Central Line Clothing for Babies and Toddlers

Your child has a central line. What do you put them in?

Ordinary baby and toddler clothes are made to be put on. They were never made to be opened — and with a central line, opening is what you need for every dressing change and site check, often at three in the morning.

PediaTech makes two garments for children with Broviac®, Hickman®, and other tunneled central lines. A gown for newborn through 12 months, and a bodysuit for 6 months through 5T.

Central Line Gown, Newborn–12M · Central Line Bodysuit, 6M–5T

Built for the chest

Most adaptive children's clothing has one opening, at the stomach. That works for a feeding tube. A tunneled central line exits at the chest, so a stomach opening does not help — you end up undressing your child anyway.

LineWear™ puts the access where the line actually is. The PediaPouch™ sits at the sternum, and snap flaps open the front for dressing changes and site checks without taking the garment off.

Which line does your child have?

These garments are built around one thing: a line that exits the body and has lumens hanging below it. That is what the pocket holds.

• Broviac® and Hickman® — tunneled central lines. The line tunnels under the skin and exits at the chest, with one, two or three lumens below the exit site. This is exactly what LineWear is for. The pouch sits at the sternum and holds the lumens against the body.
• PICC lines. A PICC enters at the arm, not the chest, so the chest pocket is not where your child's line is. What does help is Dual Arm Access™ — see below.
• Implanted ports — Port-a-Cath®, Mediport®. A port sits entirely under the skin with nothing outside the body between accesses. There are no lumens to contain, so the pouch has nothing to hold. LineWear is not built for a port, and we would rather say so than sell you the wrong garment.

Gown or bodysuit

A gown suits newborns, the weeks after a new line placement, and long hospital stays. It opens completely flat, so an infant can be dressed without being lifted, turned, or threaded through sleeves, and the open bottom means a diaper change leaves the rest alone.

A bodysuit suits a child who is moving. It stays put when they roll and crawl, and it is cut generously to clear a chest dressing.

If your child is between sizes, or wears a dressing, size up. See the Sizing Guide. And buy two. A dressing change does not wait for the wash to finish.

Keeping the lumens out of reach

The exit site sits under a dressing. It is the lumens below it that cause trouble — they hang, they swing, and they sit at hand height for a child who is learning what hands do.

A line that dangles where a hand naturally rests will get grabbed. That is not a behavior problem. It is geometry.

What changes it is where the line sits. The lined PediaPouch holds the lumens against the body, under the fabric. RoutePoints™ at the shoulder and lower back guide the line behind your child, away from the front of the body.

For the step-by-step at home — dressing without disturbing the site, and reaching the dressing at changes — read Dressing a Child with a Central Line.

They route the line. They don't hold it.

What about the arm?

Parents solve this one with scissors. The usual advice is to cut the toes off a cotton sock and slide it over an arm dressing or a PICC wrap, because an ordinary sleeve has to be pushed up over the site to reach anything.

Dual Arm Access™ is the answer to that. Both sleeves open along the inner bend of the elbow, so an arm line, a peripheral IV or a blood draw is reachable without dragging fabric across a dressing. Both sleeves, so it does not matter which arm.

Size for your child, not for the dressing — the sleeve opens rather than stretching over it.

What makes these different

An opening at the stomach solves one problem. LineWear solves six, and it is built for the chest.

• A lined pocket, not a plain one. Sites weep and connections drip. The PediaPouch lining wipes out instead of holding it against skin.
• Both sleeves open along the inner bend, so a PICC, a peripheral IV, or a blood draw is reachable without pushing fabric over a dressing.
• Guides for the run of the line at the shoulder and lower back.
• Opens completely flat. Lay it open, lay your child on it, fasten. Nothing threaded past their own line.
• Metal-free. Resin snaps only. Metal-free is a property of the garment, not clearance for imaging, so always follow your imaging facility's instructions.
• No velcro anywhere — nothing to catch in the wash or roughen against skin.

100% pre-shrunk cotton. $59. No prescription and no prior authorization — these are textiles, not medical devices, so you can simply buy one. Adaptive clothing may also be eligible for HSA or FSA payment.

What belongs to your care team

Anything about the line, the site, or the dressing. If something looks different, feels different, or worries you, that call goes to your child's care team. Nothing on this page is medical guidance.

Worth reading

Clothes for Kids with Central Lines — containing the lumens, dressing without moving the line, and the arm access nobody designs for.

NICU-Friendly Clothing: What to Look For — the full checklist.

Start here

Central Line Gown — Newborn to 12M
Central Line Bodysuit — 6M to 5T
See all LineWear™

Feeding tube rather than a central line? See G-Tube Clothing.

Not sure which fits your child? Email hello@pediatechapparel.com or call 513-549-2411. Describe the placement and we will tell you which garment works — or tell you honestly if neither does.

Broviac®, Hickman®, Port-a-Cath® and Mediport® are registered trademarks of their respective owners. PediaTech Apparel™ is not affiliated with or endorsed by them.