A CREATIVE city boutique owner has taken the wraps off a clothing range for severely disabled children who have to feed through a tube in a bid to provide a vital lifeline for mums and dads across Worcester.
Castlemorton mum Charlotte Evans, founder of Lulah Rayne Boutique, was inspired to devise the clothing after being contacted by the mum of a county youngster with a rare condition which affects just 4,000 girls worldwide.
The Polly Romper is specially adapted to provide access to the feeding tube.
The clothing chief hopes the Polly Romper range will come to the aid of mums and dads around the county to ensure they can enjoy family days out and as normal life as possible.
After opening its doors in November 2018, the plastic-free boutique sought to create handmade clothing and products for children. But a conversation with a local mum inspired Charlotte to create a range of clothing inclusive of children with all abilities
Amy Mills, mother of Polly, contacted Charlotte to enquire about a handmade romper which could be adapted to help feeding through her G-Tube easier and more accessible
“Polly has Aicardi-Syndrome, a really rare brain condition which only affects girls. She is one of 4,000 known cases in the world,” she said.
“Polly is epileptic, non verbal, non mobile, only fed via tube, visually impaired, hearing impaired, has cysts on her brain, her hips haven’t formed properly and she is high risk scoliosis.
“After Amy contacted me it made me think, is there a need for this? Is there a problem here which we could potentially solve?
Charlotte began to research the illness online and discovered there were no other markets out there for this adapted clothing and discovered other illnesses which would benefit from such clothing.
“We sketched out some ideas and finally came up with the handmade adapted romper which we chose to call the ‘Polly Romper’ after Polly who inspired us to create this,” Charlotte said.
A delighted Amy said: “The flap in the romper allows us to access her button which is the port in her stomach her tube attaches to which enables us to feed her and give her all of her medication without having to undress her”
“Having accessible clothing means we are not restricted to just tops and bottoms and can wear ‘normal’ outfits,” she added.
After the success of the initial clothing, Charlotte now hopes to reach out to other families to ensure days out are less of a struggle.
“We would love to reach out to any other families who are in need of a little helping hand with children’s clothing that needs to be adapted,” she added.
