✔ Parenting Tip: Dressing Up Your Baby

I have always been a self-proclaimed fashionista. This blog was actually a fashion blog ages ago (nung kasya pa ako sa screen ng camera!). And one of the things I am very proud of, are the constant praises that I would get with regard to the baby's fashion. The way I dress her up. As in umaani ng papuri (Oscars lang teh?) at umaani ng panggagaya. Eh diba nga the highest form of flattery is imitation? So I'm probably doing something right diba? And it's really making me happy. Pasensya na feeling Liz Uy ako pag napupuri ang pag style ko sa #FabSkye eh. :) Ibaba nyo na kilay nyo, pagbigyan nyo na ko. Blog ko naman to. Hahaha!

Tips on dressing up your baby

And since I've been dressing up the baby for almost a year now, I guess I could share on some tips now bilang feeling-authority na ako in dressing up babies. Nyahaha! Take note, baby fashion is different from baby dressing. I'll elaborate later. For now, let's proceed with our tips.

Comfort first, always. Our baby's comfort should be our top priority. That's why I say it's different from baby fashion. Coz we all know that aesthetics would always come first in fashion diba? That's why we coined the term "tiis-ganda". But "tiis-ganda" should NEVER be applicable to babies. Please mums. Do not compromise your baby's comfort just because you want that huge flower on her head. Or dead-madela na soft pa ang bones ni baby, basta maisuot ang pink boots na yan! Wag ganun. In time, you could make her wear those kikay stuff but not while they are too young. The rest of my tips actually are by-products of this first one. Ganun sya ka-importante.
Check the weather or the condition of the place. It is really important that you dress according to the weather or the condition of the place. Note that babies 0-3months tend to get cold easily. And mall ACs are too much for them. Skye was born February, so during her first 3 months, it was summer here. Scorching hot! Que horror. And usually, the mall ACs are on full blast. So we'd usually make her wear something comfy like onesies, socks and bibs. But I'd make sure we have a blanket (in my case I always bring our Halo Sleepsack) and a thin bonnet just incase I feel that it's a bit cold for the baby. So we are always ready just in case. And I always, always bring an umbrella. Hehehe! But now that she's already bigger, we just bring an extra scarf just in case it's too cold for her. Which is seldom happening now. So basically, by 4months our babies are already adjusted to the temperature of the outside world (or womb) so they don't get cold easily na.
Choose the right fabric. I was supposed to say, get those 100% cotton clothes but of course there are other fabrics that are baby-friendly too. So my take is this, you should always choose the right fabric. It should be cool. Soft. Not makati. So yeah! Laces are out. There are loads of fabrics there that are mainit. If you are living in Pinas, please lang wag yun. I am really very particular on the fabric of Skye's clothes. Kahit mura yan o mahal, I won't buy it unless pasado ang fabric. I would usually feel it. Making sure walang makati. It should be perfect for my baby's delicate skin. I would usually stay away on clothes with too tight garters. Makati din kasi yun and it would usually scratch the baby.
Lesser frills, the better. Less frills, less garters, less buttons, less sequins, less prints. As much as possible go for those simple style. Note that at 4months, the baby would usually eat everything. Imagine if you have lotsa buttons on the dress? Or sequins? There's a big chance that the baby would swallow it. Designs should be on the parts of the dress that the baby can't reach. Or won't notice. Like this specific dress, it has sequins SEWN on the dress but it was strategically placed on the neckline. The baby won't notice it. So she won't kutkot and eventually eat it. Even on shoes, I always go for the simple ones like the ballet flats that the baby's wearing here. I don't want her to think it's a toy. Plus babies should be fuss-free.
Choose child-appropriate colours and prints. Okay. Please as much as possible do not pull off a North West. You know? That baby who's always on black. Wearing black is fine once in a while but try not to make the baby wear an all-black ensemble. Try to google for North West fashion and then try Suri Cruise fashion and now Harper Seven fashion. Diba? Big difference. Let the babies look like a baby. Coz they have the rest of their lives to be super fashyown and wear black and animal prints galore. That's another thing also. I am kinda skeptical on making babies wear animal prints because it has the tendency to make the baby look old. Although there are some pieces I saw that's cute, like that skirt the #FabSkye wore here. Diba? Very tasteful. I also do not recommend too dark colours for babies 0-6months. As much as possible choose light-coloured ones.
Do not force them to wear something they don't like. This is really important. If your baby don't like wearing that specific pair of shoes, don't force them. If she hate those headbands, don't force them. Coz most probably, those are very uncomfortable! Like headbands, some headbands are masakit sa ulo diba? And I swear if a headband is ouchy, it's so uncomfy! There's this one headband that Skye really hates, So I tried it on. Turned out yung connection nya (coz it's a wrap around headband), may matigas na part. Ang sakit nga sa ulo. Syemay! I always always make sure that Skye's accessories are safe and soft and gentle. Lahat ng headbands nya (garterized) are really soft. Her headbands doesn't have sharp edges. Her hair clips are all soft. All her shoes are also comfy and soft. We always make sure of that.
As much as possible, do not make them wear shoes until 5th or 6th month. I blogged about Skye's first pair of shoes here. We got her first pair at 5.5 months. That's something the ReigningTatay and I both agreed on. No shoes until she showed signs of standing up. And even on her fist pair, we still made sure that it was soft and comfortable. She was on infant socks all the time until she's 6months old and we started training her to wear shoes. Actually, she's comfy with the shoes we got her but she'd usually get distracted on it and would try to take it off. Probably to eat it eventually. So we made sure we got her pairs tat are difficult to remove. Hahaha! Until nasanay at hindi na inaalis. But seriously, there's a reason why we opt not to make her wear shoes early. It's because the bones on our feet are still too soft at age 0-6months. And making her wear shoes that early might restrain the proper growth of the feet. I think that's why Skye has a good foot grip now.
No need for accessories until they are old enough to understand what accessories are for. You can do all the excessorizing when they get a bit older But for now, no need. Accessories are irrelevant at this age of cuteness overload. Okay na okay na sila on their own.
Choose the correct size. Most of the time, I'd see kids and babies wearing clothes too big for them. As in like 2-3 sizes bigger. Even when shopping, madalas the sales people would offer us yung mga malalaking sizes talaga. The ReigningTatay don't like that. He'd say, eh di bumili ng bago pag malaki na sya. Tska kelan mo pa yan ipapasuot? Pag malaki na? Hindi na daw yun uso by that time. I know most of the time our reason for getting bigger sizes is because we want to expand the life span of the clothes on our baby's closet. But really. How would you make them wear too big clothes without making them look dwarfish? Diba? But I swear, if you get the right clothes, mapapatagal mo talaga sila. Like Skye's dresses are now her tops. This dress, he wore it on her baptismal pa when she's around 3 months. Oh diba?
Just have fun. Enjoy this stage where you get to choose what they wear. Dadating ang time, wala ka ng say. Wala ka ng magagawa. Enjoy it. Have fun. And make sure the baby's also having a blast!