These are a few clothing resources and practical ideas we have found helpful for celebrating limb differences and making life with prosthetics a little more comfortable.
Mermaid Strides
Mermaid Strides is an Etsy store creating inspiring apparel that celebrates limb differences. Their designs feature unique, kid-friendly characters with prosthetic limbs and other limb differences, helping children see strength and joy reflected in every piece.
Winter Leg Wraps for Prosthetics
We learned pretty quickly that keeping Gwen’s legs warm in the winter was harder than we expected. The first time it became an issue was during a sledding trip. We bundled her up the same way you would any kid with boots, snow pants, and layers. It was very cold, so we did not stay out long, even though she was having a great time.
She never complained while we were outside. But once we got back in the car and it started to warm up, she suddenly let out a painful cry. I pulled over, took her prosthetics off, and her residual limbs were ice cold. After a few minutes they warmed back up and she was okay, but it was scary.
The next winter we went to an outdoor stadium hockey game. This time we layered even more. Multiple pairs of pants, extra insulation, everything we could think of. It was not even that cold outside, but once again, after getting back into the warm car, she cried out in pain. After that second experience, we knew we needed a better solution.
What we realized was that cold air was getting in through the bottom of her pants and straight into her prosthetic sockets. Socks do not come up high enough to help, and once cold air gets into the socket, it stays there. We needed something that would block the air completely.
We started with simple cotton leg warmers and added a drawstring at the bottom so they could be tied like a shoelace and sealed around the bottom of her prosthetics. That helped, and we still send her to school in those on cold days.
We chose to use a winter coat as the starting point because it already solved a lot of problems for us. The fabric was wind resistant, it had insulation, and it already included a lining. The sleeves were also roughly the right shape for what we needed. It ended up being much easier to take something that was already designed for cold weather and modify it than to buy all the materials separately and try to build something from scratch.
We bought a winter coat in a size large enough that the sleeves would fit over her prosthetic legs. We cut the sleeves off, sewed elastic into the shoulder end, and sealed it back up. Then we added a pink ribbon near the bottom of each sleeve so we could tie it in a bow around the bottom of her prosthetics. That seal keeps cold air from getting into the socket.
So far, we have taken her to multiple outdoor events in cold weather without any issues. If your child struggles with cold prosthetics in the winter, this approach might be worth trying.
