CLOTHING

From Natural Childhood edited by John Thomson,

Part 5 Health and Healing, Chapter 19, by Michaela Glöckler

Copyright 1994 Gaia Books Limited London

Fireside Simon and Shuster Inc. Rockefeller Center 1230Avenue of the Americas NY 10020

CLOTHING

Children's clothes can be fun in color and form, but they serve above all an important health-relate function that is frequently forgotten. Small children and babies are very susceptible to changes in the environmental temperature and therefore need to be kept warm in cool weather and cool in warm weather. The right choice of clothes adjusts body temperature to the temperature of the environment. The smaller the child, the more important it is to use natural fibers such as wool, cotton and silk, as only these can absorb moisture from sweat and thus prevent a feeling of coldness on the skin as a result of evaporation. This is important primarily because the body also has to learn to regulate its temperature as the child grows.

Thus, repeated cold stimuli on the skin as a result of sweat, which has not been absorbed by synthetic fabrics, can lead to a failure of the temperature regulating mechanism. The child's face and hands should come into contact with the ambient temperature and the clothing should help the body preserve the optimum temperatures of the various organs to keep them healthy.

It is particularly important nowadays to cover the head, both in cool and warm weather. Not only does sunlight act more strongly as a result of a thinning of the ozone layer, but also the development of the nervous system and the sensory organs can take place more harmoniously and undisturbed if the head is protected from the elements in this way. Elsewhere the body loses heat rapidly from the neck, the wrists, the backs of the knees and the ankles.

CLOTHING CHECKLIST