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Home » Merino Wool Facts

Merino Wool Facts

Sleeping with wool close to the body helps babies sleep better – and adults too. Studies have shown that early babies thrive and gain weight more rapidly when laid on wool rather than cotton. Grown–ups have a more restful night's sleep, waking up less, and with a more relaxed heartbeat, when sleeping on or under wool rather than man–made fibres.

So, give your little one the best chance of a good night's sleep by using our beautiful Huggababy Swaddling Blanket for their first month (they feel safe and secure just like the womb)! and then our  Huggababy Merino wool baby sleeping bag:

• Non–itchy and very soft.
• Breathable and temperature–regulating.
• Helps with sleeping problems.

Wool is a natural "high–performance" fabric – it's naturally good for your skin and body. Because of this, it's very helpful in keeping you and your family healthy, relaxed and rested!

Let's have a look at how it does all these things.

Wool consists of three layers:

• The first, keratin, is a moisture–loving protein that all animal hair has. It is designed to maintain a stable body temperature. Think how useful this is to babies, athletes and your own day–to–day living.
• The second layer is a scaly covering. The overlapping scales are tiny, but as they rub against each other they push off the dirt. So it is self–cleaning, as anyone who's put their baby in wool knows.
• The third layer is a filmy skin which keeps the rain out. Wool is quite water–resistant, as duffel–coat wearers and sheep can testify.

So, you can see already that it's pretty amazing, and a healthy thing to have next to your skin.

Now, the two outer layers have tiny pores which allow moisture to pass through to the keratin core, which absorbs it. So, if the temperature increases or the wearer becomes more active and begins to sweat, the moisture is wicked into the central core. Your body heat then wicks it out towards the surface, where it is released into the atmosphere.

In this way, it helps you and your baby maintain a stable temperature and keeps you and your baby dry and comfortable by absorbing and releasing sweat. It even does this "dynamically", which means it does it more when needed, and less when not needed. Wow. It's just the best thing, don't you think? No man–made fibre can equal this.

To keep these abilities, wool does need to be looked after. But with 99% of washing machines now having a wool cycle, this is quite easy. Just use a liquid detergent for wool, or a drop of your own shampoo, and set the temperature on your wool cycle to 30C.

More Merino Wool Facts & Information

Several properties contribute to merino's popularity for baby clothing, compared to wool in general and to other types of fabric.

• Merino is excellent at regulating body temperature, especially when worn against the skin. The wool provides some warmth, without overheating the wearer. It draws moisture away from the skin, a phenomenon known as wicking. The fabric is slightly moisture repellent, allowing your baby to avoid the feeling of wetness.
• Like cotton, wool absorbs water (up to 1/3 its weight), but, unlike cotton, wool retains warmth when wet.
• Like most wools, Merino has anti-bacterial properties which cause the fabric to resist smells. This is a strong advantage compared to synthetic fabrics reducing the need for frequent washing.
• Merino is one of the softest types of wool available, due to finer fibres and smaller scales.
• Merino has an excellent warmth-to-weight ratio compared to synthetics and to other wools, in part because the smaller fibres have microscopic cortexes of dead air, trapping body heat.

It has been proved by a study carried out in 1979 by Scott and Richards at Cambridge Maternity Hospital that babies who sleep on merino wool settled more quickly, cried less, fed better and gained weight faster.