"My husband and I decided that a surprise gender wasn’t adventurous enough for us with our first child and so we took it one step further and surprised one another with our baby’s name. We each chose (and kept secret) a name—my husband a boy’s and I a girl’s. Lo and behold, it was a boy...which meant I heard my son’s name for the first time the hour after he was born. Needless to say, I hated the name. Ha !!
To make matters worse, as the months went on, I began to notice his ears were becoming more and more pronounced. I ignored it for a while but then people starting making comments...”oh look at those cute ears!...awww, whose ears are those?” etc. It suddenly dawned on me - with a name like Wolfric and ears that resembled a bat (albeit an adorable one) my precious baby was most likely being set up for countless hours of cruel elementary and middle school jokes.
Baby Wolfie before EarBuddies
If you choose to use a shower cap, you must constantly supervise your baby and ensure that it does not cover baby's face.
"How we kept the ears dry during baths, haha!"
Kids have enough obstacles to overcome with their self-esteem, I didn’t want to add to the issues! So I began researching solutions and stumbled upon EarBuddies. What an awesome system! So simple, affordable, and obviously reputable. And as with any good success story, this one did not come without its challenges (mostly because the majority of the splinting I completed by myself - talk about a test of patience and creativity!)
We began splinting at 3.5 months and finished at 6.5 months. We splinted for one solid month with no issues and WOW what a difference we saw immediately [picture below]. After a couple of days of giving the skin a break, the ears started turning back out. We splinted again for a total of 2 more months, with several breaks in between due to a couple of mishaps - not waiting long enough for the barrier cream to dry which led to an infection; breastmilk seeping behind the tape which created an issue too...but we finally made it and it was worth it.
Day before splinting
Immediately after taking tape off, 1 month later
After 3 Months
Final result (over 48 hours after tape came off)
I’m happy to report that in these 3 months, not only did we correct what could have been a lifetime of self-confidence issues, I have also grown to LOVE my little Wolfie’s name."
