My name is Oana. Together with husband, Constantin operate an online store providing Australian parents with access to a range of the best professional sensory tools for babies, children, teens, and adults with or without special needs.
We live in beautiful Sydney with our son, Luca.
As a first-time mom living far away from her "tribe",I had no one to pass me down the wisdom of raising children. My friends here in Australia had grown-up children or no children at all, so I found myself browsing the internet and devouring books to find answers to questions like "how to teach baby drink from straw"; "what is the best teething toy for babies"; "teething toy to reach back teeth" and many others.
One day I came across a brilliant book written by Diane Bahr: "Nobody Ever Told Me (Or My Mother) That!Everything from Bottles and Breathing to Healthy Speech Development".
That was my "aha"moment. I found out the disturbing truth about the sippy cups and how they impede the child's development of appropriate drinking and swallowing skills. So I ditched the one already purchased for my son.
I also learned that children as young as 6 months old and even premature babies could easily be taught to drink from an open cup if using a cut out one.
My son was 8 months at the time, and I was struggling teaching him how to drink with a straw. We were both frustrated until I discovered in the book that there is a squeezable bear bottle with a straw that has a valve that enables the liquid to flow up into the straw and not flowing back down. He learned to drink with a straw in 2 days.
He was also teething, and no toy seemed to be reaching his back gums. The workaround to alleviate his back molars chewing needs was to give him green onions daily :) The book saved me again: it seems that there was a teething toy out there that solved the problem.
Safety and material toxicity were a big concern to me ever since my son was born, as he has a genetic disorder and cannot process toxins efficiently. Therefore, I had to look closely into the materials used for each product purchased.
I was thrilled to discover a family factory in the USA manufacturing chewing and drinking tools using medical grade FDA approved materials free from BPA, PVC, lead, phthalates, and latex. Many of their products are patented, others awaiting patents, all of them being designed by a speech-languagepathologist based on the needs identified in her own practice.
ARK's products ticked all my boxes.
We decided to bring these products in Australia and spread the word so that all Aussie and Kiwi all parents and caregivers would benefit from my learning.
Little did we know that it was another market interested in these products. Shortly after opening the online store, we began to receive emails form parents of children with a range of conditions such as Anxiety& Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD), ADHD, Autism. They found that the chews and drinking tools were amazingly effective for helping their children focus, calm, self soothe, and learn how to drink independently.
The ability to support other parents and caregivers raising happy children who enjoy life to the full, providing assistance during challenging times, fills us with such joy and pleasure.
At Sensory Stand, our customers are our top priority, and through our products, we work hard towards building long-lasting and meaningful relations with them.
We strive to bring smiles to your child's face and provide you with the tools required to help your child. That's why we're always looking for innovative products that are the best quality possible at competitive prices. Everything that we carry has been personally selected and tested by my son and friends' children.
We strive to deliver outstanding customer service to you every time. Because we care, will always listen and be friendly.
If you need any assistance when browsing our website, please reach out to us via email or Facebook.
We are always delighted to help.
We, at Sensory Stand would love to hear from you anytime. We would greatly appreciate any feedback you may wish to provide. Please feel free to Contact Us anytime.