Question about washing/drying baby clothes

So I'm scared to put the clothes and sheets etc that I wash in the dryer for fear they will shrink.

Should I worry or do the things generally keep their size and shape ok?

I was thinking of hanging them on the drying rack.

(I'm a real freak about things shrinking- even with my own clothes I RARELY put them in the dryer! )

Thoughts??

Re: Question about washing/drying baby clothes

i put everything in the dryer and it didn't seem like anything shrunk.

I did them on the delicate cycle

Re: Question about washing/drying baby clothes

Nope, DDs stuff never shrank.

Re: Question about washing/drying baby clothes

Posted by jennarose023

i put everything in the dryer and it didn't seem like anything shrunk.

I did them on the delicate cycle

Re: Question about washing/drying baby clothes

Gerber onesies and Children's Place clothes definitely shrink.

I used to buy DD onesies in a size larger than she needed just so she could get more use out of them. I always by Children's Place clothes a size larger for the same reason.

I don't worry about shrinkage with my DD's clothes and I never have, although I'm paranoid about it with my own because she's going to grow out of it soon enough anyway... OR she's going to stain it so it almost doesn't matter.

Re: Question about washing/drying baby clothes

I never put my clothes in the dryer so I will probably hang up most of the baby clothes as well.. We will see.. Either that or put the dryer on low..

Re: Question about washing/drying baby clothes

I've washed virtually everything we've gotten and nothing appears to have shrunk. But I dried everything on the delicates cycle with low heat.

Re: Question about washing/drying baby clothes

I dont really dry any of my own stuff so I will probably hang up the baby's stuff to dry too.

Re: Question about washing/drying baby clothes

I am the same way about drying things and it crossed my mind, but then I realized I won't have time to worry about hanging them when the babies are here.
So, I dried everything on low (the sheets, the bed skirts, then breathable bumpers, the mattress pads, and everything came out just fine and fits great.

Re: Question about washing/drying baby clothes

I put everything in the dryer ever since a housemate in college got a really bad infection from not drying her underwear on high heat... I would NEVER want to go through what she went through!

Even if clothes shrink a little the first time, they won't shrink after that (unless they're a material you shouldn't be drying anyway) so it should be just fine to run everything through a hot dryer before they're worn.

Re: Question about washing/drying baby clothes

I put everything in the dryer on extra low. I kept checking it every once in a while too to take things out as they dried. I couldnt imagine hanging up all of the baby clothes. they are so small and there are so many!

Re: Question about washing/drying baby clothes

Read all your tags...I didn't and had 2 packs of these changing table pad covers made by Boppy...there is waterproof plastic lining on the back of them...I had to throw them all out. I didn't read - they are not supposed to go in the dryer - line dry - and the backs of them got all melted and stuck together.

It's not the actual changing table pad cover...it's a liner that goes on top of the cover so that you are not washing the cover every day.

I noticed a lot of little cotton onesies look like they totally shrunk...but my mom said they stretch out when you put them on the baby so we'll see.

ETA: I'm an idiot and did it on high heat. In the future I'll probably do low/delicates. HTH.

Message edited 5/24/2010 12:51:26 PM.

Re: Question about washing/drying baby clothes

I say the delicate/low heat setting should be just fine. If you don't shrink your own clothes, you won't shrink the baby's clothes.

Re: Question about washing/drying baby clothes

i put it all in the dryer and some of it shrinks a bit at first. after a washing or two it doesn't shrink any longer. to be honest, i don't have the time to line dry everything, esp. with the frequency of laundry. it's too bad too b/c I love drying things outside on the line!