Tiny wizards, mermaids and superheroes filled the intensive care unit at Saint Luke's of Kansas City this week, as babies born too soon or too sick to go home for their first Halloween got dressed up anyway. Parents picked out the costumes themselves, turning a hospital stay most families never planned for into a small, colorful celebration.
The Halloween gathering, covered by KCTV5, let parents choose a special costume for each baby's first Halloween, according to the station. Babies in the unit may have been born too soon, too small, or with a medical condition that requires intensive care, the outlet reported.
KCTV5 reported that the 2026 costumes were made by a NICU employee and the March of Dimes NICU Family Support Program Coordinator at Saint Luke's. A separate page on Saint Luke's own website about a 2025 Halloween event credited the crocheted costumes to Easton Thomas, described as the hospital's information associate in the NICU.
A Program Built Around Premature and Critically Ill Infants
The costume-making effort ties back to Saint Luke's March of Dimes NICU Family Support Program, which the hospital says is designed to aid families of babies born premature or with critical medical conditions, per the hospital's own account on its site detailing how the unit's photos later drew wider attention. That same post identifies the unit involved as the hospital's Level IIIb NICU.
Who photographed the costumed babies is another point where reporting diverges. KCTV5 said a photographer from Helen Ransom Photography captured the trick-or-treaters, while KMBC reported that Helen Ransom of Faces You Love Photography took the keepsake photos for families. The dossier does not resolve whether these refer to the same photographer or organization.
Why Hospitals Mark the Holiday Inside the Unit
For families whose babies cannot leave the hospital, the holiday takes on extra weight. Having a child in the NICU is a frightening and uncertain experience, especially around the holiday season, the hospital said, according to KCTV5's reporting. Saint Luke's added that these kinds of celebrations give families a sense of normalcy in what can be a very trying time, the station reported.
KMBC's 2023 coverage noted that both Saint Luke's of Kansas City and Saint Luke's East took part in that year's Halloween celebrations. The Kansas City unit dressed babies as donuts, butterflies, superheroes, pumpkins, athletes, mermaids and even Barbie characters. The station reported that Saint Luke's East leaned into pop culture with Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift costumes among its tiniest patients.
Similar Scenes Playing Out Nationwide
Kansas City is far from alone in dressing up its smallest patients this week. At USA Health Children's & Women's Hospital in Mobile, Alabama, some of the youngest patients showed off their first Halloween costumes during a celebration inside the hospital's neonatal intensive care unit, according to FOX10 News. That hospital sees more than 900 infants graduate from its NICU each year on average, FOX10 reported, and many of the handmade costumes there are donated by local knitting groups and former NICU families who want to give back to the place that helped their children.
In Las Vegas, NICUs across the Sunrise Health System dressed their tiniest patients in festive costumes as part of an annual holiday tradition, FOX5 Vegas reported. Infants at MountainView Hospital wore costumes ranging from pint-sized tacos and dinosaurs to mermaids, while the NICU at Southern Hills Hospital went with a Monsters, Inc. theme, according to the same report.
Across each of these hospitals, the underlying goal appears the same: give parents a brief, lighthearted moment amid what is often a long and uncertain stay. For the families at Saint Luke's of Kansas City, that meant watching their babies dressed for a holiday they weren't sure they'd get to celebrate at all this year.
