Baby Ava

Since my daughter, Ava, was 6 weeks old, we started noticing redness on her back (around her neck and between her shoulders). Instead of enjoying these first couple months of our baby's arrival into our lives, we began a nightmare into what was causing this growing wound on her back. We spent many days and nights comforting her, going to the doctors' appointments, the emergency room, after-hours medical appointments, using many methods and medications to try and soothe her pain.

At barely 3 months old, Ava's wound was the worse we'd ever seen it. She could not sleep on her back and was not yet rolling over. We had to hold her to give her the comfort of rest. At this pediatrician's appointment, they looked at her and said they'd never seen something so big! It was terrifying. The doctors told us to immediately go to the hospital, because the wound was so big it might be infected (we discovered through the cultures taken at the hospital that Ava caught a staph infection!) and our daughter might not be able to fight it on her own. We rushed to UCSF Children's Hospital where Ava was put in a sterile hospital room (anyone entering had to wear gloves, a mask & gown). She was given IV antibiotics and monitored. I spent the night with her, but didn't sleep at all. What parent could? I rattled my mind wondering what this was, how it happened and if my daughter would be okay.

Even after she was released from the hospital, she still had this painful chronic back wound. We cut the area of her clothing that covered this pear-shape wound to apply the topical treatments and closely monitor her recovery. We continued to go to her Dr.'s appointments and they still could not figure out why she had this chronic back wound.Last month (September 2008), I was perusing through the Internet and discovered several blogs on babies being affected by Carters tagless clothing. This ah-ha! moment brought to light the months of unanswered questions to my daughter's wound -- it was the Carters tagless clothes she wore that caused it. We immediately removed all Carters clothes and switched to the old type of labeled baby clothes. Her back wound is healing. She is now almost 7 months old. We have spoken to Carters, the media, and to many parents whose babies have been affected. It is my hope and intention that this becomes a more public dialogue where Carters and any other baby manufacturer and/or distributor that becomes aware their products are causing injury or harm to babies/children and their families inform the public, and immediately recall and remove these products!