Tumble drying baby clothes

[Bambam2019]

Due to give birth in a few weeks, so getting everything ready and washed now.
A lot of people have said not to use a tumble dryer to dry baby’s clothes, due to shrinkage, however I really don’t want to dry them on radiators around the house as I feel it takes longer, they never feel as fresh, and over time could cause damp. Plus, when baby is here I assume I’m going to have washing galore, there’s only a certain amount of radiators to use!
Does anyone else use the tumble dryer? So far we have found that the ‘baby care’ setting isn’t drying the clothes as well as the ‘extra dry’ option we use, could I realistically just use that?

Not sure which machine you’ve got but we smash the baby clothes in on mixed load or cotton and the medium dry setting. All come out correct size and shape it’s a Samsung heat pump thingy

I tumble dry all of my baby's clothes. I kept thinking they were shrinking until I realised baby was growing instead!! I wash clothes at 30 degrees and tumble on our heat sensor setting.

My LB is almost three weeks old and gets through quite a few clothes.

If the label says we can tumble dry, we tumble dry them.

No evidence of shrinkage so far, and most are second/third hand.

Also, all of the muslin cloths we have said not to tumble dry but we just lob them in with everything else and they're fine.

Thank you all, very helpful! Just going to go for it on our usual setting in the future as this baby care is taking forever as we have to keep putting it back on!

We stick almost everything in at 40 degrees and then the drier. Just a few fancy bits that relatives have bought get hung up to dry. Relatives have now been instructed to please only buy things that can be tumbled!

My tumble drier shrinks my baby clothes - but if not it takes them at least 2 days, 3 days for thicker to dry on the radiators which is a pain in the arse as he goes through about 4 outfits a day and by day 3 i have no clothes left 😂

I have a survival of the fittest strategy for all children’s clothes: if they don’t survive washing and tumble drying, they were not strong enough for my life. This applies to baby clothes too.

I refuse to faff about with clothes.

Can’t you use an airier rather than the radiators? The tumble dryer does shrink them IME. It’s also expensive to run, especially with a baby going through multiple outfit changes a day!

Yep always tu le dry everything except wool.

*tumble

I’ve found it shrinks my toddlers and newborns clothes. But I just accept it, as the rate they get through clothes it’s the only option this time of year.

Just buy bigger clothes to start with...???!!!

@JamieFrasersSwingingKilt

Just buy bigger clothes to start with...???!!!

I actually have mostly bought 0-3 instead of newborn, but a lot of very generous and well meaning friends and relatives have bought newborn sized!

DS is 10 months old. I tumble dry nearly everything. The only item to have shrunk so far is a pair of tracksuit bottoms my DM bought from M&Co. I after realised they weren't supposed to go in drier but honestly who thinks a basic pair of baby tracksuit bottoms won't be suitable to tumble dry?! Anyway, everything else has been fine!

@KumquatSalad

I have a survival of the fittest strategy for all children’s clothes: if they don’t survive washing and tumble drying, they were not strong enough for my life. This applies to baby clothes too.

I refuse to faff about with clothes.

This really!

@KumquatSalad

I have a survival of the fittest strategy for all children’s clothes: if they don’t survive washing and tumble drying, they were not strong enough for my life. This applies to baby clothes too.

I refuse to faff about with clothes.

We have this policy for all clothes. The only things that don't get tumble dried are my work dresses - and that's only because if I do them on the airier I can get away with not ironing them (I don't do ironing either).

Get a heated airer, cheap to run too

Didn’t have a tumble drier with DS1 and put everything on an airer. It was fine although bothered me that the clothes didn’t feel soft any more.

Got a tumble drier since and OMG I’m glad!! DS2 is refluxy and throws up EVERYWHERE. We can get through multiple outfits (us and him!) and muslins a day. Also need to turn his night swaddles around quickly if he chucks up on them. Between reflux baby and muddy toddler at Forest school nursery, I wouldn’t have survived without my tumble drier this time around.

Someone recently said to me “if it can’t be tumble dried, it’s not good to me” and I feel the same. Others had similar above and it’s just so true. I just throw it all in and hope for the best as I don’t have time to be messing around. I just need it clean and dry. Cheap stuff from Primark shrinks and annoyingly a Boden top belonging to DS1 did (although to be fair, the label said not to tumble dry) but otherwise most stuff has been fine. It’s a heat pump tumble drier so dries at a lower temp and has a sensor to stop it when dry. I much prefer how soft the baby clothes come out.

And honestly, the new baby clothes seem to lovely now but by the time they’ve been vomited on and covered in poonamis (napisan is a great stain remover!), you’ll feel much less sentimental about them and realise they won’t stay perfect.

I bought a dryer specifically for drying baby clothes (twins, so a lot of laundry).
I find it shrinks clothes a bit - interestingly more expensive items from JoJoMaman shrank more than cheaper items.
But it's worth it not to have baby clothes on airers. I don't put my own socks in, since they shrink too much.

Some Jojo clothes just don’t wash well anyway. Seems to be pot luck. I had lots for DS1 (not tumble drier) and found some appliqué twisted, the printed cottons faded after one wash etc. I stopped buying the brand pretty quickly as I was so disappointed with the quality for the price, so I don’t think it’s just tumble drying that’s the issue. Weirdly I bought a bulk buy of 10 long sleeved tops in a set from George for DS1’s nursery clothing and they’ve washed and tumbled dried beautifully 🤷🏼‍♀️

I’m of the opinion that if it can’t stand a wash and tumble dry, it’s not worth being everyday clothing for a baby.

Most baby stuff is to be tumble dried, haven’t had one for years, I hate the fluff they take off clothes

We have this policy for all clothes. The only things that don't get tumble dried are my work dresses - and that's only because if I do them on the airier I can get away with not ironing them (I don't do ironing either).

Tbh, the policy applies to almost all my clothes. I have a couple of wool jumpers that never get washed are hand wash only and a skirt that I usually don’t tumble dry (it survived the dryer when I did though). Life is too short for high maintenance clothing.

I don’t iron either.

DH, on the other hand, seems to only own fragile snowflake clothes that must be washed at low temperature and never tumble dried. Even his socks and pants. 🙄. I just leave him to it and get on with the laundry for the rest of us.

He bought DSD a jumper and said we shouldn’t tumble dry it. I just raised an eyebrow and pointed out that an age 6-7 hoody that cannot be washed at a temperature that removes stains and then tumble dried is not fit for purpose. Guess what: it’s fine after I washed it with everything else.