Keep Your Shirt On

Most of the new baby-boom products that have arrived on the market in the past few years have been invented by frustrated parents.

They have included doughnut-shaped bottles, brightly-colored diaper covers and, now, this invention by Encino mom Judy Ryder: The Little Shirt Anchor.

Annoyed by how her baby daughter’s shirts kept bunching up under her armpits, Ryder fiddled with a contraption that would clip onto the bottom edge of the shirt front, stretch through her legs and clip again at the back.

“The hardest thing was finding the right fastener. I definitely didn’t want metal or anything so simple that a 2-year-old could figure it out after watching it done.”

She settled on a garter grip. “When someone suggested it, I laughed, but it really works.”

The Little Shirt Anchor has two grips on the front and two on the back of the shirt and attaches them with a Velcro tab at the crotch. The contraption is adjustable for all sizes of diaper-wearers, as well as different-length shirts. The clips stay in place during diaper changes; only the Velcro tab is undone.

Ryder made up 150 free samples, which she passed out with a questionnaire. With those comments, she made refinements and took her invention to a May baby fair. She has sold 800 so far.

The Little Shirt Anchor is available at Brontsema’s Baby News in Northridge and Woodland Hills for $4.95, in white, pink and blue.