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Pretty sure I will be in the minority.
I sort of did. I washed all of the newborn outfits. Luckily my mom did this for us while we were at the hospital and we were aware that she would fit in them for a good while. She ended up wearing newborn up until 3 months of age.. and some still fit at 3 months.
After that I basically didn't. Maybe we were lucky and DD wasn't sensitive but she never developed a rash or anything like that. She is now just under 7 months. I do wash all of her clothing separate and with her own detergent - but not necessarily right after we take the tags off.

I do. You hear about all the gross stuff that ends up on the clothes from the factory. Maybe you can hold off on anything of NB size until you get home. 0-3 is going to fit so it's pretty safe to wash a few items at least.

I washed certain items (like sleepers) ahead of time, but not outfits. I didn't have the time/motivation (especially with #2) to do extra laundry before they wore new clothes.

So, its probably an urban legend, but when I was younger, I heard a story about a child getting really sick after wearing a new pair of jeans that his mother had not washed. The story (as I remember it) was the child fell really ill and went to the hospital, but they couldn't figure out what was wrong (after wearing the hospital gown, he got better) and then a week or so later, he wore the same jeans (still not washed) and got really sick again. It turns out that the jeans had been shipped along with some pesticides and the pesticides had gotten onto the clothing.

Whether the story is true or not, I washed everything for LO, because you never know how the clothes are stored or transported...on top of that, if they aren't in packaging, you can only imagine who has touched or handled it (and what germs they had on their hands!) I'm not a germaphobe or anything, I just want to make sure I'm not exposing LO to any crud...but I also wouldnt think any less of anyone who didn't wash before wearing.

You can do both/and.

I washed a pack of newborn onesies so she would have something to wear home from the hospital, and I washed a few things in each size. But I took the recommendation of another mama friend who said she regretted opening and cutting tags off of a bunch of brand new clothes, b/c your baby goes through them so fast and may only wear a certain size for a few weeks before they outgrow them. I did end up returning/exchanging several items that Aliya never wore, and once your baby is born you can generally tell just by looking at him/her to see if something will fit.

As someone who has given away loads of washed, but never worn baby clothes, I would recommend holding off washing items until right before they will be worn. With the exception of basic onesies that the newborn would be wearing right away. I had to give away so many of the clothes from early on that I had washed but just never had the opportunity to put on LO. This way you can still try to return, regift, or sell unworn items with tags.

For the first year I pretty much washed everything.

I would wait until I knew that she needed some stuff and I would try it on and pull the tags off and wash some of it.

@mrbee: same.

I did wash all his clothes and still do. However I think there may have been 1-2 times I didn't?! I wouldn't make a habit of it.

However *I* never wash my clothes (except underwear) before wearing them lol

I washed two or three sets of clothes and kept the tags on the rest until I knew they would fit. Then I did a big washing of everything I knew I'd keep and returned everything else. It's a good time to get used to doing small loads of laundry daily

I did before he was born, but now I don't.

All the flipping time!

And she is perfectly healthy.

I washed everything first. I figured if we didn't keep it, or didn't want it, I could sell it later.

I would definitely wash clothes before putting them on a baby. Like @Mrsbells, I've seen clothes in retail stores and even though probably nothing will happen, I would not put a newborn's immune system to any additional tests.

I washed nb, 0-3, and all blankets, sheets, cloth diapers. i left th 6 month+ clothing with tags on and unwashed so that they're returnable for at least store credit if LO outgrows them before he even wears them!

I wash everything!