When you have a child with physical limitations, clothing can be a challenge. You want them to look good, and wear age appropriate clothing, but it is not always feasible with traditional clothing options. Thankfully, more companies are meeting the needs of people with special needs with adaptive clothing. The MagnaMini boy’s long sleeve shirt with magnetic closures is a notable example.

My oldest son has Angelman Syndrome. He is severely delayed and dependent on help for all daily care, including getting dressed. Trying to button nice shirts has always been a challenge. He does not have the fine motor skills necessary to button them. But he is highly active and moves too much when I try to button them.

Looking nice for church and other more formal events has been a struggle. Even though most pre-teen boys were wearing collared, buttoned shirts, Owen could not. At least not on a regular basis. As he is gotten stronger, the challenge to button shirts has resulted in several popped buttons and it just was not a battle I wanted to wage.

The MagnaMini shirt took away this challenge. It is a nice looking long-sleeve shirt with buttons. At first glance, it appears just like any other collared shirt for boys. When you hold it, however, you see how it is different. There are no buttonholes.

Instead, the buttons magnetically attach to each other. It is simple to use. I put the shirt on my son and had it closed in about two seconds, despite his wiggling. The shirt was sized as expected. The size seemed comparable to typical boys’ dress shirts.

I brought along an extra shirt to church the first time my son wore this shirt, just in case. He moves so much, I expected him somehow taking apart the magnet connection and stripping in the middle of the service. I was pleasantly surprised that the shirt stayed on the whole time. The magnets are strong! When it was time to take the shirt off, however, it was not difficult. It took a firm pull, but not a hard one.

 The MagnaMini shirt held up well to washing. It has been washed several times in the past few weeks and shows no sign of fray. It still looks great!

I was initially concerned that the magnets would stick to the washer side or something, but if I follow the washing directions to close the magnets before washing, I have not noticed any problems. It can be line dried or dried in a dryer on low.

If you have a child who struggles with buttons, adaptive clothing like the MagnaMini boy’s long sleeve shirt with magnetic closures might be the solution you are looking for. However, because of the magnets, this shirt is not an appropriate choice for someone with a pacemaker or VNS device. Otherwise, it is a good quality shirt that has strong magnet connections and worked very well.

-Product review by Lisa Tanner, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, May 2019