Bamboo clothes for children: not only for summer

What makes bamboo baby clothes and other textiles based on this raw material are now so popular? What properties ma bamboo fiber and how are they made? Whether bamboo clothes can I buy for a newborn? What is it good for bamboo fabric and how to make sure bamboo viscose will be really good for children? Below is everything you need to know about textiles made of this raw material. 

Bamboo fiber and products made of it have been gaining popularity in the last few years. Their undoubted advantages make parents, when completing a layette for a newborn or buying textiles for older infants and children, willingly reach for bamboo clothes, blankets and other accessories - especially in the summer. However, if you are wondering whether everything that producers and sellers promise is true, this text is just for you.

Bamboo, which is what? 

Let's start with how it is made bamboo yarnwhich conquers the market of children's and adult textiles.

Bamboo is a plant found mainly in Asia. It has ideal conditions for growth there, and it grows very quickly. It can grow up to 1 meter a day.

Cultivation is very efficient - one year after planting, it can be used for the production of fiber, and compared to cotton, the yield of bamboo from the same area is ten times greater. Another advantage of bamboo is that it is a plant with antibacterial and antifungal properties, and therefore resistant to pest attacks. Thanks to this, chemical spraying agents are not necessary for its cultivation (as, for example, in the case of cotton) - it is therefore cheaper and more environmentally friendly.

How is fiber formed and bamboo fabric?

As for the production of yarn itself, it can be made using chemicals or (less often) using natural enzymes. In both cases, it is about softening and dissolving very hard bamboo stalks, and then, from the resulting pulp (cellulose pulp), thin threads are used directly for the production of fabrics (e.g. bedding, curtains) or knitted fabrics (for towels, clothes, socks, etc. .).

Bamboo fiber: properties

Bamboo is therefore a natural and environmentally friendly raw material, although the natural fiber made of it is not anymore, and its production can hardly be called fully ecological. However, it has undoubted advantages - bamboo clothes for children and adults and other textiles made of this material are valued especially in the summer, due to the following properties of bamboo fiber:

1. hygroscopic - bamboo clothes absorb water much better than cotton
2. thermoregulatory - products made of bamboo fabric remove moisture from the body, giving a feeling of coolness (in winter, in turn, they absorb moisture from the environment, giving the skin a feeling of warmth)
3. skin-friendly - bamboo children's clothes or bedding are light and soft to the touch.

We wrote more about fabrics for children's clothes hereand practical advice on dressing your newborn during the summer months can be found here.

Bamboo clothes: convenient and practical to use

There are a number of benefits associated with the use of bamboo woven or knitted products, especially bamboo clothes for children.

• Most of all, they are amazing nice to touch and delicate, which is of great importance with the sensitive skin of a newborn and infant. It has a soothing effect on irritated skin.
• Bamboo textiles do not require washing at very high temperatures (usually 40-60 degrees C is enough), moreover, stains come off them much easier than, for example, from cotton.
• Compared to cotton bamboo fabric or knitted fabric absorbs moisture three times better and evaporates easily. This is a very beneficial feature, especially in summer, but in colder seasons, we can safely use bamboo underwear. Thanks to your thermoregulatory properties, in winter isolates the skin from the cold outside temperature, thus keeping you warm.
• Rapid evaporation of moisture it is especially useful for drying baby clothes, which are washed frequently and reused quickly.
• Textiles made of this raw material are resistant to unpleasant odors - bamboo clothes for children and adults, even when worn all day, do not give off a bad smell.
• Bamboo is naturally soft and pleasant to the touch like silk, therefore it does not require the use of softening liquids (which we should not use for washing baby textiles), and what's more irons very easily.

What properties is deprived of fiber i bamboo fabric?

Unfortunately, not everything we can read or hear about bamboo fiber or viscose, including the one intended for children, is true. Here the most common myths:

• Bamboo fiber is natural and ecological - Bamboo is indeed a natural raw material, grown without chemical spraying, but the production of yarns requires harsh chemicals.
• Bamboo textiles have antibacterial and antifungal properties - although it is true that bamboo as a plant has such properties, in the chemical production process the fibers are lost and the finished products do not have them anymore. However, these fibers have antifungal properties for another reason, as they quickly absorb and release moisture, which results in less mold and fungus growth.
• Bamboo textiles protect against UV rays - the fabric or knitted fabric itself does not have any properties that would allow it to block UV radiation. For this reason, the use of bamboo clothes for children does not release us from the need to provide adequate protection against the harmful effects of UV rays.

Bamboo viscose for children: many uses

With these caveats in mind, bamboo still has quite a few benefits. Due to its naturalness, nice touch and also a lot of practical properties - such as easy to wash or quick drying - bamboo fiber is widely used in textiles for babies.

If we only make sure about the quality and safety of the fabrics or knitted fabrics used, we can successfully complete the entire layette for our child on the basis of this raw material, starting from bamboo clothes, through towels, swaddling, blankets, bedding or reusable diapers.