“milder European climate” ???
I’m freezing my bippy off here in winter.
Sometimes it’s so cold, we skate from town to town. 
I’ll third (or fourth or whatever) the “Outerwear” comments.
Inside the house 6-week old lad gets dressed in singlets, nappies and stretch-n-grow suits (preferably the kind that have domes all the way down to the ankles to make removal and replacement of nasty-nappies so much easier). Outside he gets cardigan (button-thru sweater for you Yanks :)) added along with hat and booties.
Anyhoo… knitted pants are just so 70’s… Hmmmm… macrame baby clothes… tie dyed nappies… peace symbol chew toys… just think of the possibilities…
Never let it be said that Podkayne doesn’t do her part to keep American babies half-naked.
I have knitted baby clothes meeself, and the reason there are no pants is that they’d be a pain in the neck to knit. You do the baby sweater, which is the main, complicated thing, and then, because you’re sitting there with the matching yarn and everything, you whack out a hat and some booties, which take about a half hour apiece, and voila, you got yerself an ensemble.
I have no idea what mothers actually do with these things, I just dutifully knit one off whenever somebody’s second cousin’s wife turns out to be knocked up, but the sweaters I’ve made have usually been more of a layering item–I wouldn’t expect the baby to be in just the sweater, but to have a little baby shirt of some sort on under them, and presumably some baby pants.
A friend of mine said that those zippy-up-the-front bag things with arms and a hood are the most convenient baby item ever, so I’ve been making those instead of sweaters.
Podkayne, (and a friend of RAH is a friend of mine) I’ll give some back up on those little ‘zip up the front’ items.
‘Baby Bags’ as we called them, are EXCELLENT sleepwear for truly small infants. It keeps them from getting all tangled.
We call 'em sleep sacks, and they are just about the most useful baby accessory out there. Makes the little boogers look like something out of Dr. Suess too!
I’m from Sweden. I’m pantless on just about every photo I have of my childhood. I’m generally wearing a diaper plus a sweater.
European babies aren’t as uptight as the babies in the United States.
Normally, I would expect to see that little outfit worn over tights and a skivvy-type thing. My mother made heaps of things like that for me when I was a baby. You don’t wear them on their own, they have to go over something, so it’s not a complete set anyway. I think it’s crocheted (sp??), not knitted anyway… perhaps it’s harder to crochet pants?
I can’t honestly believe I’m answering this but…
European babies wear those baby-gro things that it is impossible to get them into. This is while they are very small. Then they wear short trousers. Then long trousers. Then when they’re very old they go back to wearing nappies.
Happy to help
Owl
37, english, at work and wearing trousers.
If your from Sweden, you probably don’t wear many pants now either 
This is totally off topic, but this is the first time I have ever heard them called “button-thru sweaters”. I’ve always called them… well… cardigans…
This is the time of the year when we put on our long underwear