Hospital bag packing - did you wash the baby clothes??

[PGTips83]

Silly question really, but I'm curious to know whether people washed all the shop-bought baby clothes they packed for their hospital bag. And did you use normal detergent or extra sensitive stuff? I read that babies' skin can react to normal detergent, but is this overkill?

Thanks, bag packers! I'm 35 weeks and FINALLY getting my arse in gear...

@lookforthestars

Do you know how privileged our children are to have an endless stream of brand new clothes?!

37+4 here with baby number 1, bag is packed and I be washed all my newborn and 0-3 months clothes, including what's gone in the hospital bag. Though I wash all my clothes before I wear them.

I used persil non-bio liquid tablets and comfort pure fabric softener. My washing machine has a baby setting on it, which I think adds more water to the wash than normal, which is why I used fabric softener as well.

yep, everything.
fabrics are treated with chemicals that makes sewing easier, fabric dyes and fungicides and pesticides. not things I would want close to anyone's skin (unless absolutely no other choice).

I did for the hospital stuff but nothing else.

I generally wash most new stuff, but just a quick rinse - a 14 minute cycle on 30 degrees and I don't add any detergent. But I wouldn't panic about it.

For DS1 I washed AND ironed all his new stuff (SiL law convinced me it was necessary) but never again! And when I got our used baby clothes out of storage for DS2 & 3 I only washed things that actually smelled fusty (obviously I'd washed them all before putting them away).

I didn’t. Life Is far too short!

I will wash everything in non-bio. Siblings have worked in clothes factories so I know how they get thrown about. I always wash my underwear and most clothes before use anyway.
Can't wait to get my line of wee clothes hanging out.

I didn't wash anything luckily as DC1 was 10lbs and too big for most of the newborn stuff we had bought - so we had to return it!

Packed my bag last week OP - I put it off until 35 weeks too

I washed everything that we had for the baby, including the new bits.

Also just a little tip (that I first seen on here.... I put babies hospital clothes in piles of little outfits (vest/onesie/hat/mitts/nappy - delete as appropriate) and then packed each pile separately in a zip lock bag just have to grab a bag out of my case now and it will have everything needed in there.

I’ll probably wash everything before although that’s mainly because I don’t like the shop smell on new clothes. We do all
our stuff and DS1 who’s 3 in bio, so I’ll get some non bio. DS1 never reacted to Bio though.

We washed everything in bio (much less harsh than non-bio, which is a peculiarly British trend). Lots was passed on from child to child rather than new