It should afford due warmth, be of such
materials as do not irritate the skin, and so made as to occasion no
unnatural constriction.
In reference to due warmth, it may be well again to repeat, that too
little clothing (that state of semi-nudity which the vanity of some
parents encourage) is frequently productive of the most sudden attacks
of active disease; and that children who are thus exposed with naked
breasts and thin clothing in a climate so variable as ours are the
frequent subjects of croup, and other dangerous affections of the air-
passages and lungs. On the other hand, it must not be forgotten, that
too warm clothing is a source of disease,--sometimes even of the same
diseases which originate in exposure to cold,--and often renders the
frame more susceptible of the impressions of cold, especially of cold
air taken into the lungs. Regulate the clothing, then, according to the
season; resume the winter dress early; lay it aside late; for it is in
spring and autumn that the vicissitudes in our climate are greatest,
and congestive and inflammatory complaints most common.
With regard to material (as was before observed), the skin will at
this age bear flannel next to it; and it is now not only proper, but
necessary. It may be put off with advantage during the night, and
cotton maybe substituted during the summer, the flannel being resumed
early in the autumn.
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