I have several hooded towels for my baby boy, Oliver. Some were gifts from family and friends and some were bought along with the weekly shop from Asda. This has given me a wide assortment of colours and types.
** A What? **
Alongside your bath time essentials of baby soap and shampoo ... Read review
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Super luxurious thick texture. Comes with wooden hanger, making it a nice gift idea. Excellent quality. Small is for size 0-6 months, medium is for size 6-18 months. 100% soft, machine washable
A review by krazykat2005 on Hooded Baby Towels April 7th, 2006
Author's product rating:
Safety
Very safe
Value for Money
Good
Advantages:
Keeps baby warm
Disadvantages:
Get a bit small after a couple of months
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
I have several hooded towels for my baby boy, Oliver. Some were gifts from family and friends and some were bought along with the weekly shop from Asda. This has given me a wide assortment of colours and types.
** A What? **
Alongside your bath time essentials of baby soap and shampoo and a hand cloth or baby sponge, you are going to need something to wrap baby in when they get out the bath. A normal towel will do, but when you have a tiny newborn you might find that normal towels are too big.
Also, the transition from the warm water of a bath to the cooler air of the bathroom or nursery can result in baby getting a bit chilly. A large proportion of body heat is lost through baby's head, so a hooded towel is an ideal solution to this problem.
They are usually square shaped, about 75cm by 75cm, and have a hood in one corner. Designs and colours vary widely, from plain white to all the colours of the rainbow, to embroidered, to Winnie the Pooh (oh how I hate him so!). Some even have cute faces with little ears poking out on them. They are usually made of 100% cotton, which is soft, breathable, easy to wash - a must with a baby - and tumble drier friendly.
** Where Can I Get Them And How Much Do They Cost? **
There are so many baby towels on the market that finding one for your little bundle shouldn't be too difficult. Try checking the baby clothing section in any large supermarket or in any baby shop. You can even buy them online.
I know that you can definitely find them in Asda and Mothercare, as this is where I got mine. I also got one of mine in Kiddicare, a baby products discount store in Peterborough, who also have a great website with free delivery when you spend over fifty pounds - easy to do when you have kids! It's www.kiddicare.com for anyone who is interested.
Price can vary from a few pounds… my basic Asda ones cost about four or five pounds each… to over a tenner for the more elaborate ones… usually with Winnie the Pooh or friends on them - bleurgh!
** A Quick Tip On How To Use One **
I have a very small bathroom and had nowhere to lay my towel out so that I could lay Oliver on the towel after his bath. This resulted in me getting a bit wet and in Ollie getting a bit cold as I let him drip dry on his way through to the towel in the living room. As I got a bit more confident I realised one day (and it was a real slapping my forehead in amazement at how silly I had been realisation) that if I tucked the hooded bit under my chin and opened up the towel I could reverse Ollie into it and wrap him up whilst I was holding him.
Also, if you put the towel over the radiator while you have your little one in the bath they get a lovely warm snuggley towelled hug off of mummy or daddy ("or granny" as my mum has shouted from behind me). You can also do this with their pyjamas so that they get nice and warm just before bed, just make sure that they are not too hot before using on baby, especially if they have any metal poppers on them.
** So What Are The Negative Points? **
Unfortunately they are pretty small, so they don't tend to last your baby very long. Oliver grew out of them in a few weeks, but he was a very big baby, so I could see them lasting a smaller baby a bit longer than this. This could also be seen as a positive point as struggling with a huge towel when you have a tiny five or six pound baby doesn't sound like my idea of fun.
I have also seen someone mention that they are quite difficult to fold. The hooded bits do make them a little harder to pile up in the airing cupboard, but it's not a huge deal. I found that if you use the hangers with clips on them, that they hang quite nicely in your little ones cupboard.
** What Did I Think? **
After the initial awkward first time parent stage, where I found doing anything with a small baby extremely nerve wracking, I found these towels easy to use (see tip above to avoid forehead slapping moment).
They wash well and keep their shape - the tumble drier has not managed to shrink any of mine yet!
Whilst they do get too small to completely wrap your little one quite quickly, I still use mine… Ollie's legs just tend to hang out the bottom, which gives me the excuse to bang the heating up to the highest it goes.
If you have the money to spare then paying in excess of ten pounds for the fancier towels is fine, and it is nice to receive them as presents - saves getting clothes that you think are horrible or that are too small. Personally I got a few of the less expensive ones from Asda as they all do the same job and I found them better value for money.
There is nothing cuter than seeing your baby all wrapped up in one of these hooded towels!
** Make Your Own **
I am a crafty person - and by this I mean I like to make things, not that I practise magic or am a bit of a con artist - and enjoy making my own bits and pieces. Here is a quick blow-by-blow account of how to make your own hooded baby towel. The best thing about this is that you can make them as big as you like.
You will need:
Ø one towel (the squarer the better) - any colour, preferably cotton as it is soft, washes well and breathes well Ø one square hand cloth - any colour, preferably cotton Ø straight pins Ø sewing machine or needle and strong thread
Before you do any pinning or stitching wash the towel and hand cloth in baby skin friendly washing powder and softener.
The rest is pretty simple. Lay the towel out flat and place the hand cloth on top so that on corner of the towel is aligned with corner of the hand cloth. Pin together with the straight pins. Then stitch the two pieces together with the sewing machine or by hand (keep it neat). Use double stitch so that it holds well and reinforces the seams.
I made my own using a bright red hand cloth and canary yellow towel. I used red thread to stitch them together, which looked very nice. Using some thicker red wool I stitched on a patch that I embroidered myself to hold the spare flap of hand cloth up. It looks very nice, if I may say so myself!
Advantages: baby looks cute in it Disadvantages: expensive purchase
...was given one of these hooded towels as a present when my son was born 18 months ago.I was of course delighted to receive it,just so you don't think i'm an ungrateful ill mannered individual!However having said that it's not something I would have bought for myself for the following reasons-
1.The towel is very expensive,mine came from mothercare and cost £10!Probably because it had winnie the on!
2.The towel is quite small(about 100x50 cm)and ... ...months.
3.I found the towel difficult to fold as the hood means you have to fold it diagonally.Yes I know that's sad but I like my towels in a neat folded pile in the airing cupboard!
Now for a more detailed description-The towel is about 100cm-50cm.It is 85%cotton and has a hood on one corner.The idea is that you wrap the baby in the towel after their bath and the hood prevents heat loss through the babys head.
These towels can be bought as part ...
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Advantages: er.....cute Disadvantages: too small, don't last very long
...me a large number of hooded towels. Basically a hooded towel is a square towel, usually around 75cm across with a small hood in one corner. The idea of this is to be able to cover the baby's head, as well as body, when you take them out the bath. The reason for this is that baby's lose most of their heat from the head and obviously coming out of a warm bath the baby is likely to get cold quickly.
Although these towels are about 75cm across you have ... ...side of the towel to the other is actually more like 50cm. When my son was born he weighed a quite 'normal' 7lb 5oz and for the first few weeks we were able to wrap him sufficiently in the towel.
However, by the time he was around 6 weeks old trying to wrap him completely in the towel was out of the question. Quite simply using a towel diagonally greatly reduces the life span (I hope I'm not confusing you). Just try wrapping your normal bath towel ...
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Advantages: keeps babys head warm Disadvantages: they don't do them big enough for me!
...You can get the normal hooded one, as i described above, or you can get a poncho style. This slips over their head like a dress, with the hood on the top. It covers the whole of their body. This i find is better for the older children.
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sizes
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The towels can come in different sizes. I find some of them are rather small, and only last the baby a few months. Kieran has a smaller one. He is now nine months, and it is getting to small to ... ...shrunk it.
Mothercares normal hooded towels, are about 20 inches across, and 43 inches down, Which i don't think is big enough. I would say that these would last up to a year max.
You can get them larger, from other places, which I would say are from 6mnths to 2 years.
The Pontho ones, are for around 2-7 years, and average at 45 x 25 inches.
So you can find one out there for most ages. But shop around and check the sizes before you buy.
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...
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Advantages: look pretty, usually soft Disadvantages: expensive, small, pretty useless
...into the trap of buying hooded towels for both of my children and each time wondering why I bothered.
Basically what they are are very small towels, more like hand towels, with an extra triangle shaped piece of towel sown into one corner in order to make a hood.
This time I chose a Mothercare pack of three towels in shades of pink and white. This cost me £12, but if you shop around you can find them slightly cheaper at around £3 per towel, or a ... ...towel!
I was disapointed with the mothercare ones as while in the pack they look quite thick and soft but upon opening you realise that the thickness comes from layers of cardboard wedged in between each towel! They are thin and not exactly rough but they could be softer.
The idea is that you put the hood over the babys head, lying baby diagonally across the towel. You then wrap the baby up in the other corners of the towel.
This sounds okay in ...
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Advantages: Cosy and warm Disadvantages: They grow out of it too quickly
...gifts was a beautiful white hooded towel with an embroidered rabbit on the hood from the toys r us range. I beleive it to have cost between five and ten pounds.
I found this a great present and made it a lot easier to keep the baby warm after getting out of the bath (A lot of heat is lost from the head and it is important to keep young babies warm) My son seemed to love being wrapped up in it.
It was fine until he started growing and growing and ... ...him. It still went over his head but was then too short. However 9 months wear out of something for a baby is'nt bad is it and I still use mine 1 year on as a towel to put on the floor when he gets out of the bath to stop the carpet getting too wet.
I would recommend a product like this to someone looking for something special not to somebody who is looking for something that will last their child for a couple of years. ...
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I was looking for a towel that would help dry off wet paws, or to dry off my dog quickly, especially when it comes in from the wet.You know you only have about a minute before he shakes water all over the place. Lo and behold, whilst buying a... more
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