Taking a child to the doctor doesn’t have to be a traumatic experience, even if there’s a needle involved.
So says a Singapore startup called Joytingle, whose designer founders wanted to calm the fear of needles in kids. They concluded that it’s often a fear of the unknown, rather than the pain, that makes kids squirm and cry.
So they went the way of startups like iDerma and Sproutel and developed a doll called Rabbit Ray. He comes in two forms — one is a plush hand puppet designed for use at home, and the other is a silicone and plastic doll that can be wiped down and used in a hospital setting.
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With the doll comes a set of kid-friendly tools that resemble a syringe and plastic tube used during a blood draw, so little ones can play doctor on Rabbit Ray. He also comes with an interactive e-book and an x-ray transparency showing major body organs that kids can attach to his belly.
The idea is that children play with the doll and the e-book to understand how and why a blood draw is performed, with the hope of soothing some of their fear leading up to the procedure.
It’s been tested with kids and healthcare professionals, and now Joytingle has turned to Indiegogo to raise the $15,000 it needs to start production of the dolls.
Previously, Rabbit Ray was a finalist in the 2011 James Dyson Awards, an annual international student design competition.
