Costume ideas for infants

September 17, 2007 1:29 PM

I'm looking for some good ideas for infant Halloween costumes. We have a 5 month old daughter that we'd love to dress up (mostly for the cute pictures) but we're short on ideas. I've seen all the 'cute' costumes (some into the hundreds of dollars) available for sale on various sites but none of them are striking me as particularly worth the money.

So, have any of you made your own costumes for your children, or bought a costume that you found particularly cute? If not, got any cute ideas? Thanks!

posted by lyam to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (38 answers total)

I'm all for dressing up babies as bears, it's adorable. A few years ago the gap had a little snow outfit with paws and ears. Then the baby crawls around and looks like a little polar bear.
posted by whoaali at 1:39 PM on September 17, 2007

Pillsbury Doughboy
posted by BobbyDigital at 1:44 PM on September 17, 2007

Please please please make your baby a monkey!
posted by rmless at 1:45 PM on September 17, 2007

I concur with the monkey idea. Also: pictures. Please.
posted by beaucoupkevin at 1:47 PM on September 17, 2007

You be a football player. They are the football.
posted by true at 1:49 PM on September 17, 2007 [2 favorites]

If you wanted to not dress up the baby as a monkey completely, which would make me cry, you could also just stick a hat with ears on her. Bonus points for wearing it around town on days other than Halloween.
posted by rmless at 1:54 PM on September 17, 2007

Put those paper things they put on turkey drumsticks on her hands and feet and carry it around on in a roasting pan with a bunch of cut up vegetables.
posted by electroboy at 1:57 PM on September 17, 2007 [2 favorites]

Target's puppy costume is almost as cute as the monkey and a lot cheaper.
posted by craichead at 1:59 PM on September 17, 2007

Best answer: My husband and I are staunchly against the whole "dressing babies up as animals or food" trend.

Last October our son was 3 1/2 months old. I bought a yellow footed sleeper, added a brown felt W to the front and a cape, and thus he became the worlds smallest superhero - The Wiggler. Blurry photo here on Flickr

For me, personally, I find that dressing babies up as animals or (especially) food is a little weird.
posted by anastasiav at 2:05 PM on September 17, 2007

Best answer: My wife did a great job making a pope costume last year for our then-six-month-old.
posted by diastematic at 2:09 PM on September 17, 2007 [8 favorites]

My first halloween costume was a bumble bee. I had my usual yellow footie pajamas, and my parents wrapped strips of black velcro around me to make stripes. Add an antenna headband from the costume shop (or doctor up a headband on your own) for a very cheap costume, with usable pajamas left over afterwards. No need for wings, because you'll be holding the baby the whole time - nobody's going to see her back anyway.
posted by vytae at 2:11 PM on September 17, 2007

Best answer: For my son's first Halloween, when he was just a few weeks old, I bought a white cotton footie suit and painted it by hand with fabric and acrylic paints to look like a tree frog's markings. It was comfortable for him and worked because he was still small enough that he spent most of the time curled up in a little tree frog-like ball.

It seems as though this would work for lots of different costumes (ladybug, butterfly, fish, panda--think bright blocks of color). It was relatively easy to do, needed no maintenance during the night, didn't require face paint, and allowed me to do diaper changes as I would have with his normal clothes.

I could see this being nice with a regular onesie, as well; babies are pretty cute, anyway, and don't necessarily need anything that covers their delicious, juicy . . . er, I mean, cute little legs and arms.
posted by littlegreenlights at 2:12 PM on September 17, 2007

Best answer: Since the li'l one will most likely be in your arms, I suggest a costume that'll pair the two of you. "Dr Evil & Mini Me" is good, as is "King Kong & the Empire State Building"
posted by Tasanova at 2:18 PM on September 17, 2007 [2 favorites]

First halloween costume post of the season? It begins...
posted by PercussivePaul at 2:21 PM on September 17, 2007

We did the Gymboree bumblebee costume last year.

Bonus -- resales on ebay are easy, so I'm selling my bee costume back this year (usually resales are the same $$ as in-store costumes, so I'll fund this year's purchase). Last year for $35 I got a bee costume with wings, a headband with antennae, and tights and shoes. I hope to resell it for the same amount -- she wore it for about 2 hrs.

Love the monkey/Empire State idea.

Martha Stewart usually has lots of low-cost costume ideas in her kid mags, and Family Fun has some good ones in this month's issue (or maybe the Oct issue, which I got early).
posted by mdiskin at 2:24 PM on September 17, 2007

Darth Vader.

Please?


(thread is useless without pictures, etc....)
posted by Space Kitty at 2:28 PM on September 17, 2007

OK, I was wrong. Chewbacca. Seriously.
posted by Space Kitty at 2:30 PM on September 17, 2007

If she's going to be in a stroller for part of Halloween, you could dress up the stroller in addition to the baby. Here's a photo of someone who turned their stroller into a John Deere Tractor, I thought that was very cool. Maybe you could do the Pumpkin Carriage from Cinderella or something similar.
posted by saffry at 2:33 PM on September 17, 2007

For my daughter's first Halloween, she was a hula girl! We bought her a two-piece suit, got a hula/grass skirt from the party store (and cut it to fit). I got some silk flowers from the store and attached them to a baby headband that she wore. I also bought a few leis for her to wear. Easy and super cute!

If not that, onestepahead.com has some pretty cute costumes including an owl.
posted by Sassyfras at 2:37 PM on September 17, 2007

Steal a page from the penny arcade guys, baby murloc.
posted by iamabot at 2:44 PM on September 17, 2007

Know anyone who can knit? I'm in the process of making a Yoda costume for my friend's baby, featuring the felted baby Yoda hat and the baby Yoda sweater.
posted by web-goddess at 2:50 PM on September 17, 2007

For my son's first Halloween (he was 3 months old), we found a hat with Devil's horns on it at the Gap. Dressed him exactly the same as Mr. Lucinda, and he became the Devil on His Shoulder.
posted by Lucinda at 2:52 PM on September 17, 2007

I don't have a pic, so instead... Baby Cthulhu.

Man, that is one depressed looking baby
posted by anastasiav at 2:54 PM on September 17, 2007

I second the Yoda idea. Also, Mini Me.
posted by brundlefly at 3:18 PM on September 17, 2007

I am generally against spending money on something that an infant will only wear once. When our son was a baby, we got him a red onesie and a green hat, and for Halloween he was a tomato. He could wear the onesie after Halloween, so it served multiple purposes.
posted by bove at 3:26 PM on September 17, 2007

Get a one piece footed sleepsuit in a solid color. Paint on a design. Adorn as needed.

White or brown sleeper with brown or white shapes - moooo, it's a calf

Red sleeper, white polka dots, yarn pom-poms, white ruff & clown makeup - adorable clown. Bonus points for a felt clown hat (I made this one)

Dark sleeper, painted with white skeleton bones.

You can still use the sleeper for its intended purpose, so these costumes are recycleable. You can use the same concept as the kid grows, just use sweatsuits and your imagination.

Love the Yoda, and the Pope costumes a lot.

A friend made the hat of a puppy costume, and it was good fun for a long time. Kids really like dressups.
posted by theora55 at 3:47 PM on September 17, 2007

I just went to Flickr with "halloween baby costume".

I'd love to list highlights but I need to go buy stock in a company that makes fake fur.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 3:57 PM on September 17, 2007

We're dressing our infant son as either Einstein or Burt Reynolds (Canonball Run era). Our final decision will depend on which moustache is easiest to acquire.
posted by jrossi4r at 4:54 PM on September 17, 2007

My ex-girlfriend and I bonded over the fact that we had both been pink cats for baby Halloweens. I surmise that we both had pink footy pajamas already and the choice made itself.
posted by crinklebat at 5:24 PM on September 17, 2007

I see you're in the Carolinas. A couple of regional possibilities:
- An outdated atlas, tiara and gown doth make ... Miss Pre-Pre-Pre-Teen S.C.!
- Dress baby up in tendrils and leaves ... Li'l Kudzu!
posted by rob511 at 6:53 PM on September 17, 2007

How to dress a little semi-hairless blobby creature that leaves foul-smelling liquids and pastes wherever it goes, a being that squeals and babbles in a tongue unknown to man, a thing that wants to suck the fluids from your living body?

Space alien. Is a bath in green food coloring safe?
posted by pracowity at 1:27 AM on September 18, 2007

One of my girlfriends made a kangaroo outfit for herself, a kangaroo outfit for her daughter, and then carried her baby in the pouch. it was adorable. It basically looked like sleeper pajamas (the kind with feet) made out of a tan furry material with ears and a pouch. sooooooooooo cute.
posted by gt2 at 3:55 AM on September 18, 2007

Response by poster: rmless, The monkey is the one store bought costume we were considering!

Also, I love all the ideas involving a baby/mommy/daddy combo, like King Kong/Empire State Bldg. If we go with the monkey costume my wife might go as Jane Goodall.

The Flickr idea is a good one we hadn't even tried. Lots of good costumes there.

A cute idea we saw in a magazine involves dressing a baby in a front-carrier as a bee with the mother as a giant flower.

So far, my wife and I loving the superhero baby idea the best, though. Thanks anastasiav! Whatever we choose, we'll definitely post pics.
posted by lyam at 5:02 AM on September 18, 2007

Last year we found some good inexpensive costumes at Babies "R" Us.
posted by doorsfan at 6:45 AM on September 18, 2007

Our son was a pea in a pod for his first Halloween.
posted by lukemeister at 7:41 PM on September 18, 2007

Dress the babe up as a bear, you and your partner wear P. J.'s (some that look like the ones kids wear) and your daughter can be your teddy bear.
Or dress her up as a mouse, you dress as cats.
posted by BoscosMom at 7:52 AM on September 19, 2007

Late as usual, but... A friend sent me a link to BuySuperheroCostumes.com. I liked the baby Superman, myself.
posted by ObscureReferenceMan at 12:12 PM on September 19, 2007

Response by poster: We ended up dressing her as a ladybug. Thanks all!
posted by lyam at 1:14 PM on November 8, 2007