This isn’t a fault of of all movies or TV shows that use fake babies, but some times it’s so very glaring…
Last night I watched Dawn of the Dead and the wrapped up “baby” seemed like it was half the size of the one they showed in the close up. On CSI there was an episode about a baby who died after being left in the car, and when they showed a baby actor he looked about 8-10 months old; the prop they used to carry him out of the car was about the size of a newborn. In the Friends finale the props they used for the baby twins looked like barbie dolls wrapped in towels… The list goes on.
What strikes me odd about this is there are reasonably sized dolls that they could have used to make things look a lot more realistic. I have two Lee Middleton babies that, according to their tags, weigh 2.2lbs and are 17" long. Since they’re not scrunched up like a real newborn, something this size would look like a newborn baby to most people were it artfully wrapped in a blanket. These aren’t expensive dolls, either. You could buy one on e-bay for $20 to $150 dollars, depending on which line you wanted one from, and if you’re going to wrap it up anyway, the cheapest ones would work fine.
With all the effort put into making things look “right” why is there so little effort put into making what’s supposed to represent the youngest characters look even half-way believable?