OUTFIT IS THE BEE'S KNEES
by Jan Dean
Mississauga News,
November 18, 2004

A Mississauga mom has invented something to make crawling less painful for toddlers.

When Tammany Atkinson saw how chafed her year old son's knees got from crawling over hardwood and tile floors, she created a new style of pants with neoprene knee pad inserts.

"When I saw how red Jackson 's knees were, I got down on my knees to see how it felt," said Atkinson. "It really hurt. I realized the only kind of padding that would be practical was to build the padding into pants and so I made the prototype for him."

Over the past 18 months, Atkinson has created a company called Bee's Knees to market the uniquely styled pants that are sold in a dozen upscale stores across Canada and the U.S. , including the Safety Superstore on Laird Rd.

The pants are locally manufactured and geared for crawling comfort in sizes to fit 306 months, 6-12 months and 12-18 months. The knees of the pants have pleats to allow for flexing, and vents that let you take the neoprene pads out for washing, as well as elastic waste bands, snap closures on small and medium sizes and a special pocket for a soother. They come in a range of colours and fabrics. There is the Cowboy model in stretch denim, The Ivy League Baby in brushed pre-washed cotton, the cozy crawler model that is a velvety fabric, and the Sporty style made of water repellent fabric.

Actress Kate Hudson's son Ryder wears them, and Atkinson has hired an agent to get them into more stores on both sides of the border. At $39.00 CDN ($35.00 US) the pants offer unique protection to little knees. And a portion of that price is donated to The Learning to Listen Foundation that teaches hearing impaired children how to listen and speak.

Supporting the Learn to Listen Foundation has become something of a crusade for Atkinson and her husband after discovering their son Jackson was profoundly deaf.

Atkinson was stunned when testing at Sick Children's Hospital in September 2003 showed he was profoundly deaf. And doctors did not believe that hearing aids would help him.

The solution was surgery to give Jackson a cochlear implant and on Dec. 3, 2003 , Jackson heard sound for the first time.

"It was devastating when we were told he was deaf, like having a cement block dropped on us," said Atkinson. "But now he hears everything - the only time he can't hear is when he is swimming or in the bath, because the computer system and microphone have to stay dry. He says 50 words now and he said Mom for the first time last month. And because he hears all the pitches and tones when people speak, his speech sounds completely normal."

Friends and family assumed Atkinson would drop her business plans while all this was going on, but she kept on working on Bee's Knees because it gave her something different to focus on while Jackson napped.

Now she is hard at work on her business. With $30,000 invested, she has pants on hand, a website, www.beeskneesbaby.com and brochures.

She also has a second son name Flynn born in August, and manages Jackson 's continuing speech therapy and auditory training. The woman gives new meaning to the term multi-tasking. She and her husband Paul, raised $25,000 for the non-profit Learning to Listen Foundation hosting a ski day last February.