NICU Babies Celebrating Halloween in Tiny Costumes

Even if these preemies are spending their first Halloween in the NICU, it doesn’t mean they can’t join in on the frightful fun.

Tiny patients at the neonatal ICUs at Advocate Children’s Hospitals in Oak Lawn and Park Ridge, Ill., got to experience the spooky holiday festivities in their own miniature costumes during a Halloween party held at the hospital earlier this week.

From babies dressed in superhero capes — symbolic of their trying journey — to infants in fun pumpkin suits, parents had fun putting costumes on their babies for the first times in their young lives.

Little Elias Alvarez-Vargas donned a tiny boxer’s costume for the celebrations. On a banner hanging above his crib were the words, “Fight Like a Preemie: Chicago Heavy Weight Champion,” despite weighing only 3 pounds, 12 ounces at birth.

“We came up with this idea because as you can see, he’s been through many surgeries,” his dad said in an interview with the hospital. “And every surgery he’s gone through, he’s gotten through it. He became a little boxer. He’s a little fighter, my little champion.”

Baby Jacob held a ruby red rose as a part of his Beast costume, from Beauty and the Beast.

His mom explained that she and her elder daughter picked out the tiny costume from Build-a-Bear. “I think it was perfect,” she said.

Greycen dressed in a skeleton onesie with a belly filled with Halloween candy

“Dad bought the costume,” his mom said. “As you can see, he was very excited to bring his little baby in this costume.”

Even neonatologist Dr. Mike Cappello got in on the fun as a hot dog with only mustard — no ketchup — as an ode to his Chicago roots.

“We’re going over real serious important issues with families, and it takes a toll on everybody,” he explained. “Being able to set back from all that and look at something that’s just pure fun is a really wonderful opportunity.”