A mother in Alabama designed a specialized shopping cart that would help her to be able to shop with her daughter, Caroline. The cart is designed for children who have disabilities. Caroline’s Cart is about to roll into a few more states. There could be one at your local grocery store soon.
They say that necessity is the mother of invention. In this case, necessity inspired a mother to invent a specialized grocery cart. Drew Ann Long, and her husband, David are the parents of three children. One is a daughter named Caroline. She has Rett Syndrome. It is a rare genetic disorder that affects the way the brain develops. The majority of the children with Rett Syndrome are female.
Some of the symptoms of Rett Syndrome include a loss of motor skills. Starting between 12 to 18 months of age, a child with Rett Syndrome will experience a decrease in hand control, and lose the ability to crawl or walk normally. Kids can also lose their ability to speak and communicate.
This created a challenge for Caroline’s mother after Caroline outgrew the seat that comes in a typical grocery cart. Her mother found it extremely difficult to try and navigate through a grocery store while trying to push both a shopping cart and Caroline’s wheelchair.
So, she created Caroline’s Cart. It has a large seat, which includes a harness, and faces the parent who is pushing the cart. The seat has a five degree tilt that helps kids who have low muscle tone to have a more comfortable shopping experience. This seating arrangement allows parents to maintain eye contact with their child, and to easily monitor for seizures, asthma attacks, and other serious health conditions.
In August of 2012, the Belle Foods store, in Birmingham, Alabama, was the first store to make Caroline’s Cart available for their customers to use. You can find Caroline’s Cart in all three stores.
The stores have started a valet service where a parent or caregiver can call ahead to reserve one of these specialized cards and have it delivered to a designated area in the parking lot. This makes it much easier for families who have children with special needs to do their grocery shopping.
Other grocery stores have received some Caroline’s Carts last week. They include the Hy-Vee in Urbandale, Iowa, McDades Market in Jackson, Mississippi, Price Chopper in North Windsor Vermont, and in Middletown, New York, and also in Saratoga Springs, New York, and Bixby, Oklahoma. Sunset Foods, in Northbrook, Illinois, also received some Caroline’s Carts.
Image by Jo Amelia Finlay on Flickr