Volunteers Make Tiny Halloween Costumes For NICU Babies

March of Dimes made Halloween costumes for babies on a Kansas City NICU ward

There’s nothing more terrifying than your baby needing a stay in the NICU, Halloween or not. But thanks to the creativity and compassion of The March of Dimes and the nurses at St. Luke’s Hospital in Kansas City, things are just a little less scary now.

Everybody loves Halloween (shut up, lame-os!), especially children. Even babies! They probably just don’t know it yet. But they’re getting a chance to celebrate it anyway, in ridiculously adorable fashion.

Together, St. Luke’s Hospital and The March of Dimes provided handmade Halloween costumes, a “Trick or Treat, smell my feet” card with each baby’s footprints, a hand-crocheted pumpkin filled with treats, and a Halloween book for families to read together to 35 patients. March of Dimes volunteers, along with Saint Luke’s NICU nurses, made the costumes, and one staff member from Saint Luke’s crocheted all the pumpkins.

Jennifer Robinson, Marketing and Communications Manager for The March of Dimes, tells Scary Mommy, “Families in the NICU may spend weeks or months here, and it can be an emotional time. Providing an opportunity for them to celebrate Halloween with their little ones allows them a sense of normalcy, and to celebrate their baby’s first milestones, which is what every family wants to do.”

The babies didn’t get to choose their outfits, but we doubt they were unhappy. The tiny tots were adorned with superhero capes and butterfly wings. There was even a Captain America shield and, in a nod to the local team, a Kansas City Royals jersey. The outfits were adorable, and clearly made with compassion and love for the hospital’s smallest, most precious patients.

I mean, is that not the cutest thing you’ve ever seen? I’ll even let the Batman baby slide (I’m a Superman guy).

When my baby was born in January, he had to spend his first two days in the NICU, and though it was a brief stay, it was a harrowing one. We were lucky it was such a short stint; some families in the NICU may spend weeks or months there, and it can be a scary time. Which is where the compassionate people at March of Dimes, and the dedicated nurses at St. Luke’s, came in.

By allowing those families and their infants to celebrate Halloween, they’re afforded a sense of normalcy that would otherwise be absent during such a stressful time.

The babies may have been the ones dressed as superheroes, but I think we can all agree on who really saved the day.

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