Woodville Republican. (Woodville, Miss.) 185?-current, 1889-07-06
DON'T PINCH BAeY.
an About Bands and straps and sleeves
and Ankle FastenIngs.

and Ankle FastenIngs.
None Of us would inaict such cruelty
with thumb and finger, but how is it
with baby's clothing bands and straps
and sleeves and ankle fasteningsP Are
we sure that they are soft and giving
on the sensitive flesh and tender little
limbs?
How much our helpless babies can
suffer from bands and bindings that
choke and chafe them with their
scratchy, goading edges, we can not
know, since our skin, doubtless, is
thirty years older, and maybe that
many times tougher than baby's.
Perhaps we do know how irritatingly
uncomfortable are the pinching sleeves
of some wiry, rasping dress that allow
ed fashion to cut with too snug a fit to
our arms. Then let us be merciful in
cutting sleeves and arm-sizes for our
little folks, whose tender flesh is sorely
chafed by rough seam, and whose
arms round out SO fast, and allow gen
erous space for breathing and growing
room.
All seams and bindings on baby's
clothing should be made perfectly
smooth and flat, and as soft as can be
sewed from silk gauze flannel. and un-
starched, finest cambric, that no bung-
ling ridges, or hard, scratchy edges
,,,ax, r.nn1 41,o eo,,uttftra d1o1,
Not long since saw fond auntie
making under-waists for her little
nieces, one and three years old. The
garments were cut from stout un-
bleached drilling that would wear like
sheet iron and give almost as little.
For greater strength, the arm sizes
were bound with strip of the same
stout goods, making a thick, scraping
finish that was hard and rough enough
to rasp the skin from an ox's neck If II
had encircled it. But no less cruelty
was in the scrimping dimensions Of
these arm holes: cut so small that the
little fat arms could scarcely be
squeezed through them Not bit OIL
space allowed for the play and growth
and breathing room for the poor little
choked limbs
In selecting boots for our little peo-
pie we must see that plenty of ankle
and instep, as well as toe room, i!
given the fast growing feet You aui
I find acute misery in pinching boots
especially across the instep. How
much more baby must suffer with crue
structures cutting into her soft flesh
strangIing sensitive chords!
l have seen sock ribbons and ankle
tie strars drawn so tightly that tht
| plumpness of baby's ankles was pnchel
into a purple ridge, and who has no
seen both scrawny and fat little feet 81
strangled in too snugly buttoned boot
that the warm blood could not circulate
in them and ice-cold feet be one OF tn,
evil consequences2
Little folks-Ald big folks too, a
for that, need breathing room all over
feet and arms aad wrists and ankles
lungs and stomach and bowels, ant
common sense tells us to let them hav'
| it.
Plenty of breathing room, and good
pure air to breathe, with common sense
care and cleanliness. means a soun,
body and sunny nature for the grow
ing baby.
When your little one is fretful an,
troublesome, instead of attributing it
irritability and wretchedness to collie o
teeth or worms, as we are so apt to do
see if baby's misorableness is not cause'
by cruel hunch or band or seam tina
somewhere is chatting or choking it
person. -Clarissa Potter, in Ladies
Home Journal.