Watch out, Suri Cruise: Researchers have something to say about your designer threads -- and you're not going to like it: Haute couture has no place on the playground.

Ronda Kaysen: A study published this month in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity found that kids who were sent to daycare dressed in clothes that were more fashionable than practical were less likely to play outdoors or to get down and dirty with their classmates.

Daycare teachers were reluctant to send well-heeled kids outside to play. What's even more alarming is that researchers found that just one kid wearing flip-flops, an expensive dress, or no coat often kept the entire class inside for the day.

"Even more surprising to our team was the fact that the childcare center staff members said some parents appeared to send children to the centers without coats so they'd have to stay inside," Dr. Kristen Copeland, a pediatrician at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center who led the study, said in a press release. "We were surprised that some teachers reported that they had seen a few parents intentionally take their child's coat with them to work, so that the child would not be allowed outside."

Copeland said that parents intentionally left coats at home because they didn't want their children running outside and potentially ruining their fancy clothes or getting injured on the playground.

It's outrageous that a parent would intentionally sabotage her child's playtime to protect an overpriced sweater. Have these people never heard of Old Navy? I never understood the concept of dropping oodles of cash on a 2-year-old's wardrobe, but it astounds me that some parents are more concerned with their kid's clothes than they are with his physical health. Kids need to move, they need to play and climb and get dirty. They don't need to sport flip-flops and $300 sweaters.

Ronda Kaysen is a freelance writer. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, BusinessWeek.com, Architectural Record, Huffington Post, New York Observer and AM New York. She lives in Brooklyn with her family.