p. 12 | Clothing for Children by Lauretta Kress

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Oct 22, 1903

Clothing for Children

By Lauretta Kress

MRS. LAURETTA KRESS, M. D.

A VERY important part of the mother’s duty is to clothe her children so as to keep their bodies in health. This responsibility begins at the time the child is born, and increases as the days go on. There is much error taught about the clothing of children, and as a result we see sickness and disease increasing with remarkable rapidity. This is largely due to the failure to understand the organization of the body.

Mothers who are careful to have their own garments hygienic are careless regarding their children’s clothing. They place upon them ready-made clothes, bought at a very reasonable figure in the stores. These have been made in large lots without any consideration as to the form of the body, and do not fit. They are tight in the armholes, often measuring the same in the front and back, leaving no room for expansion as the child stands erect and takes a deep inspiration, which is very essential to the development of a healthy child. There must be an abundance of room in the chest as well as about the waist, if the garment is properly made.

The proper way for each mother to do in making garments for her children, is to allow sufficient in seams and about the chest and waist, so that they can be made larger as the child grows. Frequent measurements of the chest and waist should be taken as the child grows in years, so that the mother can be sure that the clothing is not binding or hindering the growth of the body, or displacing any organs.

Great care should be taken also to have all parts of the body clothed evenly. The arms should not be left with a thin covering over them while the trunk of the body has many thicknesses. The legs and knees need correspondingly as much clothing as the thighs and the trunk. If these are not properly clothed, the blood, on its way to the extremities and to the skin is chilled by contact with the morning and evening breeze, and is driven internally, congesting the digestive organs, also the lungs and other organs contained in the body. Insufficient clothing over the knees and legs causes a great deal of disturbance in the throat and nose. Physicians who are studying these things have noticed for a number of years that there has been an increase in disease where the arms and the legs of children have not been properly clothed, and many deaths occur that might have been prevented had some heed been paid to this great essential by mothers.

In the winter season and the autumn, the limbs should be clothed with two thicknesses of flannel. Long combination undersuits reaching to the ankles and wrists, with woolen stockings reaching over the knees, will keep the hands and feet warm, and increase the assimilation of food very remarkably. If children have cold hands and feet, we are sure to see some disturbance of the digestion following. For colder weather it is quite necessary that the legs and arms should have even more clothing than this.

For outdoor wear there is need of extra clothing for the limbs as well as for the trunk. No doubt many serious illnesses have resulted from lack of care in this respect. Whatever degree of warmth is required for comfort for any one portion of the body is necessary for other parts as well, and children’s outdoor outfits should be such as will secure an equal additional increase of

warmth to the entire body proportionate to the severity of the weather.

Many other points in addition to that of healthfulness require consideration in the question of clothing for children. No child ought to be subjected to the necessity of wearing unbecoming garments. Many a little one has been made self-conscious and unhappy by being obliged to wear some article of clothing so out of harmony with beauty or good taste as to make the wearer a target for comment and even ridicule. Healthful garments are not necessarily so peculiar in design as to be ungraceful or inartistic, as many seem to imagine. God has clothed the flowers of the field in beauty and loveliness, and it was certainly not intended that human flowers should be clad in ugliness; not that all the vagaries of fashion should be followed, but when purchasing or making children’s clothing, the mother may aim to choose that which is adapted in every way to the peculiarities of the wearer, and so to combine harmony in color with simplicity of style as to make an unobtrusive garment, answering every hygienic requirement, and satisfying the innate love of the beautiful.

To dress a child simply is always in good taste; and while all the clothing should be made neatly and well, for ordinary wear it should not be of such dainty material as to subject the little wearer to the slavery of constant care lest she spoil her shoes and soil her dress. Not only does such a bondage of thought and care concerning dress mar the happiness and curtail the freedom of the child’s activity, but it so emphasizes the subject to her mind that it is likely to foster vanity and a love of dress.

Children’s attention should be called as little as possible to dress as an adornment. Teach them early in life that it is the clean, smiling face, ruddy cheeks, and upright, healthy frame that should be the chief attraction; that dress is simply the setting for the jewel; and that while it should always be whole and tidy, it should not be the thing in itself to attract admiration. Teach the principle that it is the sound body, the perfect poise, the near approach to God’s ideal, that gives the charm, and not the frills and furbelows, of a fashionable attire.