Clothing for Toddlers
Landry Jorski
Safety Hazards:
- drawstrings
- flamable fabric
- As far as untreated fabrics go, 100-percent wool and silk tend to be less combustible -- and more breathable -- than acrylics, cotton-polyester blends and rayon, according to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
- cords
- straps
- Choose flexible kicks -- try bending them in half before buying -- that provide just a little wiggle room for the toes. Avoid buying oversized shoes, as they may lead to painful trips. Look for strong traction to prevent slipping and go with laces to prevent your child from taking her shoes off when you're not looking. Turn socks inside-out to check for toe-tangling threads before you put them on your toddler.
- Before you dress your tyke, check her clothes for loose buttons, fasteners or accessories and snip any wild threads, which may get wrapped around tiny digits.
Comfort:
Know exactly what type of clothing to look for: soft, breathable fabrics, tagless, covered elastic bands, no metal parts, no heavy embroidery or applique.Sometimes the only way to get a child to wear any shoes at all is to allow sandals or flip-flops. But there’s a downside. I’ve known many children over the years who refuse to give up their sandals at the end of summer. If he wears warmer fleece pajamas, he gets sweaty and wakes up because of the wetness. I finally solved the problem by having him wear his usual cotton knit pajamas with a footed fleece sleeper on top. The breathable cotton fabric prevented the clamminess on his skin, and the fleece sealed in his warmth, and he started sleeping through the night.
Growth Features:
- Gross motor - walking, running, climbing
- Fine motor - feeding themselves, drawing
- Sensory - seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, and smelling
- Language - saying single words, then sentences
- Social - playing with others, taking turns, doing fantasy play
- His posture will change, as well, during this time. His pudgy, babyish look as a toddler has been partly due to his posture, particularly his protruding abdomen and inwardly curving lower back. But as his muscle tone improves and his posture becomes more erect, he’ll develop a longer, leaner, stronger appearance.
Quality construction:
Check the content label at the neck, in the waist band of jeans, or in the left side seam to determine the fabric content and care instructions. Generally, natural fibers (silk, cotton, wool) stand up better than synthetics, but some new synthetics are also worth your consideration, especially for technical or performance wear. Hand test You can really feel the difference between a good quality wool garment and one with lesser quality fiber content. You can use this test on clothing constructed from man-made fibers – some will feel better, drape better, and wear better than others. scrunch test. If it wrinkles up right away and doesn’t “de-wrinkle,” I may walk away from the garment. Wrinkling alone isn’t necessarily a sign of poor quality; some fabrics (cotton, linen, rayon) wrinkle more than others. I hate to iron, so I tend to look for “wrinkle release” or “wrinkle free” cotton or even a cotton blend.
Care:
On both children and adult clothing, there is generally a label that explains how the item should best be washed. You may find that aside from saying that it’s ok to wash this article of clothing in the washer and dryer, there might also be specific instructions, like ‘wash with like colors’ or ‘turn inside out before washing’. In order to keep the clothes from bleeding on each other in the wash, they have to be sorted by colors. All the white clothes (like undershirts and underwear) can be washed together. Some colors are fine to be washed together. Toddlers have a tendency to stain their clothes. If this happens, you will most likely need to pre-treat the stain to make sure that it actually comes out of the clothes.f the toddler has blood on his/her clothes, treat it with hydrogen peroxide. Pour some hydrogen peroxide into a small cup (or the lid of the peroxide container). Dip a cotton swab into the peroxide. Use the cotton swab to rub the peroxide into the blood stain. Most washing machines have three or four temperature settings: hot, warm, cool, and cold. White and off-white clothing can be washed on a hot setting. This hot setting helps to remove germs from the clothing.
- The warm setting is great for darks and permanent press clothing. It helps reduce color bleeding in the wash.
- Try to use the cold water setting for delicate items.
- Keep in mind that cool and cold water can be used in the rinse cycle for almost every load of laundry.
Self Dressing:
As children get older, they learn to do more things for themselves, from taking off their shirt to getting their own bowl of cereal in the morning. Watching your little one become more independent can be bittersweet, but it's a crucial part of every child's personal and social development. Your little one may be able to put on loose clothing as early as 24 months, but he'll need a few more months before being able to manage a T-shirt, and another year or two after that before he'll really be able to get dressed all by himself. Also at 24 months, he'll probably be able to pull off his shoes. As always, encouragement is key. Whenever your child tries her hand at a new skill, whether she succeeds or not, tell her you're proud she made the effort and urge her to try again.