tiny shade

About Us

the "Tiny Shade" story

Tiny Shade was created by a NICU nurse passionate about promoting comfort and better bonding between hospitalized infants and their parents.
Our mission at Tiny Shade is to improve the early experiences of fragile babies and to support their ongoing developmental care.

The Tiny Shade Idea

Premature hospitalized babies are highly sensitive--both physically and emotionally--to stimuli of every kind.
They are typically subjected to incessant ambient noise, harsh lighting and repeated invasive medical procedures for long weeks or months and these stimuli may be experienced as stressors.
Premature infants tend to cope with uncomfortable stimuli by keeping their eyes closed. When they do open their eyes, the level of lighting which is necessary to their care is believed to be experienced by these infants as pain.
Pain and stress may have both immediate negative effects on preemies during their hospitalization and lingering effects even long after their discharge.
Stressors tend to deplete the physical resources needed for growth and to negatively impact an infant’s ability to recover.