How Many Crib Sheets Do I Need | Baby Journey

How Many Crib Sheets Do I Need?

 As a new parent, are you asking yourself “how many crib sheets do I need”? You are not alone in this, as most new parents aren’t sure how many crib sheets they need or how many is considered too much.

If you ask experienced moms about their take on how many crib sheets you will need, you will end up with a wide range of answers. Some parents say two, while others say seven.

The answer to how many crib sheets do you need for a new baby actually depends on your family and lifestyle.

Are Crib Sheets Necessary?

One question new parents often ask is what is a crib sheet, and is it really necessary to get one. A crib sheet is similar to a regular bed sheet but is smaller and made specifically to fit crib mattresses.

Crib sheets are designed to preserve and protect your crib mattress, but they do a lot more than that. Crib sheets also add to your nursery’s décor.

Some parents buy crib sheets that match their nursery themes; others opt for various colors that complement the colors of the nursery. No matter how you look at it, crib sheets are necessary.

Crib sheets are necessary to protect the crib mattress and provide your baby a more comfortable sleep. | How Many Crib Sheets Do I Need | Baby Journey
Crib sheets are necessary to protect the crib mattress and provide your baby a more comfortable sleep.

Factors to Consider Before Buying Crib Sheets

When trying to determine how many crib sheets to buy for your household, several factors are taken into account.

How Many Babies in the Family?

How many babies you have greatly affects how many crib sheets you buy because you need to have enough for everybody. The more babies you have, the more baby crib sheets you will need. For example, how many crib sheets you need for twins is double what you need for a single baby.

Don’t buy too many, though; you want just enough, so you are prepared for anything without having to wash a load of laundry in the middle of the night.

How Often do you Change Crib Sheets?

Crib sheets require regular changing, just like any other type of bedding. How often you plan to change them dictates how many you will need to buy to ensure you have enough to keep up with changing without constantly washing them.

In general, you typically change crib sheets more frequently than other bedding for several reasons, so it’s better to have more crib sheets on hand than regular bed sheets.

Changing the crib sheets keeps your baby’s bed sanitary, and having multiple crib sheets prevents middle of the night washings in emergency cases. Always check your baby’s bedsheets before laying them down.

Change them immediately if they look dirty or are wet; nobody wants their baby to sleep in those conditions. Otherwise, change the sheets based on your cleaning routine but do so regularly.

You should wash your baby’s crib sheet frequently to maintain the hygiene of your baby’s sleeping space. | How Many Crib Sheets Do I Need | Baby Journey
You should wash your baby’s crib sheet frequently to maintain the hygiene of your baby’s sleeping space.

Prepare for the Possibility of a Sick Baby

By sick babies, we are not just referring to when a baby vomits. Vomiting does require an immediate crib sheet change specially to rid of the vomit and smell, but that isn’t the only time you should change sheets.

Even if it’s just a runny or snotty nose, a mild cough, an eye infection, this increases the number of crib sheet changes. Sick babies, especially ones with fevers, sweat more during the night, but the odds of them soiling the bed also increases when they aren’t feeling good.

How Does your Baby Normally Sleep?

How often you change the crib sheet depends on if you swaddle your baby or not. Parents who swaddle their babies find the sheets stay cleaner longer because they aren’t lying directly on them.

Unless your baby is sick or soaks through their diaper during the night, you only need to change crib sheets every three days or so when swaddled. Wrapped babies don’t move around as much, plus the extra layer provides more protection and better chances for absorbing drool or other liquids.

Does Your Baby Have Sensitive Skin?

All babies have sensitive skin, but some have more sensitive skin than others. For babies with extremely sensitive skin, you want to use the right kind of sheets along with the proper mattress pad and maybe even the mattress itself, look for hypoallergenic materials.

For babies with extremely sensitive skin, not only do you need the proper crib sheets, but you must also change the sheets more frequently and use special laundry soap. Failure to change or clean the sheets properly increases the chance of your baby developing a rash.

How Many Crib Sheets Do I Need?

Once you have thought about all of the above factors, you can determine just how many crib sheets you need. The more frequently you change the crib sheets, the more sheets you will need.

For example, if you plan to change the sheet daily, you want to have three to four sheets, while if you plan on doing it once or twice a week, you can get by with two sheets.

While two to four crib sheets are plenty for most households, always think about how much laundry you plan on doing. If you don’t mind doing laundry as the sheets become soiled, you can get away with fewer sheets.

If you plan to only wash once or twice a week, you might want to have a few extra sheets on hand. It’s always better to have a few more than what you think you need for those unexpected emergencies.

How to Choose the Best Crib Sheet for my Baby?

Fabric Breathability

When laying in their cribs, babies are supposed to be placed on their backs. As they lie there, babies will sweat as their bodies aren’t able to change positions. To help keep your baby cool, you want sheets made from breathable fabrics.

Organic cotton sheets, such as the Burt’s Bees Baby Fitted Crib Sheet, are a popular choice for maximum breathability. Although organic cotton crib sheets are the most popular choice for breathability, regular cotton crib sheets work too, plus they are a bit more budget-friendly.

Some parents will switch to flannel sheets during the colder parts of the year. While this is great for older kids and adults, it’s not an ideal choice for babies.

Flannel sheets often keep babies too warm, which leads to poor sleeping at night. Cotton fabrics, including jersey weave, providing a cooling effect if too warm and warming up effect if it’s too cold.

Crib Sheet Sizes

When it comes to crib sheet size, you have two basic choices: standard and mini crib sheets. What size you need to purchase depends on the size of your baby’s crib mattress.

Mini crib sheets are designed for mini crib mattress. These smaller sheets are made to fit mattresses for things like a Pack N Play style crib. Mini crib sheets fit a few different sized mattresses, including 27” x 39”, 25.5” x 37.5”, and 24” x 38” with a thickness ranging from 1 inch up to 5 inches.

Crib sheet dimensions for a standard crib are 52” x 28”. A crib sheet of the standard crib sheet size is designed to fit snugly on a standard crib mattress, such as this crib sheet by Mebie Baby.

To ensure you are buying the correct sheets, always check your crib mattress’s measurements or measure the mattress yourself. Most mattresses are about four inches thick, but some are thicker, so always double-check the crib sheets measurements to ensure it will fit.

No matter if you are purchasing mini or standard crib sheets, always purchase fitted sheets. The reason for this is a fitted crib sheet fits snugly around the mattress, with no risk of the sheet coming loose or bunching up.

Never keep extra bedding or any loose objects in your babies’ crib, especially when they are less than a year old. Flat sheets are discouraged, and they serve no real purpose in a crib.

Go for a fitted cotton standard crib sheet so that the crib sheet fits snugly to the crib mattress for a safe sleep. | How Many Crib Sheets Do I Need | Baby Journey
Go for a fitted cotton standard crib sheet so that the crib sheet fits snugly to the crib mattress for a safe sleep. Source: thenaturalsleepstore.com

Hypo allergenicity

We already mentioned how sensitive a baby’s skin is compared to any adult. When shopping for the best crib sheets, look for ones that use hypoallergenic in its name.

Stating they are hypoallergenic means they aren’t made with known substances that can produce allergic reactions. There is no way to guarantee that a product won’t cause an allergic reaction, but hypoallergenic products greatly reduce the risk.

And as your baby lays in their crib sheets for several hours a day, you want to do everything you can to create a safe sleeping environment.

Machine Washability

It seems weird that we even have to mention this, but we strongly encourage you to purchase machine washable crib sheets for your sanity. The last thing you want is to hand wash any soiled sheets; not many new parents have time for that.

Tossing them in the washing machine and walking away makes it easy to clean up the worst messes. Just be sure you are using a laundry detergent that is safe for babies, such as Dreft Hypoallergenic Liquid Baby Laundry Detergent or Puracy Natural Liquid Laundry Detergent.

Conclusion

The answer to how many crib sheets you need varies based on your own personal choice and how many babies you have. We strongly encourage parents to have a minimum of two crib sheets for just one baby, but more is often better as you won’t have to wait for a dirty sheet to be laundered in emergencies.

It’s not just about the number of crib sheets you need; what is most important is you are keeping your baby safe and sound while they are sleeping.

Hope we answered your dilemma on “how many crib sheets do I need?” question! If you have any suggestions, comments, or other thoughts on how many baby crib sheets a parent must have, please take a second to contribute your thoughts to our discussion by leaving a comment below.

How Many Crib Sheets Do I Need | Baby Journey

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