Cambridge Baby Blog

At Cambridge baby we pride ourselves in choosing natural breathable clothing that children love to wear. We love the expression on children's faces when they try wearing wool for the first time and feel how comfortable it is.  We were looking for photo's that capture the joy and ease children feel when they are comfortable. Seeing our shout out for models photographer Helen Alderton offered to help us. Helen specialises in taking portraits of children & families in a natural environment (she's excellent at studio photography too but its the natural backdrops she loves.  To find out more about what she does see http://www.haphotography.co.uk/

We think she's captured the essence of Cambridge Baby. Here are a few of our favourites the children and the mother are all wearing wool from Smalls, Engel, Cosilana  Disana and Living Crafts with Organic cotton Dungarees from Iiobio.

It's soggy here in Cambridge!

Even when we are soaked through our merino base layers are still keeping us comfortable. Here's how.....

Wool is able to soak up to 30 percent of its own weight in moisture without feeling wet, hence it's ability to keep you warm even in the rain.The natural crimp of the fibres helps to wick moisture away from the body. Getting this moisture off your skin helps you feel warm and comfortable in wet conditions, but the complex make up of the fibres have still more ways of keeping you comfortable.The crimp in the wool fibre means that they trap tiny air pockets between them when they are next to each other. Air pockets act as insulators -- keeping you both warm and cool. Air can move heat by convection -- When air is contained in small pockets, it can't circulate easily, and the heat or cool is retained.

There's also some chemistry at work here. Wool fibres are made up of three layers. The first, keratin, is a moisture-loving protein that all animal hair has. It is designed to maintain a stable body temperature. Think how useful this is to babies, athletes and your own day-to-day living. The second layer is the cuticle a scaly covering. The overlapping scales are tiny, but as they rub against each other they push off the dirt. So it is self-cleaning, as anyone who's put their baby in wool knows. The third layer is a filmy skin the epicuticle which keeps the rain out. Wool is quite water-resistant, as duffel-coat wearers and sheep can testify. Now, the two outer layers have tiny pores which allow moisture to pass through to the keratin core, which absorbs it. The hydrogen bond of water, H2O, is broken, creating a chemical reaction within the fibre molecules to generate heat when it has taken on a lot of moisture. But because the air pockets allow moisture to evaporate from your skin, you won't overheat when you sweat.

So, you can see it's not just sheep who can enjoy being out in the rain in their woolly coats.

I'm not a fan of  crackly waterproofs so when it's raining  I prefer  to wear the following for running/ walking in the rain. I'm not totally dry, but I feel warm and comfortable.

Merino Leggings- 

Merino Tank Top

Merino Fleece

Wool base layers are also the perfect layer under a waterproof as they wick the sweat away from your body.

Below is a letter Helen wrote to a customer who was concerned about animal welfare and the ethics of wearing wool.

Dear xxxx,

Thank you for your email and it is always good to know our customers are concerned about ethics and better ways to live.

I share your concerns about the issues raised in the article regarding animal welfare. First of all, the majority of our wool is certified organic. This is not simply about avoiding potentially toxic chemical and hormonal sheep treatments but also about raising sheep in a humane way, and about holistic management practices. Secondly, none of our wool comes from farms that practise mulesing - we specifically check this with every supplier. Thirdly, at present none of our wool comes from the USA or Australia which do have histories of poor management practices, although I believe they are improving in response to lobbying which is good news. Most of our existing suppliers are small companies also concerned about the ethics running through their supply chains and we are confident that they act on their principles, and we ask for an ethical statement from new suppliers which includes questions about animal welfare as well as social issues (working conditions) and ecological issues (environmental footprint, organic/eco status etc).

While I think it's great that organisations such as PETA campaign for animal welfare, I don't think it's good to take a blanket approach. It is better to support those farms and farmers that engage in good practices and boycott those who don't. In terms of ecology, we know that are many parts of our moors and mountains that benefit ecologically from managed grazing which increases biodiversity, both here and in New Zealand and South America, for example, whereas monocultures can be exceedingly environmentally damaging as highlighted recently by theWWF and Greenpeace.

I take issue with the article stating that

"With so many humane fabrics, including rayon, cotton, hemp, acrylic, nylon and microfibre..."

as these may only be humane at one level - the use of petrochemicals in the unnatural production of man-made fibres is in my opinion disastrous - not only is it polluting, it is unsustainable and also these things are not biodegradable - who would want their old skirt or t-shirt knocking around our planet in 1000 years time? The production of acrylic and nylon is highly chemicalised and damages our planet and therefore the animals within it - not only this, but it uses an number of carcinogens and a recent study found that women working in acrylic factories were seven times more likely to develop breast cancer. I know it is hard to make good ethical decisions because there is so much to look into - but it should be looked into by organisations like PETA if they are promoting alternatives as ethical which clearly aren't.

While hemp may be ecological, cotton isn't on the whole. We stock organic cotton because of the damage caused to people's health in the use of chemicals on cotton - this is widely documented, and to call cotton humane when it kills human beings and causes ill-health in children in developing countries is very narrow minded. Furthermore the high levels of pesticides used in conventionally grown cotton must, if they are causing death and hospitalisation of humans, be exceedingly toxic to animals too. Even organic cotton is troublesome in that it does require a lot of water, problematic in many countries. But we still feel at Cambridge Baby that we want to support organic cotton and organic agriculture generally.

Finally, microfibre... what can I say? The sea is swimming in microfibre fleece particles as they are not filtered out from your washing machine and end up as minuscule ubiquitous pollutants in landfill and in our oceans. FAR better to have a wool vest, wool top, wool fleece...

Wool is unarguably sustainable, natural, and it bio-degrades naturally. It is healthy for the skin as it is designed to clothe mammals and therefore needs less processing, and organic rearing of sheep is humane, does not pollute the ground, sea or other animals, and is of no danger to farmers and their families.

Clearly everyone has different values but for me there is no question, I strongly advocate using wool over the alternatives - but yes in doing so making sure that the wool is organic if animal welfare is your overriding concern.

I hope this is helpful.

Best wishes,
Helen

PS we are currently looking into hemp again and may be stocking it in the future.

> Cambridge Baby Team

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