Welcome to our series spotlighting our Featured Vendors from our Vendor Guide. The guide includes carefully curated vendors from the baby and children’s industry in design, retail, special services and much more.
It’s usually a hospital nurse who first teaches a new mom how to swaddle her baby. But what’s a nurse to do when her own baby refuses to stay under wraps? In the case of Woombie™ founder Karen Barski, she invents an entirely new type of swaddle! We caught up with Hayley Jackson, Product Manager for Comfort & Harmony™, to chat about the fascinating success story behind the Woombie Perfect Peanut Swaddle™ by Comfort & Harmony.
We love a good origin story. Tell us a little about how the Woombie swaddle design came to be.
The original design started with one tired mama who just wanted to get a little sleep. The inventor, Karen Barski, had a newborn daughter named Bella with a very strong startle reflex that would wake her up throughout the night. Karen had tried just about every swaddle on the market, but nothing worked. Finally, she decided to take matters into her own hands, using her knowledge as a registered nurse, an old sewing machine and a little creativity.
Soon, the first Woombie design was born as a stretchy but snug, peanut-shaped swaddle with a zipper. Since then, it has helped babies everywhere stay snug and comfortable, including baby Bella and Karen’s next two babies. At Comfort & Harmony, we were inspired by Karen’s story, so we partnered with her to bring the Woombie design to stores moms shop at every day, like Walmart, Buy Buy Baby and Target. Ours is called the Perfect Peanut™.
What sets your product apart from the other swaddle styles on the shelf?
For the Perfect Peanut, it’s that peanut shape combined with our Bebeflex™ fabric that hugs baby just right. But because babies all have different sleeping styles, we also partnered with Karen to create several variations of the Perfect Peanut. The Peanut Air™ is similar to the classic Perfect Peanut, but it has ventilated panels for babies who tend to get hot. There’s also the Peanut Convertible™, which can be used with baby’s arms in or out. And we know some babies just love to kick their little legs, so the Peanut Leggies™ was made especially for them. It’s also great to use with bouncers because it allows you to use the safety harness. All of these swaddles have four-way stretch fabric that moves with baby, allowing her to reposition, but it also recovers its shape to maintain a snug fit.
What do parents say they love about your product?
There are actually a lot of parents here in the office who will come up to me and say, “We tried the Perfect Peanut swaddle, and my baby slept so great!” We also get a lot of really positive comments on social media and reviews on retailer sites that average 4 or 5 stars. Moms comment that the zip-up design makes diaper changes much easier and takes the guesswork out of swaddling because you don’t have to worry about wrapping too tight or too loose. A lot of them have said that it’s the only swaddle their babies couldn’t wiggle out of and that it helps everyone in the house sleep more soundly.
Anything else you’d like to share about your product?
These swaddles are all great registry picks because we find that most moms like to try out a few styles to see what works for their babies. And right now we’re actually in the process of choosing patterns and fashions for next year’s Woombie swaddles. Our trend and surface teams are scouting out trends and conducting research as we speak. There will be lots of stylish new designs coming your way soon!
If you’re looking for a great way to help baby get a good snooze, check out Comfort & Harmony’s listing in our Vendor Guide!
If you are interested in applying to become a Project Nursery Vendor, please click here.
