'Wolf Dad' Lets 15-Month-Old Son Run Around Without Clothes, Defends Parenting Style
This 15-month-old boy, nicknamed Laji’er, allegedly hasn’t worn clothes since he was 6 months old. Photo by CFP/China Daily/Facebook
A 15-month-old boy has become a viral celebrity in China this week after pictures surfaced of him running without wearing any clothes in the streets of his Chengdu city home, according to China Daily.
If the pictures are to be believed, the little boy, Laji’er, loves playing in his birthday suit, and his father allegedly hasn’t put him in clothes since he was six months old. He calls it “wolf dad” parenting, China Daily says, and he claims the method, which also includes washing his son in an outdoor cold water bath twice daily, is making Laji’er stronger and healthier.
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"He has only had a cold once since he was born," Tan Juncheng, the boy’s father, said, according to the Chinese newspaper People’s Daily.
People’s Daily says some neighbors have questioned Tan Juncheng’s parenting method, but the 41-year-old father isn’t interested in other people’s opinions. Dad supposedly will let Laji’er wear clothes eventually — but not until he is two and a half.
The temperature in Chengdu hit a high of 70 on Friday, so parenting expert and family physician Dr. Deborah Gilboa isn’t too worried about little Laji’er. “There’s no evidence to support the idea that nudity builds your immune system, but it’s not necessarily damaging,” she says. “It’s not dangerous, but not scientifically healthy either.”
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The average temperature in January, the coldest month in Chengdu, is 42 degrees Fahrenheit, and the city has one of the lowest sunshine totals nationally, so it might just be the best possible climate for running around without clothes. “It would not be ok to have a kid go outside naked in very cold weather. You can still get frostbite and probably more quickly than a larger person. If there’s a lot of sun, you want to always apply sunscreen,” Dr. Gilboa says. “But other than that, if it’s working for them, that’s lovely. Still, I wouldn’t consider it as a fantastic new discovery in parenting.”
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