Good Parenting

Your grandmother’s baby quilts are nice, if all you’re going to do is hang them on the wall or use them as padding in the bottom of the box where you store your Christmas lights. But you don’t want to actually use them for your baby. Your grandmother’s baby quilts might not be safe.

Just a few short years ago manufacturers were putting a special flame-retardant chemical into every piece of baby clothing and bedding they manufactured. The belief was that this chemical would help keep your baby safe from fires. But it actually did more harm than good. In fact, those chemicals are now banned because they had such adverse health effects.

Your grandmother’s baby quilts, and any other baby items like clothes or bedding she’s passing down, are probably loaded with those highly toxic chemicals. You can’t wash those chemicals out and they don’t disappear over time. And they can still, after all these years, make your baby sick.

And let’s face it. Even though those baby quilts might be beautiful and hold a lot of cherished childhood memories – they also hold a lot of dust, pollen, pet dander, miscellaneous allergens and who knows what else. Seriously, how old are they, anyway? Even if they’ve been washed dozens of times over the years, do you really want to wrap your newborn infant in a quilt that’s been stashed in the dusty, dirty attic for the past 20 years?

Ok, so let’s say your grandmother had her baby quilts washed, sterilized and hermetically sealed after the last time she used them. How about that? Can you use them in the baby’s room now?

Not really. Over time all fabric begins to deteriorate (even fabrics that have been soaked in flame-retardant chemicals!) You don’t want to use any baby bedding items that might have a weak spot or a tear or hole that your baby can get tangled in. Babies toss around all night long and it’s easy for their little fingers or toes to get tangled in even the smallest little hole or loose piece of lace trim. And you can imagine what happens next.

No, you really don’t want to use your grandmother’s old baby quilts for anything in your baby’s room. Not as bedding, not as curtains, not as rugs or tablecloths and not even as a wall hanging. Don’t make baby pillows out of them, don’t use them as a canopy over the bassinet, and don’t fashion them into one of those pretty little diaper bags. With a newborn baby in the house, the best thing you can do with grandma’s old baby quilts is to store them away till you baby is grown enough to appreciate the memories they carry.