Mums are great. Not only to they have a natural ability to do ten things at once, eyes in the backs of their heads and a built in radar that spots danger at ten paces. But when there isn’t a product on the market that does the job they want it to do for their little ones… they invent something that will!
Many of the best award-winning and most widely used products for babies have been invented by parents. We know what’s best for our baby, what we want products to do (and what we don’t want them to do!). So we take a peek at our favourite ingenious baby products, that came from the minds of Mums.
This week…
Monkey Swimmers
On a family holiday to America in 2008, Mum Donna Heaton bought a pair of plastic inflatable arm bands for her 3 year old daughter, Millie. Like the old plastic balloon-type bands we used to dread having slung around our shoulders as children, they were less than comfortable. Not only were they difficult to put on, but they scratched her (and others that brushed by!) and when they were removed, they pulled the hair from her arms and left ink markings on her skin! It was then that Mum Donna began to conjure up a better solution.
Donna found out that Plastic Inflatable Armbands were invented in 1956 in Germany, the same year Elvis released his first hit! And in the 55 years that followed, the market had seen very little in the way of innovation for children’s swimming aids. So… she invented one herself!
The Monkey Swimmers were such a hit when they landed on the market, that they made it down to the final two of 64 businesses for an innovation in baby products award with the Baby Products Association.
Donna has had some great feedback from the likes of John Lewis, Toys r us, Amazon and also had interest from distributors in the USA, Australia and many European countries.
Donna said;
“MonkeySwimmers were developed out of a bad experience with a cheap product. It has taken three years, from actually having the idea to getting a product that we can sell! Anyone who ever says developing a product or setting a new business up is easy is kidding themselves and now I can understand why many good ideas never make it into the shops.”
We agree, and love the Monkey Swimmers for their comfortable fit, additional swimmers story book and for keeping our little water babes afloat!
