Ready for Their Close-Up: Staff Dresses NICU Babies in Homemade Halloween Costumes

The staff on the OSF HealthCare Children’s Hospital of Illinois Neonatal Intensive Care, Intermedicate Care, and Small Baby Units wanted to make Halloween memories for their tiny patients, so they made Halloween costumes for each baby.

The 60-bed floor is broken up into neighborhoods and each neighborhood on the NICU and NIC units was filled with the best dressed babies – everything from adorable barn yard and zoo animals, Disney characters (like Belle), garden themed costumes, playful athletes representing popular sports, and even some that will take you under the sea (a Mermaid)!

Sarah Miller, the chair of the Making Memories committee, was once a NICU mother herself. She says the goal is to help families who have gone through a traumatic event and have not had the birth experience they were expecting, create some happy memories. Along with the costumes, each baby will receive a booklet to document their special day with their foot print and other milestones and a treat bag for their families. 

The staff made nearly 70 costumes and joined in on the fun by having a costume contest themselves.