Baby Clothes - Don't Trust the Labels

When I was a fresh, first-time mom, I proactively sorted all the kids’ clothes by size and corresponding age group on the labels. I neatly folded dozens of clothes and thought: “I’m ready for this!” After my first arrived, it didn’t take long for me to notice a major problem: a 0-3M in Carter’s did not match, 0-3M from Cat & Jack(Target’s brand), which was not even close to many Amazon products. Oops.

Most clothes seemed to run too small. So, I started sorting clothes roughly by months, but I also visually ordered them from smallest to largest (as a veteran mother, you really learn to train your eagle-eye for true sizes). Visual pre-sorting was probably one of the best things I did while nesting. My favorite baby clothes got worn from smallest to largest - before both of my kids outgrew them.

Getting back to basics: clothes labels are not only misleading, but remember, they shrink in the first one or two washes. With my first, before I developed my “eagle-eye” for true size, I was a mess with the new kids’ clothes. I confess, in spite of my pre-planning, I definitely messed up with some of the nice clothes I was saving for special occasions. I did not pull them out fast enough, so some were worn once, twice, or zero times before my littles outgrew them.

As an aside, many people feel the “old-school stigma” of re-wearing, previously enjoyed clothes, but I LOVE hand-me-downs! It’s not that we don’t have the extra funds to purchase new clothes, but I can exercise my sustainability practices and improve my “reduce-reuse-recycle.” I was lucky enough to source a large amount of gently worn clothes for both of my children from veteran parents. I love that they are pre-stretched and pre-washed of factory chemicals.

For my son (second child), my husband and I have been able to source about 95% of the clothes he wears & I learned a lot from my first-time mom mistakes.

If I could tell my first-time moms about kids’ clothes, I would say pull out the nice stuff early and don’t hesitate to let them be worn! Enjoy the cute stuff with photos. Yes, it will likely get stains, but it just shows it was loved!