The dreaded poppers on baby clothes.

POPPERS NIGHTMARE!

So today I am mostly going to be blogging about anti popper clothing!

I am sure many parents with limited movement in their hands will have found a whole range of great clothing available on the high street that have no poppers and I hope eventually people will come along and add their thoughts, for now you'll have to make do with my mothers and my extensive research (which living in Gloucester is hardly a metropolis of fashion wear).

My mum got loads of newborn vests and my father ,with some heavy duty tool from his garage, took out the poppers so my mother could sew on Velcro via her sewing machine. This was all good but very time consuming for the both of them, I couldn't do it because my hands just could not hand sew velcro for hours. Eventually I decided to start looking around more for Velcro clothing, believing there must be some somewhere. I found some, in the UK and in the High Street!!!!!! I enclose the link for you all to view the baby vests, baby-grows and even baby dungarees all with Velcro, the only draw back is they don't go up beyond 4lbs which was fine for Christopher for a while:
All found online on Mothercare under "Premature clothing"

Vests (come in pink or blue): http://www.mothercare.com/Mothercare-Boys-premature-bodysuits/dp/B001E6D10K?ie=UTF8&ref=sr_1_21&nodeId=132186031&sr=1-21&qid=1313917578

Babygrows (pink or blue): http://www.mothercare.com/Mothercare-Girls-Premature-Sleepsuits-3pk/dp/B003UG1ZN2?ie=UTF8&ref=sr_1_1&nodeId=132186031&sr=1-1&qid=1313917673

Look around the site, there are loads of Velcro clothes under this section, however I had to keep looking for other solutions because Christopher was getting huge!

Next have some excellent zip sleepsuits which frankly are fantastic for day wear clothing in the winter as they are a light fleece all in one suits with feet in them so baby can not pull socks off and drop them on a floor you can't get to (a real issue unless like me you have a Canine Partner dog to pick them up for you). These sleepsuits are only available in Next in the winter so stock up! DLA is there for such times to help you purchase easy to manage things when you see them, do not wait till the sales as they are rarely in the sales, the only criticism I would have is the zip is very small which is fine for me but my husband with poor grip can not manage them so I have tied a bit of blue ribbon through the zip so Mark has a bigger target area to pull at,here is a link:

http://www.next.co.uk/x483846s3

You can pick up heavier velor sleepsuits from Supermarkets, I believe Sainsbury's are doing a monster one for boys at £8.50 and there is the girls Pepper Pig version too.

Finally back to vests, my husband and I realise that supermarket value ones have poppers that are easier to do up and undo, we just do one middle popper at the crotch area and it works. Alternatively e-bay comes into its own again because the vests on there have been done up and undone so many times by someone else that by the time they are sold on the poppers have been worn in to be an absolute breeze to do up! Ok so the vests maybe look a little washed out by the time they get to you but vests are for underneath and not often on display, in fact my son is lying here beside me watching baby Einstine sporting no vest, just a envelope neck long sleeve t-shirt and some elastic topped orange shorts and he's not moaning about being cold!

One final suggestion, leggings with feet are excellent day wear for babies and available everywhere from Tescos to Mothercare and Amazon. Get a nice long sleeve envelope neck opening t-shirt and perhaps a nice warm jumper or fleece (again you will find zip fleeces and cardiagans from the high street stores) and your child will be fit for a winters day. Look for leggings with thin elastic at the top if you find pulling up and down heavy elasticated items tricky on yourself, it will be no different on a baby. My husband has poor grip so we have a mix of wide elastic trousers for Christopher which Mark can get hold of to pull on and off Chris and I prefer thin elastic topped items.

There are loads of clothes on the high street, Gap doesn't have much in for disabled parents because every thing is so well made their poppers are incredibly difficult to do and every thing they have in there for boys are popper based.

Vests are not necessary at all really, just be clever with layering in the winter.

Right well as any mother will understand, I have 100s of jobs to do and only 12 hours in which to do it as well as play, read and sing with Christopher. The pile of washing is looming over Christopher who is currently lying on the bed beside it, best go rescue him!