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Summer smart, right from the start
Keeping little ones safe this summer After a long, cold, virus-heavy winter, many parents will be looking forward to summer – warmer days, fewer illnesses, and time outside with the kids. But after last year’s record-high temperatures, it’s important to remember that summer has dangers too. Babies, with their delicate skin and inability to regulate temperature, are particularly sensitive to harsh sun and heat. Make sure you’re aware and prepared before summer starts, so you can protect your wee ones – no matter how hot it gets. Here’s our summer safety toolkit: Safer with sunscreen Babies and small children have delicate skin that burns easily, so sunscreen is a non-negotiable in the summer months. Even if your children hate the application process, it’s still something that has to be done. If you make it a regular part of their morning routine, they’ll get used to it eventually. • Choose a broad-spectrum sunscreen with SPF30+ at minimum. • Apply sunscreen at least 15 minutes before you go outside, and remember to reapply every 3-4 hours. • Use plenty – apply sunscreen thickly, and don’t miss areas like the back of the arms or ears. • Keep bottles of sunscreen everywhere – the car, the baby bag, grandparents’ house – so you’re never caught without it. • Don’t forget sunscreen on cloudy days – 80% of rays penetrate through cloud cover, so you can still get burnt. Buy the Made 4 Baby SPF50 Natural Sunscreen HERE . Shade solutions Sunscreen is a must if you’re out in the sunshine, but it’s not the only way to prevent sunburn or overheating. Staying indoors or in the shade during the hottest part of the day helps you avoid the heat altogether while dressing appropriately keeps you – and your children – safe and comfortable. • Try to avoid the sun between 11am-4pm, when UV rays are strongest. • Dress your children in loose, dark-coloured or UV-protective clothing and swimwear – the sun’s rays can penetrate light, thin fabrics. • Choose long-sleeved swimwear. • Make sure your babies and children always wear hats – full brim is best. • Use a sunshade or cover for your pram – but make sure it’s not preventing airflow to your baby, or she could overheat. • Use a shade cloth or stick-on shade in the car, to keep your baby’s seat out of the sun. Check out our range of Cotton Products Here Overheating and hydration During the summer months, it’s important to keep babies and children hydrated and cool as much as possible. Because they’re less developed than adults, babies and small children can’t regulate their body temperature properly, which means they’re more susceptible to overheating. During record high temperatures, overheating and dehydration can be a real concern for smaller babies. Although it’s less common in New Zealand’s fairly temperate climate, babies have died of heat exhaustion in extreme weather • Keep small children indoors, preferably with air conditioning on, during very high temperatures. • Make sure children drink plenty of fluids – homemade ice-blocks are a great way to get more liquid into them. • Give breastfed babies more frequent feeds – your milk will naturally be less concentrated to keep your baby hydrated. Drink more water yourself. • Bottle-fed babies should also be given more feeds – you can offer small amounts of water if you’re concerned about dehydration. • Dress babies and children lightly for sleep, and use a fan or air conditioning to keep the temperature in their room down. • Never leave a baby or child alone in the car, as temperatures can rise extremely rapidly. • If your baby or child is showing signs of dehydration or heatstroke – including lethargy, a dry mouth, fewer wet nappies, or a sunken fontanelle – seek medical treatment immediately. If it all sounds a bit alarming, don’t worry. Summer should be a time of fun and relaxation, even when you do have small children. As long as you’re aware and well prepared, you – and your wee ones – should be fine. Don't Forget the Sunscreen! Buy Sun Lotion Here
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From Hobby to 'Family' Business
As the first few of her fourteen children came along, our founder Jane Anne McAllister found that store-bought clothes just didn’t have the quality she wanted for her babies. They also lacked the strength to endure being passed from one baby to the next and still look good, or even stay intact. So she sourced the best fabrics and began making her baby clothes, lovingly embroidering each item by hand. That was the start of Dimples. Founded in 1992, today, we still dedicate the same care and time that Jane gave to those first garments. We’re one of the few clothing companies that still manufacture in NZ, which lets us make sure each garment is of the highest quality. It also means that our manufacturing is inherently ethical – no unknown, offshore factories with little oversight of working conditions, wages or environmental issues. So who makes our clothes? Our sewing machinists are part of our family, and all highly-skilled craftspeople. Karen has been with us for about seven years, putting her five decades of experience into every garment. Meet Karen – a Dimples sewer As a teenager, Karen finished school in December and reached school-leaving age in January, with dreams of training as a hairdresser. Her parents had other ideas – the hairdressing job didn’t start until mid-February, and they weren’t having her underfoot with nothing to do all that time. “I had to do what my parents told me to. So they marched me into town and got me a sewing job, and that’s where I stayed. I started in the city – 50 years ago. Yes, it was a craft.” ‘Made-in-NZ’ – an endangered species Back when Karen started her working life, a trained machinist could walk out of one job and into another almost immediately. That’s changed now. Textile, leather, clothing and footwear manufacturing make up only 5% of New Zealand’s manufacturing sector, down from 8% in 2008. [1] The number of jobs filled by paid employees in the clothing and knitted-product manufacturing industry fell nearly 60 percent – from 9,550 to 4,120 between 1986 and 2012 [2] . Taking pride in the quality As a professional machinist, Karen says the shift towards international production might make clothes cheaper, but they’re often very poorly constructed. The difference, she says, is that she was trained to complete a whole garment rather than doing piece-work. International garment factories tend to have a group of people just sewing collars, cuffs or hems, for example. “Everything’s done on the big stitch, no back-tacking. Within weeks the seams come apart.” At Dimples, we can turn out high-quality garments because we employ craftspeople like Karen – they have very high standards and the skills to back it up. Karen, in particular was known for her precision and was often used as a sample machinist. “Everything had to be spot on. It was an example – then other sewers had to make it exactly like the sample.” The Dimples family The inclusive culture we foster at Dimples helps our engaged and committed staff produce their best work in a happy, supportive atmosphere. Karen truly thinks the Dimples ‘family’ are lovely people to work for. “I’ve worked for a lot of people, and some of the other bosses were terrible. But Jane is just fantastic. When my grandkids were born, I got a beautiful gift for each baby. At Dimples, they care about you. They’re just nice people.”
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