For Summer McCune and daughter Adler, a lot of long nights fueled the idea for NolaBee Awareness Jammies. Adler suffered from Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID) as an infant, and McCune relied on ‘dream feedings’ – feeding Adler when she was asleep – to give her the nutrition she needed to survive. The experience weighed on McCune, a former art teacher who left her job to care for Adler and her two older brothers. She recalls feeling isolated and depressed during the months before receiving a diagnosis for Adler’s relatively uncommon condition and resources to help her start eating willingly (Adler is now almost 2 – and thriving).
“I decided when I was painting, I was going to tell her story and raise awareness,” said McCune. “If anyone is going through what I am, I want to be there for them.”
McCune decided to make pajamas as a nod to dream feeding. She created a line of soft, bamboo pj’s (Safe Sleep-certified) with a hand-painted pattern referencing Adler’s story. Her design was inspired by “Five Little Speckled Frogs” (with NOLA flair), the song she sang to calm Adler during a hard refusal.
Then McCune decided: “If I’m going to do this for Adler, why not open it to other children who are brave out there facing different diagnoses?” So, in late 2022, McCune began inviting other families to share their children’s stories, creating new lines and patterns around those children and their diagnoses, which now include more than a dozen collections – and counting. The pajamas run from infant through adult size 3x, with a portion of proceeds donated to Children’s Hospital New Orleans, and each comes with a curated story list related to the pattern or diagnosis.
Currently, more than 100 kids are on the waitlist to be represented. “I want to start knocking off that list and give children the spotlight they deserve,” said McCune. She also hopes Awareness Jammies reach families who don’t have a child with special needs. “It’s about strangers befriending strangers, putting a face to a diagnosis. If parents are willing to take time and teach, the differences don’t stand out as much.”
