Supermom with Superstyle: Leah Saik and Little Hippy CO

Around 3% of all babies are born with developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH), a condition where the hip joint doesn’t correctly form in babies. Left untreated, this dislocation can get increasingly worse, impacting the child’s ability to walk and perform daily tasks normally.  This underrepresented statistic affects the lives of many families around the world, yet the accessibility, stigma, and logistics behind treatment receive little relief from parents juggling a new child at the very same time. 

Leah Saik, an infant DDH clothing entrepreneur, is moving towards a more inclusive and stylish way of aiding new parents in treating newborns with DDH. 

“One of the things we struggled with was sleep products– so something really important to me was trying to find sleep sacks that accommodate him [Saik’s son] and his pavlik harness [a harness strapped on the knees of feet of baby to stabilize the hips and prevent further displacement],” explained Saik.

Collaborating with Ontario wholesalers, conducting trials with families around the world, and weeding through a complicated web of medical research, Saik has developed not only sleep sacks, but onesies, t-shirts, and pants that include DDH babies under her organization: Little Hippy Co.

Made in Canada and fabricated with bamboo cottons, the “enriched medical system” in her area has done wonders to uptake her family’s designs and recommend them to new parents with their little ones going through treatment.

“To me, as a parent and as someone who has gone through treatment, you cannot put a price on” the community and accessible education that comes from the orthopedics and pediatricians in the Canadian Medical System, she said. “I think educating yourself is probably one of the biggest things that I’ve learned from this experience.”

Her journey is fueled by hardship, isolation, but above all, triumph. Her brand challenges the outwardly unique appearance of the Pavlik harness to create “quality clothing that makes it feel less like there is something wrong with their baby,” and more like they are simply dressing them.

“We went to the park one day…and another parent was looking [at her baby] like, ‘What is that?’ And I just had this sense of ‘Oh my god, someone is looking at my baby like there’s something wrong with them. And it was such a lonely feeling,” Saik recalls. 

“We’re proud to fill that gap [of misrepresentation] and support families like ours and what we went through,” said Saik. 

Make sure to enrich yourself with the complete version of her story with her feature on the Miles4Hips.org website.