A Florida hospital is making sure its youngest patients are keeping the holiday spirit after nurses at Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare dressed up newborns in their NICU in the cutest Halloween costumes. If you're still looking for costume ideas, feel free to take notes!
The hospital recently released photos of all of its incredible creations — and each one is cuter than the last.
“You won’t boo-lieve how cute our NICU babies are this Halloween!” a Facebook post on the hospital's page from October 25 read. “Spooky season in the NICU is one of our favorite traditions, and this year is no exception!”
The nearly 20 costumes were all made by the hospital staff.
“Thank you to our incredible NICU team who always go above and beyond to make holidays special for our NICU families,” the post continued. “Our crafty night team made these clever costumes and our day team brought their visions to life!”
Many of the costumes come straight from beloved Disney movies.
Who could resist a tiny Russell from Up, Olaf from Frozen, and (a personal favorite) Linguini from Ratatouille? Not us! You could also just keep swimming with both Nemo and Dory from Finding Nemo.
“Just clownin' around in the NICU!” read that costume's caption.
Or maybe a Flintstones character checks the right box.
If that's the case, you can have a yabba-dabba-doo old time with costumes that come straight out of Bedrock.
“Newborns! Meet the Newborns! They're the sweetest NICU family!” the caption read.
Those who have a craving for McDonald’s will find a costume to love.
For instance, this adorable french fry costume fits this “small fry” like a glove. There’s also a bubble tea baby — you know, if you’re feeling peckish for lunch.
It’s all part of the way that the hospital works to create an environment “as comfortable as possible for our babies and families,” a representative tells CafeMom.
It’s important, considering the hospital is the “only neonatal intensive care unit and high-risk labor and delivery unit in Florida’s Big Bend region,” the representative notes.
Staff at the hospital know that having a baby in the NICU can be stressful for families.
That's especially true while COVID-19 infections still are rampant.
“Bringing the festive Halloween fun to these little ones and their parents is just one of the many ways our team works to normalize the NICU environment and keep families’ spirits high,” the representative adds.
Thankfully, the hospital has put up the photos on its Facebook page, where they’ve been shared more than 94,000 times.
And people are melting over these creative newborn costumes.
“This is so freaking adorable and all the babies are so freaking precious and cute y'all did a great job many blessings to all you wonderful caregivers and to the families," wrote one commenter.
"As the mommy of a NICU grad, this makes my heart warm and fuzzy!!" another person added. "Thank you for doing this and bringing a ray of sunshine for their families. And yes, the tiniest ones are the strongest ones because I swear my NICU grad has super strength sometimes."
"Happy first Halloween you beautiful little babies," another person chimed in.
TMH staff want parents of all newborns to keep one thing in mind — NICU or not.
“Please remember, you should always place your little ones on their backs to sleep, with nothing else in the crib,” they tell CafeMom. “These NICU babies have special circumstances and are monitored 24/7 by our skilled nursing team.”
That's a good thing to remember so you don’t have a REAL Halloween nightmare on your hands.
