[Sca-cooks] baby clothes

[Bronwynmgn at aol.com]

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In a message dated 10/23/2002 1:24:33 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
baronsig at peganet.com writes:


> Given that infant
> mortality rates were horrendous by modern standards, and that you might
> have
> to have several to get one that lived to maturity, I would tend the think
> that baby clothes would be pretty generic in nature.

It's my understanding that babies were dressed in tunics/gowns regardless of
sex until after they were toilet-trained - not because of infant mortality or
frugalness with clothing, but because of the need to frequently deal with
hygiene issues since they didn't have Pampers back then.

I'm certain that they did recycle clothes, probably not only in the same
family but from family to family.  After all, we know that even adults
recycled clothing, either by passing it on to the next generation or by
passing it down to servants, or by turning and re-shearing wool, or by
cutting it down to fit someone else, etc..

Brangwayna