Say a seven year old kid wants to go outside, and it’s 23 degrees (Fahrenheit) out there. I’d just let the kid go if he said he didn’t want a jacket. If he realizes it’s too cold, he can come in and get a jacket.
Most people, though, in my experience, want to insist on requiring the kid wear a jacket before he be allowed to go out.
Is there some kind of harm that can come to the kid that I’m not aware of? True it’s below freezing. Will he get frostbite and lose a finger? Is that a more serious risk than I’m aware of?
I have three sons. The one that gets sick the least (probably two colds a year) is the one that disdains warm clothing the most. He frequently goes out into below 30s weather with no coat or jacket, in only short sleeves. I do not think he wore pants at all last winter (he wore shorts instead).
so my scientific study shows that no, cold does not harm a child.
It harms me though! I feel cold just looking at his bare bluish limbs!
Were you not a child? Children are notorious for getting so involved in their play they entirely miss signs and symptoms that an adult would act upon.
I clearly recall, as children all four of us, with blue lips and trembling, endlessly arguing with my Mom, “But we’re not cold!”, while she insisted we get out of the lake. We’d have stayed in that lake till one of us was hypothermic, I’m pretty sure. And likely teased the one who did, mercilessly.
I’d make a 7-year-old put on a jacket when the temp’s below freezing. Above that, I’d let him figure it out for himself. The 30’s aren’t really that cold, if there’s no wind.
Shoes are possibly most important. Cold wet feet and frozen toes are quite painful.
I think it would be perfectly fine to let them go outside but keep them well monitored while doing so (as you would with any 7 year old in any weather conditions whatsoever). Keep an eye out for pale skin tones and blue-ish lips, and then force them to wear a jacket or warm themselves up somehow. As others have said, kids can sometimes be oblivious to harm in a way an adult would be. I do think as a kid I was much better able to handle cold weather than I am now, even though physiologically I doubt I’m any different.
I certainly wouldn’t think it’s negligent or abusive though, as long as the kid was watched carefully and provided warmth when it was needed.
Seven year olds?.. Pshah… I still lecture my 14 and 17 year olds for not having the sense to put on a coat in the dead of winter. The younger one would go out in a t-shirt if I didn’t stop him. “But dad, it’s hot at school!”… Yeah, but it’s a half hour until you get there on a cold bus. :smack:
Permanently causing minor damage to my fingers took weeks of several hours of work per day in -20 to -25 C with thin gloves and it’s not like that made them fall off, they just got a bit stiff. As long as the kid has decent gloves and shoes it should be alright in 23 F, that’s not that cold.
Human body keeps the torso warm pretty well even without adequate clothing if you keep moving. I remember wearing just a t-shirt under my jacket once for work in -11 C but bundling up otherwise. Got very hungry by the time I was done but other than that I felt fine.
Part of it is that kids will ignore signs of being too cold that adults would not, but part of it is also concern about appearances. You don’t want to be the parent that tells your kid they can go play outside in below freezing weather without a jacket if that means that in three weeks you have a knock on your door and CPS is standing there because some nosy neighbor called and reported that you let your seven year old hang out in freezing weather in a t-shirt.
23 degrees is below freezing. Make the kid put on at least a light coat. If he gets too hot, he can unzip it. Even if he pulls it off entirely, at least he has it with him to put on if he really needs it.
Gloves and hats, those I wouldn’t push so hard. I know when I went out to play in winter as a kid if I had a hat I’d get way too hot and wind up pulling it off. Only really needed gloves if I was playing in the snow (like building a snowman or making a snowball or something of that sort).
Seriously. I cannot tell you how many times I was outside playing and my mother insisted I put on a sweater because it (meaning she) was cold. Dude, it was not cold. I grew up in Los Angeles, so I promise you, it has never been cold even once. Bless her heart.
So yeah, I’m with the folks here. Unless you’re risking hypothermia, leave 'em be.
I agree. On the opposite end of the spectrum of regulating other people’s temperatures, I had a teacher in 5th grade who used to make us take off our sweaters or sweatshirts when she deemed it necessary. The only time I had to stay after school (ever in my entire school career) was for leaving my sweater on. I mean, I didn’t talk back about it or anything, I just didn’t do it the first time she said it because I wasn’t too hot. Once she said it again, I took it off. Control freak fucking nun. Catholic school is so awesome.
I suggest my daughter bring a jacket if I think she’ll need one. If she decides not to and later regrets it, she’ll live, and probably think twice next time.
My mom tells me that she always thought I should be cold outside, running around in a thin little jacket, but I was never cold. If I got cold, I came in and got a warmer jacket or sweater. I don’t think it did me any permanent damage. I guess you could argue that kids get too wrapped up in their playing to notice they’re too cold, but you could also argue that when kids are running around and playing, they’re much warmer than someone just sitting around is. When I go out walking in the cold, it takes me about 15 minutes to warm up, and after that, I’m likely to take my gloves off and open my coat to blow off some of the heat, and what I consider cold is much colder than -5ºC (more like -25ºC / -13ºF).
Or frostbite. Contrary to the poster above, I managed to get frostbite from one experience, a long ride on a schoolbus (without a working heater, it turned out) to a school field trip event, when I decided I would wear dress shoes instead of putting on boots until I got to the destination. My toes were dead white when I got to the destination, and I had to soak them under warm water to get any sensation back. I still have problems to this day with my toes going numb rapidly with the least amount of cold weather, and dead white spots showing up if I’m out too long.
So I’d say protect those little extremities if it’s nasty out and if they’re going to be in cold for an extended time, but maybe let them suck it up with the layering and just check on them now and then.
In February of this year I was standing in line at the Walmart cash register behind a family with three small children - the oldest didn’t look more than 5 or 6. As the parents began to load their purchases onto the counter, they told their children to put on their coats. Quietly and with great precision, each of the three children took their own coat, scarf, and mittens from the shopping cart, and put them on properly.
I was so impressed that I leaned forward and said to the father, “my, but you have wonderfully well-behaved children. I can’t believe how good they are at putting on their coats and scarves and mittens.” He smiled and said “that’s because they have learned that, if they don’t do it for themselves, they’re going to freeze when they get outside.”
When I was a child, I would invariably get diarrhea if I were exposed to prolonged cold—more than a couple of hours or so. This disappeared when I was about ten. Is this a common experience? Does anybody know the physiological basis of it?
Some kids are idiots and some aren’t. Some kids might well do damage to themselves re frostbite etc. before they realize how serious it is. Better to enforce bundling up until they are old enough to know that it is necessary.
Beyond this the USA is a big place. There’s cold and then there’s COLD. Some states have winters can be life threatening in short order.
