue 1 and red 40.

I hope this information is of some use to you.

Consumer satisfaction is very important to us. We will share your comments with our management team so that they are also aware of your views.

We want to assure you that we are dedicated to maintaining quality products and service. We hope you and your family will continue to enjoy our products for many years to come.

Again, thank you for contacting us, and for your comments.

So it does look to me like a lack of cleaning after "feeding" than some fault in the doll itself.

Originally Posted by fictionallie

Forget worrying about whether or not it has maggots or flies in it - hasn't anyone just looked at the FACE this doll has and just wanted to run away screaming?

Oh my word. Maggots can only improve on that.

[nonnieyrissa]

My youngest, Angelina recieved not 1 but 3 of the horrid things for her birthday last year! If you think the picture is creepy you really do not want to see it in action. It has stretchy rubber skin that forms really creepy expressions when it speaks. My daughter has no use for them (the one time she played with one she opened the diaper and said "I am NOT doing this!"), but her brothers had a blast grossing out our neighbors child until they left them on the porch and they came down with a case of friut flies and were promptly discarded.

Wow it's a lot uglier than it used to be, even. And it was none too pretty then.

[boogers]

I have a Chucky doll and it isn't that ugly!

Lynda Barry once did a comic strip along these lines--something about feeding a baby drink n' wet doll milk and then leaving it in the sun. It ended with "You'll never play with that doll again."