Laundry

Having a baby means doing a lot more laundry. This is true even if your baby is in the NICU. In order to keep patient items separate, most (if not all) hospitals will have you take your baby’s clothes and bed items home to be washed. Blankets, sheepskin, clothes and any other baby specific bedding will be separated and placed in a specific bag for you to take home and wash.

Since baby skin is often much more sensitive than our own, most people advocate using a special baby detergent to launder clothes. To save time and money, some people use regular detergent that is dye and perfume free. If you decide to use a regular detergent, I would still advise keeping your baby’s items separate while they are in the NICU. I’ve created a list of some the major brands that carry baby-specific laundry detergents.

Dreft
Seventh Generation (environmentally friendly)
Method Baby Laundry Detergent
All Baby
Caldera Sweet Pea
The Laundress
Purex Baby
Oxyclean Baby – Stain remover and soaker

Some people suggest air drying the sheepskin bedding for your baby. I would suggest using a drying rack or hanging the sheepskin from hangers in your bathroom. If you have other small children in the house – keep these items away from them as they could introduce new germs that may be harmful to your baby in the NICU.

When bringing clean clothes back from to the NICU, we used perfume free garbage bags. This way we knew the bag was unused and could be closed. Ziploc makes large bags for storage that could be used as well.