Flammable Children's Clothing

I wish the answer to this wasn’t so tragic.

A little three-year-old boy in Waikato, New Zealand named Jack Livingstone finally made me understand. Little Jack was watching tv in front of a heater on July 8 when his flannelette pajamas, labeled “low fire danger”, ignited. Jack suffered severe burns to 15 per cent of his body, spent three weeks in hospital, and needed skin grafts and surgery on his right arm and shoulder. He has to wear a pressure suit 23 hours a day for two years to reduce scarring and gets a daily sea salt bath before soothing lotions are applied.

Like me, Jack’s parents had never considered what those flammability warnings on their son’s clothing really meant. Nor had they taken seriously the precautions listed on the heater they bought. Even the advertising campaign put on by their local Consumer Affairs Ministry recommending “one metre from a heater” had gone unnoticed. While Jack, like our three-year-old son, is now back at nursery school and reading books about dinosaurs, his and his family’s life is forever altered.

Sadly, Jack is the fourth child aged between three and ten who has been burnt by pajamas catching fire when sitting in front of heaters since 2004. And that’s only in New Zealand. Across North America there are dozens of cases per year of children injured, some fatally, by nightwear catching fire.

All those labels on our children’s pajamas are the result of the Sleepwear Act, which was passed in the United States in 1953 to regulate the manufacture and sale of flammable apparel, especially sleepwear. By 1985, over 85% of all children’s sleepwear were made of safer synthetics and less than 15% with the more flammable cotton. A significant decrease in toddler flame burns was the result.

The reason that some pajamas fit so tightly that they are usually too small for the age listed is that in 1996 amendments to the children’s sleepwear standards exempted tight-fitting children’s sleepwear and infant garments from standard requirements. In other words, sleepwear manufacturers don’t have to conform to flame resistant standards or issue warnings with their sleepwear if the pajamas fit really snugly.

So just how safe are your kids? In Bermuda, many of us do not have central heating; we rely instead on space heaters and fireplaces to keep us warm through our short winters, and our children are bundled up in warm fuzzy clothes at night- undoubtedly not clothes made of flame-resistant polyester. That means that a Bermudian child is more in danger than most of suffering from burns.

So, just as you go out of your way to buy electric-socket covers, nontoxic crayons, bike helmets and sunscreen, include flammability warnings as a dutiful parents’ responsibility. For Jack’s sake.

Fire Safety Tips

• Look for nightwear marked “fire-resistant”, usually made of polyester or other synthetic fibres.
• Avoid cotton, rayon and nylon- all extremely flammable- for children’s sleepwear.
• Avoid loose-fitting clothing such as nighties and dressing gowns, as they are more likely to brush up against an ignition source.
• Avoid one-piece garments that can be hard to take off in a hurry.
• Keep lighters, matches and other flammable equipment secure from children.
• Use a good fireplace grill over your hearth.
• Heaters should be three-feet (one metre) from anything that can burn (drapes, furnishings, bedding, clothing), and not used with an extension cord. Turn the heater off at night or when you’re not in the room.
• Never leave a fire or heater unattended.
• Teach your children fire evacuation procedures and the stop, drop, roll technique.