37 weeks and prepping hospital bag... do I need to wash clothes first?

[emmac3616]

Hi all, so sorry if this has already been covered but I can't see it anywhere recently. Quick question - I am 37 weeks and have just started packing my hospital bag for the baby. I have bought a starter pack of sleepsuits, bibs, hats etc. from M&S but a few people have told me to wash it before I pack it. Is that necessary? It hadn't occurred to me at all but I guess you need to be super careful with newborn skin. What do you think? Also, can I use my Fairy Non-Bio tablets or do I need something specific. I am so clueless!
All advice much appreciated!

Actually yes everything in DD room, the car seat and pushchair has been cleaned or washed and that includes the cot and all furniture. But I would do this with any new furniture in the house.

Clearly you have never been to a textile or clothing manufacturing site. As you believe your eyes. I believe my eyes having clients in the textile and clothing manufacturing sector and having attended factory audits. But what would I know.

Let's agree to disagree.

i'll put it like this- i nearly always wash MY OWN new clothes before wearing them (always with underwear), so i sure as hell will be doing it for my newborn baby!

Considering the amount that people SPIT in china (yes, racial slur alert, i dont care!) then god knows what could actually be encrusted on those babygros!

I'm sure 9 times out of 10 they'll be fine without having them washed, but for gods sake it only takes a few hours in total to have them all done!

I nearly always wash MY OWN new clothes before wearing them (always with underwear), so i sure as hell will be doing it for my newborn baby!

My point exactly. Couldn't agree with you more.

You'd swear it's going to take 3 days to do it, that's the joke of it all- shove them in the machine, take them out, let them dry- job done!

God knows once the baby is actually home from hospital it'll be like a chinese (fnar) laundry anyway with the amount of washing so we might as well get used to it!!

Hmmmm don't worry if you don't have time to wash stuff, maybe air it out the plastic packaging at least. I did all the standard things with dc1 including wash the clothes, she had mild dry skin/tendency to get allergy type reactions and heat rashes, (for the record I bf for 11 months so that clearly didn't help but I fully believe the benefits of bf) turns out her skin was sensitive to shampoo/soaps etc, so nowt to do with clothes, you can't cocoon them from everything, some dust and germs and exposure to the world is a very good thing IMO, dc2 didn't have the luxury of all her clothes washed and she has survived the experience no ill effects tbh once dc arrive far greater things concern me eg get the vaccinations to protect them from real threat of avoidable illness, or remember to fit their car seat correctly! or keep them in the right size shoes and get them to brush their teeth properly and eat their greens! Whether or not you wash them is up to you op, don't sweat it either way is all I'm saying, nothing will happen to your baby if you sneeze on his head or put him in a shock horror!!! Unwashed baby gro. But hey I lick dummies that fall on the floor and pop them back in so I'm the last person to ask, well sometimes! Enjoy your bundle.

Oh yes meant to say I've always used fairy non bio or equivalent but also ecover fab cond is ace, it doesn't smell as strong as other ones , surcare also good for same reason and I once read something about ecover having no animal ingredients whereas the other fab conds do. Anyways stuck in my mind and now habit use ecover and really notice the perfume smell on other peoples washed clothes! (Eg friend washed some stuff of my dc after a play date and it was nice & clean but very perfumery to me) mayb worth considering that day to day in your laundry more than the state of items off the peg?

Most people have loads of bacteria in their washing machines so it's not like you are sterilising the clothes by putting them through a wash. I'm in the 'you can't Dettol the world (and why would you want to?)' camp on this one. I'd honestly never heard of washing new adult clothes before wear before coming on MN.

We didn't wash anything either, no harm done, so IMO its nonsense - get yourself used to cutting out unnecessary work for yourself, it will help you stay sane when baby arrives - now sounds like a good place to start

Good luck

Oh & the best tip anyone gave me pre birth, was to count to 60 when the contractions kick in, no contractions last longer than a minute & it helps focus your mind off it

PS - I also have spent a large portion of my working life visiting & working in clothing factories & textile factories all over the world.

I still think its a load of paranoid nonsense to wash before wearing - there's probably just as many germs in the hospital & definitely on your skin, germs are a normal part of life, they are on everything - you can't avoid them & being exposed to the helps build immunity

I washed the stuff I had bought.

But Ds's was tiny so Dh had to go in search of ever decreasing sizes and we just used these straight from the packets. Nothing awful happened to ds!!

Someone mentioned ironing. Please tell me no-one actually IRONS baby clothes?

Ironing?!?!? That's dh's remit anyway but even a lot of dc 2 (age 3) stuff doesn't need ironing, it's too small! On the other hand when my granny visits she irons mountains and we get ironed pants and socks! Madness! Keeps her happy though. No one iron ever, please.

Even I ave gone as far as actually ironing. But now you mention it. . Ha ha ha

I never ore washed any of my baby things. It never occurred to me that new clothes were anything other than clean. How wrong can you be?

My DD, aged 9 by this point, put on a hoodie, straight from the packaging at a club rehearsal and started itching and getting hot. Within minutes she was having trouble breathing as her throat had swelled up. We took her to hospital where she was rushed through very quickly into a resus room and had steroid and anti inflammatory injections. It was very scary as I had never experienced anything like it before.

We know now that it was a reaction to the chemicals on new clothes, these often dissipate when clothes are aired or hung in shops, but clothes have all sorts of nasties, including formaldehyde, on them when they are packaged. This was proved a few weeks later when school gave her a new netball skirt to try on. She put it on over her clothes but was itching and wheezing again in minutes. Just touching it with her fingers ( then touching her face) was enough. So you live and learn.

I washed the bits I wad taking to hospital (was 1 week early but convinced myself I was going to be late so ended up having 4 days mat leave before LO arrived) but although she was an average weight at 7lb10 she was quite long so the stuff I had packed didnt fit. had to send DP back for next size up that hadnt been washed and she was fine. didnt get time after that so no washing here first