Fun, festive costumes bring a little normalcy to the NICU

As a mother herself, Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare registered nurse Yamanda Williams knows how important “baby’s firsts” are for parents. Along with providing medical services to infants in the Florida hospital’s neonatal intensive-care unit, Williams also strives to foster positive relationships with the families she meets. With all this in mind, Williams and other staff began crafting Halloween costumes for their littlest patients in 2019.

“Oftentimes [central] lines and tubes are all that a parent sees,” she said. “We try to create fun costumes to distract from that, so parents actually see their child just as a baby and not as being sick.”

This tradition, which now also takes place during the winter holiday season, brings a change to the long days and nights some parents spend with their babies in the NICU.

Tallahassee Memorial staff handcraft the costumes using felt fabric, which they drape over the babies, given parental consent.

“We kind of base the costumes on the baby’s personality,” Williams said. “When we have a little wiggler, they might be the Itsy Bitsy Spider. … Nothing is ever scary.”

Dr. Mike Cappello, a neonatologist and chair of pediatrics at Advocate Children’s Hospital-Park Ridge in suburban Chicago, said a baby’s stay can range from 24 hours to nearly a year, depending on their condition. Clinicians may treat babies for extreme prematurity, jaundice, pulmonary and respiratory issues, or heart defects.

At Advocate Children’s, the costume tradition started eight years ago, when NICU caregivers encouraged parents to dress up their babies for a friendly contest featured on social media.

“For these families, their world is turned upside down and it’s hard to be in there. But Halloween is something that resonates with everybody as a fun thing for kids,” he said. “It brings a little bit more of their active participation as parents so it can feel more like that ‘normal’ situation.”

NICU staff at Norton Women’s and Children’s Hospital began their costume tradition in 2005 to help make memorable milestones for families. With parental permission, staff dress the babies in doll clothing and string decorative banners across COVID-19 dividers, which are then used as backdrops for photos.

But amid the picture-taking and excitement, hospital staff have to monitor the babies and stay on schedule.

“We’re also trying to time everything out because we’re still clustering care for those babies,” said Tina Emerson Ballard, director of patient care services at the Louisville, Kentucky, hospital.

The three hospitals, which all operate Level III NICUs, try to involve every baby in the festivities. If a costume isn’t possible due to a patient's condition, staff may decorate their bed space instead.

Cappello recalled one father who said that for a couple hours, he forgot about his baby’s health complications and instead could focus on celebrating their first Halloween as a family.

“There’s more than just pills and procedures that help people live well. You have to be able to bring a family-like atmosphere, that kind of normalcy,” he said.

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