Did you ever notice that long yellow label on your kids pajamas? It states that the pajamas are meant to be tight fitting. As a first time mom, I had NO IDEA what the label’s purpose was or the importance of it. Since I found the result to be SO interesting, I wanted to share the story behind it with y’all.
In the 1940s, most of children’s clothing was made of rayon fabric which happens to be highly flammable. There was a scandal over the tragic deaths that resulted so in 1953, lawmakers on both the state and federal level passed the Flammable Fabrics Act. This act required children’s pajamas and a number of other items like mattresses to be made from flame-resistant fabric. (Source: Babylist)
But I’m sure you can now guess where I am going with this…. after several decades of adding these chemicals to children’s pajamas, reserachers found these chemical were very dangerous to kids and even mutated their DNA – these chemicals known as brominated and chlorinated tris were banned. However, even the “safer” chemicals that are currently used are known to be potentially dangers to kids and are linked to increased hyperactivity and lowered IQ.
There is a LOOPHOLE though (because DUH there is always a loophole ha!). The 1996 Consumer Product Safety Commission allowed pajamas to forego the fire-resistant requirement if the pajamas for tight fighting because this makes pajamas less flammable (less air between child’s skin and fabric means less oxygen for the fire to burn).
For this reason, I make it a point to shop pajama’s with two criteria: 1 – I want tight fitting pajamas and 2 – Organic cotton or bamboo fabric. And although organic clothing usually means more expensive, there are several great options out there that are budget friendly. Here are my top 3 pick’s below.
Was this post helpful? Do you want to see more posts like this? Let me know! xx E
