They might be too little to trick-or-treat, but these NICU babies are celebrating Halloween in style.
Every year, the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit NICU staff organizes a Halloween costume event for the babies on the ward.
Spending the holidays in the hospital can be challenging for parents and children alike, so the NICU nurses make sure to conjure up some extra magic for Halloween.
Each baby has their own tiny costume — and they’re all handmade by one nurse’s mother.
The Henry Ford Hospital NICU has planned an annual Halloween event since 2016, but the costumes weren’t always quite this elaborate.
In 2018, nurse Christin Braun asked her mother, Valerie Atkinson, if she would be interested in helping with the costumes.
Atkinson, a lifelong crocheter, has been crafting the NICU babies’ Halloween costumes ever since.
“It’s a really special thing for me,” Atkinson says.
Every year, the NICU team brainstorms a theme for the babies’ Halloween costumes.
This year’s theme was Disney, with costumes including Ariel from “The Little Mermaid,” Stitch from “Lilo and Stitch,” Simba from “The Lion King” and plenty of other beloved characters.
All of the NICU nurses pitch in to make the Halloween costume extravaganza a success.
“Everybody donated their time,” Braun says. “People will come in on their day off or stay after so that everything looks perfect for the baby.”
Atkinson starts making the tiny Halloween costumes in August — long before many of the October NICU babies are even born.
She takes inspiration from Etsy patterns, then adapts the costumes to fit a range of tiny sizes.
For babies with feeding or breathing tubes, Atkinson creates “layover” costumes that can be placed over the baby like a blanket to avoid disturbing medical equipment.
This year, Atkinson was still crocheting costumes down to the very last second: three NICU babies were born the night before the Halloween photo shoot.
“She was crocheting in the break room,” Braun says.
Halloween isn’t the only special event at the Henry Ford Hospital NICU: on Christmas Eve, the nurses dress each baby in themed pajamas.
Having a child in the NICU is an immensely challenging experience for parents, and these holiday events are intended to bring them a sense of comfort and normalcy.
“A lot of times they’re grieving — they might not have had the birth they wanted, and their baby isn’t at home with them, but they can still have a Halloween costume, and they can still have Christmas pajamas,” Braun says. “No matter what their situation is, they all get to do that.”
Atkinson is buoyed by the responses from grateful parents.
“One baby’s parents just said, ‘Thank you for giving us a normal day where we’re happy,’” she recalls.
The parents asked Atkinson to sign their daughter’s baby book, and even included her in a Halloween family photo.