Infants and Toddlers

• At the beginning of the 1700s babies were wrapped tightly in swaddling clothes, a tradition that dated back to the Roman Empire. This practice disappeared in the beginning of the century and infants were wrapped less constrictively. Young children of both sexes wore dresses from their toddler years until they were pre-teens. Toddlers also sometimes wore padded caps similar to contemporary crash helmets. The dresses had close-fitting bodices like dresses for grown women. Upper-class children may have also had stays in the backs of their dresses to secure upright posture; lower-class children would not have worn stays.
  
  

Older Boys

• Older boys went through a transition at some point between the ages of three and seven called "breeching." During this time the boy would stop wearing the dresses of a child and begin wearing knee breeches similar to those of grown men. For dress occasions boys would wear jackets, again, similar to the jackets of adults. By the late 1700s it was popular for boys to wear longer pants instead of knee breeches; eventually, toward the end of the century, this style would catch on with grown men.
  
  

Older Girls

• Girls' clothing was similar to the clothing of grown women; they wore full dresses with skirts to their ankles or feet. The skirts of the dresses were billowy and pleated. The dresses had tight waists and full bodices worn tightly around their torsos. Bodices came in two styles; high bodices that came up to the neck, almost like a collar on a contemporary man's collared shirt and low bodices with a low cut under the arms. Regardless of their height, bodices were worn tight.
  
  

Shoes and Hats

• Shoes for both boys and girls were made of leather. The insides of the shoes were usually made of linen sewn to the leather. Girls' shoes would have a heel of up to two inches. The leather for girls' shoes was more decorative than that of boys, and sometimes tanned or buffed. Boys' shoes were simple and with flat heels. Both boys and girls shoes had buckles, not laces as they do today. Boys and girls would also wear hats. Boys hats were trifolded hats just as men of the 18th century would wear. Girls would wear bonnets or decorative bows in their hair.