Having an infant in the home is a unique and special time like no other. Each day can be filled with fresh experiences and special opportunities to bond and create cherished memories with a new little one. Whether you're a parent-to-be, new parent, seasoned veteran, or a relative or friend, you all want to give the best to this tiny, new person.
From delightful little clothes and accessories to everything you choose for sleeping and playtime, fashionable modern heirlooms in the softest fabrics and most beautiful prints are always the perfect choice. Bath time deserves special attention, too, as it provides an important learning and bonding time for babies and their caregivers, with a gentle cleaning followed by a warm, cozy snuggle. Exquisitely soft cotton baby towel wraps are an ideal way to make a freshly-bathed baby into a joyful, sweet-smelling, huggable little bundle.
What Are Baby Towel Wraps?
Baby towel wraps, also sometimes called baby bath wraps or hooded towels, are towels with a small hood on one corner or side, making it easy to wrap up a little one right after a bath. Unlike traditional rectangular towels, towel wraps can make bath time more cute, more comfortable and even more safe. Baby towel wraps come in a variety of styles, typically with either plain fabric hoods or with clever hood designs such as bunnies, deer, dragons, sheep, and other animals and characters. Still other styles feature one material on the outside and a more absorbent lining layer on the inside.
What Makes Baby Towel Wraps Better Than Plain Towels?
Because of their hoods, baby towel wraps quickly absorb moisture from a baby's head and hair as well as the rest of their body. Since babies have large heads in comparison to the rest of their bodies, they can quickly lose a lot of heat as water evaporates from a wet head and damp hair. That's important since it takes a few months before babies can regulate their own temperatures, and it's easy to catch a chill after a bath, especially for newborns and preemies.
What to Look for When Choosing Baby Towels
With a nearly endless array of choices for baby bath towels, how can you find the best ones? We've put together this brief guide with some factors to consider when you're choosing the very best baby bath towels for your own child or as a special gift.
Fiber Content
Choosing the right material is the first step in finding the perfect baby towel for precious little ones. Characteristics to look for include:
Absorbency
Absorbency is important in any towel, but especially in towels for babies. The right fiber content will make sure they're dried off quickly and thoroughly. Baby towels should be highly absorbent but not wick away so much moisture that a baby's delicate skin dries out rather than just dries off.
Softness
Equally important is softness—a quality we all like in a nice, fluffy towel, but also something that's critical for protecting a baby's tender skin. Some combinations of fibers and weaving patterns can be rougher than others, making them less suited for newborns and younger infants.
Each fiber and fiber blend has different characteristics that determine what types of products it is best suited for. Natural and synthetic fibers commonly used in making towels include:
- Cotton - An extremely popular, time-tested fiber for toweling, with a range of variations available—for example, Turkish, Egyptian, Pima, and Organic. Each variety of cotton is a little bit different in terms of fiber length and other qualities which affect its specific softness and the "hand" or feel of its fabric. Cotton is also ideal for babies who have dry or sensitive skin.
- Linen - A classic, highly absorbent fiber, linen is most well-known for its use in kitchen and table linens. While it softens nicely over time, it can be a little rough for infants and typically requires ironing to maintain a decent look.
- Microfiber - A modern blend of polyester and nylon, microfiber is most commonly used in specialty towels. As toweling, microfiber can be overly drying because it is so effective at wicking away moisture. It can also be surprisingly abrasive which, along with its synthetic content, may be irritating for some babies. Microfiber is also a less-welcome choice for anyone who wants to make more natural and environmentally friendly fabric choices.
- Bamboo - An increasingly popular fiber used often for washcloths and other bath towels, some bamboo fabrics are great for babies, but others use potentially toxic chemicals in blended-fiber fabrics.
While all of these fibers can make great towels, 100% cotton offers the best combination of softness and absorbency that makes it a perfect fiber for baby towel wraps.
Fabric Weave
Each type of fiber differs in its absorbency and softness depending on how the yarns spun from the fibers are woven together. For example, even when they're made from the same fiber, such as silk, you can feel how much softer velvet is than taffeta, and how velvet drapes easily while taffeta has a stiffer feel. Towel weaves work the same way. Terry and gauze are two of the most common weaving patterns for towels.
Terry Woven Fabric
Terry fabric—what we typically call terry cloth—is woven with loops on both sides that create extra surface area to absorb moisture more quickly. A softer version of typical terry cloth is French Terry, where one side has short loops and the other has longer loops. French Terry makes the perfect towel fabric—it’s absorbent and has a high-end finish compared to open loop terry.
Related: Unique Personalized Baby Gift Ideas
Muslin Woven Fabric
The soft fabric we often call muslin is made with a traditional, over-under pattern, with enough looseness in the weave to give it a tremendous amount of absorbency. Also called double-gauze, when this weave is used in baby fabrics, they are more closely woven than the kinds of gauze you might find in a first aid kit. These muslins feature a delicate feel that softens with every wash. It’s a perfect match for gently wrapping up a baby fresh from bath time.
Size & Construction
Baby towel wraps that feature a smart design and meticulous construction make the best solutions for babies. Towels that feature cozy hoods and come in a size large enough to wrap comfortably around a baby without being overly bulky will work best.
Style
While a towel's color, pattern, and design may have little bearing on its absorbency and softness, these are the elements that turn a practical product into something special for a much-loved baby and family. Beautiful baby towels can be chosen to match a nursery color scheme, make a lovely baby shower gift, or even nestle an infant in for charming, treasured photos.
Creating the Ideal Gift with Baby Towel Wraps
Choosing a gift to welcome a new baby is exciting, but it can be a daunting task with so many options available. Carefully selected baby towel wraps can be an excellent choice, matching beautiful, charming styles with the practicality of something that will be regularly and lovingly used. Top-quality baby towel wraps that arrive beautifully packaged and fully personalized is an ideal way to show your thoughtful care. Here are a few things to consider.
Add a Little Something Extra
While getting a baby towel wrap is an ideal gift in itself, adding a perfectly paired stuffed animal toy or baby ring rattle for baby to play with during dry time or in the calm moments after can make the gift extra special. Not only will parents appreciate the practicality of the baby towel wrap, but the toy can add another element of joy and interaction.
Personalize for Added Meaning
Making the effort to personalize a baby gift is another way to endow your gift with a little extra detail, adding an extra-special touch to a lovely item. Monograms, initials, baby's birthdate, and baby's name or nickname can all be the perfect finishing touches for your selection.
Choose Exclusive Gift Wrapping
While we've grown accustomed to thinking that gift wrapping only serves to hide a package's contents until the gift is opened, that's not the only way to look at it. In many cultures, a gift's packaging and wrapping is just as important as the gift itself. It's a way to show you didn't just make a few clicks online, but that you chose carefully, putting love, care, time, and thoughtfulness into a gift.
Luxury Baby Towel Wraps Elegantly Packaged
At Elegant Baby, we are one of the oldest and largest retailers of exclusive apparel, toys, accessories, and other carefully curated goods for babies. All of our products are impeccably made, exquisitely designed, utterly comfortable, and perfectly charming for babies and toddlers.
We also offer premium gift bundling and packaging to make a thoughtful gift a memorable delight. Shop our classic and personalized baby items to provide a much-loved little one with the luxurious goods adored by celebrity parents and the discriminating clientèle of high-end baby boutiques everywhere.