Birth nudity: Why birth nudity is a Christian tradition

Many parents think that children should keep their clothing on. This is seen as commonsense to most parents. The fact of the matter is that children need some skin-on-skin time with mothers. The best place to give your child this sort of warmth and sustenance is birth nudity. Birth nudity is a Christian tradition predating the Early Church.

The tradition of birth nudity is part of the Christian doctrine of mutual submission. See Colossians 3:20-21 KJV:

Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord. Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.

The Greek root word translated "obey" is υπακουο (Latin: hupakouo) and refers to secure, vulnerable rest in the love and submission of parents. Parents are the enemy of children, just as mankind is the enemy of God, and is to submit as such. This surrender to parents came with strings attached on the part of parents, with children issuing righteous demands from their place of rest, usually when parents were not pulling their weight.

The Greek root word translated "provoke...to anger" is ερεθιζο (Latin: erethizo) and refers to damages or offenses, namely the slightest of personal offense perceived by a child, including, but not limited to, the slightest of offensive touch or speech perceived by a child, stemming from entitlement. This commandment was intended by the Apostle Paul, and understood in its original context, as a moral statute prohibiting all forms of punitive parenting, including, but not limited to, any punishments, reprimands, or other controlling demeanor towards children. In the Old Testament, punitive parents were charged with kidnapping, with "kidnapping" being defined under the Law as the slightest of damages or offenses stemming from hostage-taking - child punishment was seen in biblical times as holding your child hostage merely for things that they did wrong, thereby treating your child as a quartered slave. Paul here was lifting up the Law in order to convict a group of Greek Christian parents who brought their pagan custom of spanking and punishing children into the church. Paul, contrary to popular legend, was anti-spanking, and opposed any and all punishment of a child in his secular writings. Paul surely didn't get along with the women, but he sure loved children, and took in orphaned children. Indeed, Greco-Roman fathers used the scourge of cords to punish their children, but NOT the Christians among them - the Early Christians were hated largely for being "too soft" on their children.

Birth nudity is a time-honored tradition, with this tradition predating the Early Church by thousands of years. The Early Christians did indeed practice birth nudity, as did parents in the Old Testament - even during the time of Solomon. Birth nudity is where mother and child are in the nude next to each other, in skin-on-skin closeness and intimacy. For the first 6 years of a child's life, children were in constant closeness to mothers, meaning that wherever the mother went, so did the child. Children in biblical times went naked wherever they went, with mothers only wearing clothing outside of the house, and when in the house with her young children under age 6, she was completely in the nude with her child. Children then had to earn their clothing, and they were handed their clothing at their baptism, when they were adults. Come nightfall, children slept next to mothers in skin-on-skin comfort and warmth.  Co-sleeping ended when the child hit puberty, which was when children wanted a place of their own to sleep. Children who were milk-dependent were breastfed to sleep every night. Children were ready to eat solid food when they pushed the nipple away, which, in most cases, happened around age 3, but sometimes not until age 6 or even later.

The modern application of birth nudity is leaving clothing hung up in an open area in the household, for children to choose when they are ready. Most children actually want to go naked, and feel safe around their mother when she is naked. Children under age 6 are not old enough to leave the side of mothers. Most children under age 6 struggle with separation anxiety, meaning mother and child should be inseparable. If you truly love your children, birth nudity shouldn't be that hard. Mothers in the Early Church loved their children very deeply, meaning children were like God to Christian mothers in the Early Church.

The depraved and entitled parents who provoke children to anger through punitive parenting will not inherit the Kingdom of God! Let them forever be cast into the lake of fire and burning sulfur, which is the second death prepared for Satan and his accomplices. Let them descend into the abyss which is the ever-burning Hell of fire and torment, suffering God's Wrath day and night forever and ever! Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!