Jenna's Jammies

Thanks to my new pal Laurie, mother of 7-year-old Jenna, It’ll Fit’ll is developing a new product and I couldn’t be more excited. I think of this product as a “dream” product. It will, as you might have guessed, be called “Jenna’s Jammies”. That’s the girl’s line, anyway. We’ll probably call the boy’s line the “Boy’s One Piece Sleeper.”

Jenna’s Jammies will, indeed, be a one piece sleeper. The unique aspect of the product is that it will zipper in the back. Laurie explained to me that Jenna, who wears a diaper at night, would routinely take off her pajamas and diaper in bed sometime during the night. To avoid that situation, and the messes that implies, Laurie began buying one piece sleepers for Jenna – and putting them on backward. That way the zipper is in the back and Jenna can’t get herself out of the jammies during the night. Problem solved!

My first thought was “What an ingenious, elegant solution!” I immediately shared the insight with Susie. She completely agreed. Speaking with that awed tone of someone who’s just been illuminated by the bright light bulb, Susie explained that she’d had the same problem with Helen. But, Susie said, she would never have thought of such a creative, yet straightforward approach. Instead she just suffered through that long period, cleaning up the messes when they occurred and breathing a big sigh of relief when Helen was able to make it through the night without needing a diaper. The beauty part of Jenna’s Jammies is that once a child reaches the point of not needing the overnight diaper, the jammies are still useful. They still do their basic job, keeping the child warm and covered during the night.

This is exactly the kind of product that Susie and I feel great about producing. It fills a unique, important need and will make life a little easier for you parents in its humble, yet profound, way. While the need may be limited to a particular development period, and will likely never be a blockbuster in terms of sales volume, it’s a blockbuster idea in that it solves a problem with great practicality and simplicity.

We are working hard to have Jenna’s Jammies available for purchase at the convention of the National Down Syndrome Congress in Boston in July. We’ll have a girl’s version as well as a boy’s version. The size range will be 4 through 7. So, we’ll have sizes 4, 5, 6, and 7; the size should generally correlate to age (in years.) We will have a fleece version, for the colder months, and lighter weight cotton knit for the warmer months. Our current plan is to make the sleeper footless. As practical moms we think that the absence of feet allows kids to wear them for a longer period of growth. A sleeper with attached feet will stretch and pull and stop fitting once the child grows beyond a certain point. These sleepers will be so durable and well made that they will hold up to a very long period of use.

We also plan to have the flap that snaps at the neckline/top of zipper. That’s usually there to cover the zipper pull so that the child is less likely to be scratched by it. In this case, we’ll include the flap in order to limit access to the zipper and thereby make the jammies harder to remove during the night.

Please share your own thoughts and design ideas about this one-piece zippered sleeper. We want to produce the best product possible for you guys. So, do let us hear from you. In the meantime, sweet dreams to us all.