For many parents, shopping for baby clothes is one of the most joyful parts of preparing for a new arrival. Soft pastels, tiny hats, cozy onesies it’s a world built on the promise of warmth, safety, and love. But for families with a baby in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), the experience of buying baby clothes often feels like walking into a store that forgot they exist.
The truth is, most mainstream baby brands aren't designed with NICU parents or their babies in mind. The designs don’t accommodate medical equipment. The sizing doesn’t reflect the reality of micro-preemies. And worst of all, the emotional weight of those early NICU days is rarely acknowledged in the clothing itself.
As a NICU mom and now the founder of Vincent Faith, I’ve lived through this disconnect firsthand. I’ve also heard countless stories from other parents who’ve faced the same quiet heartbreak in a department store aisle. This post is a letter, of sorts a message from NICU parents to the brands that have so much potential to get it right, if only they’d listen.
Size Labels Don’t Tell the Whole Story
One of the first surprises NICU parents encounter is how useless traditional size labels can be. “Preemie” sizing often starts at around 5 pounds, but many micro-preemies are born weighing just 1 to 3 pounds. When I brought what I thought were “tiny” onesies to the hospital for my daughters, I was shocked to see how huge they looked next to their fragile little bodies. The sleeves covered their hands three times over. The fabric pooled around their legs like blankets.
That moment should have been beautiful a milestone of dressing them for the first time. Instead, it felt like the world hadn’t accounted for their existence.
And it wasn’t just my experience. Another mom I spoke to shared, “I remember crying in the store. I held up a preemie outfit and just thought, ‘This is never going to fit her. She’s not even close to this size.’ It made me feel like she didn’t belong.”
True inclusivity in baby wear means designing for all sizes not just starting at the tail end of the newborn spectrum.
Clothing Needs to Work With Medical Realities
NICU babies aren’t just small. They’re also surrounded by medical equipment: feeding tubes, CPAPs, IV lines, monitors. Every touch, every shift, every outfit change has to be done with extreme care. Yet most baby clothes are designed to be pulled over the head or snapped between the legs styles that don’t work in an incubator setting.
What NICU parents need are designs that make dressing feel safe and possible.
Wrap-style or crossbody onesies, side snaps, magnetic closures these aren’t just convenient, they’re essential. They allow parents and nurses to dress the baby without disrupting vital medical devices. Clothing should accommodate wires and tubes without having to pull and stretch fabric around sensitive areas. It should never feel like a risk to dress your baby.
Fabric Isn’t Just About Comfort, It’s About Safety
Mainstream baby brands often focus on softness and while softness is important, it’s not the only consideration for NICU parents. Premature babies have extremely sensitive, underdeveloped skin. They can’t tolerate harsh dyes, synthetic fibers, or heavy seams. They’re prone to skin breakdown, irritation, and even infections from materials that would be harmless to a full-term baby.
GOTS-certified organic cotton, low-seam construction, and breathable, hypoallergenic materials should be the standard for NICU-friendly wear. Sadly, most brands don’t offer this level of care until much later in the size range if at all.
Parents Want to Participate in Their Baby’s Care Clothing Can Help
One of the hardest things about having a baby in the NICU is how powerless you feel. You can’t always hold them. You can’t feed them when you want to. But dressing them even just once, feels like a moment of normalcy, a quiet claim to parenthood.
When a nurse finally told me I could bring clothes in, it felt like a gift. But that moment quickly turned into fear. I was afraid to touch the wires. Afraid to make a mistake. The onesies I had brought weren’t right. I ended up watching the nurse do it, standing back like a visitor.
That moment stayed with me. It made me realize that dressing a baby in the NICU isn’t just practical, it’s emotional. And clothing brands have the power to help make that experience one of joy and confidence instead of fear and frustration.
Representation Matters, So Does Language
Many baby brands center their messaging around picture-perfect newborn experiences: coming home outfits, first holiday photos, snuggles in the nursery. These are lovely, but they’re not every family’s reality. For NICU parents, firsts happen under fluorescent lights. They happen in plastic incubators. And they still matter.
We want to see our babies represented. We want to see models that reflect our stories tiny babies, babies with tubes, babies in mittens that fit. And we want clothing descriptions and branding that don’t make us feel like our experience is an afterthought.
One mom said it best: “Every baby brand talks about ‘every baby,’ but they don’t mean mine. I want them to mean mine.”
Milestones Look Different in the NICU
For NICU babies, the first time they wear clothes isn’t a given. It’s a milestone one that can take days or weeks to reach. The outfit chosen for that moment holds weight. It marks progress. It marks hope.
Yet most baby brands treat clothing as either utilitarian (plain basics) or celebratory (elaborate outfits for special occasions). NICU parents need both at once. We want softness and simplicity but also something beautiful. Something that says, “You’ve made it to this moment, and that’s worth honoring.”
That’s why, at Vincent Faith, we design every piece with care and intention. Every snap placement, every seam, every fabric choice is about more than function, it’s about celebrating babies exactly where they are.
What Baby Brands Can Do Better
If you’re a brand looking to serve all parents, here’s what NICU families wish you knew and did:
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Offer true micro-preemie and preemie sizing with accurate weight and length ranges
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Design with side snaps, crossbody closures, and medical access in mind
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Use GOTS-certified organic cotton and avoid dyes or harsh finishes
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Include representation of NICU babies in your photos and marketing
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Create collections specifically for NICU milestones (not just coming home)
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Listen to NICU families when they share what’s not working
We Don’t Want Pity, We Want Possibility
NICU parents are strong. We are hopeful. We are navigating one of the hardest chapters of our lives while loving our babies fiercely. We don’t need clothing that’s soaked in sadness. We need brands to meet us with empathy, thoughtfulness, and design that shows they truly see us.
Because for us, baby clothes aren’t just baby clothes. They’re symbols of love. Of healing. Of becoming.
And our babies? They may be small, but they’re nothing short of miraculous.
