Is washing clothes for newborn baby necessary?

[Jigglypuffler]

DS is 6yo, and I remember when I was preparing/nesting etc I washed all of his new clothes.. I recall being told or reading that new clothes might have some chemicals etc on them that should be washed off in case of reaction with skin, etc. When he was born, he was smaller than we expected so my mum went and bought him some smaller vests, babygrows etc which we put straight on him from the packet, and I don't think we washed any of the clothes we were given as gifts before he wore them. He never had any reaction or problem with his skin.

I'm now due with DC2 in 6 weeks, and I have a pile of clothes (both new and second hand) sitting waiting to either be washed or put away properly. I'm sure it's because my brain is in a rather stagnant at the moment, but I can't work out whether this is really needed, or whether I should just cross it off my ever-growing to do list and get on with something else.

So I'm wondering what others do - and why?

I personally have never washed beforehand apart from the beautiful hand knitted cardigans my lovely Mum knitted for her grandchildren.She was a smoker so all the cardigans had to be washed ...bless her .

My wife said if you visit the factory you would definitely want to wash anything the touch your skin.
However they do various tests for chemicals so it should meet the safety standard.
But what you don't know doesn't hurt you perhaps!

[quote Letsallscreamatthesistene]@orchidsonabudget you know House isnt real life though?[/quote]
It's not real life, sure, but I have that reaction to new clothes which haven't been washed, and from a previous thread I know I'm not the only one here. I wash all my new clothes before wearing, I have to, so I just did it automatically for baby clothes.

Not at all for new stuff. Second hand obviously yes.

Im not saying nobody does it ever, or nobody should do it.

My comment about House not being real was because it seems odd to base real life decisions on a drama.

Ive still never met anyone that does it in real life, regardless of people on here that do. Thats true to my experience

God no. You get enough washing AFTER the baby’s born, I wasn’t going to start making my life any harder than it needed to be beforehand!

Yes, I’m on baby #3 (born yesterday) and all clothes for my children are washed before being worn.

My eldest’s skin flares up almost instantly if his clothes aren’t washed before he wears them.

I find the “obviously second hand I wash, but not new” comments a bit strange really - all the second hand things I have had, either bought or hand-me-downs, have been beautifully clean and fresh and soft because they have been worn before. I do wash them, but then I also washed new clothes for my newborn, and I would also wash anything that seemed like it had been stored in an attic for a long time. But if for example you are concerned about other people’s hygiene or detergent affecting your baby then I don’t know why you wouldn’t be concerned about new stuff too. FWIW I don’t think any of it is absolutely necessary but I can see how it is desirable and I washed stuff before both my children were born, as have most people I know and as did my mother over 30 year’s ago, so this isn’t a new thing or a Mumsnet thing

I wash all new clothes, regardless of who they're for, unless dry-clean only. You don't know who has been running their fingers along them before they got to you.