Preemie clothes fill a big need
"It's hard to feel like a real mother when you can't take care of your baby," said Brooke Cardon, 26, of the harrowing weeks her son, Elliot, spent in the NICU after he was born June 9, 2005. "I felt so helpless."
Debbie Besselievre, Cardon's mother, couldn't stand to watch her daughter hovering so wistfully over Elliot's incubator. The thought came to her, as if in answer to prayer: If only Cardon could dress her little boy like a healthy, full-term baby, then mother and son would bond.
That was the beginning of Elliot's Preemie Tees, a Cedar Hills-based company that specializes in customized clothing for premature babies.
Besselievre quickly discovered that the majority of clothing manufactured for premature infants drowned Elliot, who weighed only 1 pound 12 ounces at birth. Smaller styles either didn't accommodate Elliot's IV or "looked like something an alien would wear," she said.
So, armed with 25 years sewing experience, the new grandmother went to the drawing board.
She researched preemie sizing online, bought the fabric store out of preemie-sized patterns and, with the help of a NICU nurse, took little Elliot's measurements. After that, all it took to make Elliot the best-dressed baby in the NICU was a quarter yard of fuzzy fabric and some colored snaps.
Besselievre fine-tuned the details of the little tees using Elliot as a guinea pig. A tag was too scratchy for his sensitive skin, so she ironed a label on the outside of his clothing. The oxygen tube got in the way when she tried to pull a tee over his head, so she made the outfits snap over each shoulder.
"Elliot's favorite trick was to loop his finger around the oxygen tube and pull it out of his nose," she said. "That's where we got the idea to make the sleeves so they could cover his little hands."
Now Besselievre, through Elliot's Preemie Tees, is dressing babies in intensive care units all over the country.
Some say the clothes do more than keep the babies looking cute and cuddly. According to an observational March of Dimes study, parents who are able to clothe their premature babies develop a bond through caring for their child that they otherwise don't experience.
Recent comments
Our first son was born 30 years ago weighing only 2 pounds. We live...
Illinois Mom and Grandma | June 5, 2008 at 11:45 a.m.
My baby sister was so small at birth we had to buy a little teddy...
tjamescarlson | June 4, 2008 at 3:26 p.m.
What an amazing task and service you provide!! My son was born 15...
Anonymous | June 3, 2008 at 6:49 a.m.
