DRESS OF INFANTS | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 24, 1881

DRESS OF INFANTS.

Dr. MERCY B. JACKSON says: “The special evil of which I now speak is the long skirts, dresses and cloaks which are now the fashion for babies. I feel the deepest commiseration for a delicate child that has hung upon its tender body a flannel skirt a yard long, and over that a cotton skirt equally as long, and over that a dress to cover both, often weighted with heavy embroidery, and, if the child is carried out, a double cloak longer than all, so that the skirts reach nearly to the floor as the infant is borne on the nurse’s arm. The longer the clothes the more aristocratic the baby, would seem to be the idea of the mother! Think of all this weight attached around the waist of the child, and hanging over the little feet, pressing down the toes and even forcing the feet out of their natural position! How much of deformity and suffering this fashion produces none can tell; but that it is a great discomfort to the baby, every thinking mother must perceive.”