Passing down Clothes from Older Child to Younger Child

I also save all of my older daughter's clothes for my little one, except for underwear and shoes. I feel that everyone deserves new undies and shoes. That is just my opinion!

I passed down to my younger son because it helped with training (lots of clean undies to use) and I also try to be green. Less buying of new and more recycling of used is a good thing, and not just because of the money.

The only thing I am careful about handing down are shoes (tennis shoes specifically) because they do mold to the foot and the support breaks down and that can cause problems.. I pass down dress shoes because my kids never really wear them much.

I think as long as they are young, it should be ok. But, personally, I would just buy the new ones. I also agree that it would probably be a neat 'treat' to be able to pick out special 'potty training' underwear... :)

non issue. Pass 'em down.

Soap works...otherwise every fork you put in your mouth has every other person's germs still on it that EVER used it.

If in doubt, use some bleach.

Years and years ago my older sister and I were organizing childhood photos of ourselves. On the back of the photos of her was notated her age, the year, and sometimes little explanations of the photo '"___ at the zoo", etc. Unfortunately, most of mine had no notations.

So, to figure out how old I was in the photos, we compared clothing - Oh, look, sister was 2.5 in the photo wearing a dress with a duck on the pocket - I must be 2.5 in my photo wearing a dress with a duck on the pocket. LOL

I have no idea if we passed down underwear - but I know we did pass down nightclothes. I think you could go either way on this one - pass them down, or by new, inexpensive ones.

I think I would opt for new undies to make the whole "big girl pantie" potting training experience more exciting.

Good Luck and God Bless

I don't understand why passing down underwear is gross, assuming it's been washed. I can't think of anything that could happen when using hand me down underwear. I'd probably not use it if it were stained just for the aesthetics but it would still be quite usable. I bet, that after washing the new underwear a few times you won't be able to tell the difference between the "new" and the "used." That is if the used has been washed appropriately.

I've noticed that many use too much detergent and fail to sort colors and end up with gray clothes. If that's the case I'd buy new panties so that she could have bright and cheerful underwear.

I wore my daughter's clean panties when a snow storm kept me there for several days. I don't know what's gross about that. Our vaginal area is one of the cleanest parts of our bodies. Our excretions are healthy and germ free. Even our urine and feces is sterile until it sits in the air for awhile. Wash the panties and they are clean.

I'm sure it's fine, but personally, I think I'd go out and spend the $10 on a bunch of pairs of underwear at Target.

I think it's totally okay. My 2 year old got his 5 year old brother's underwear when he potty trained. They are now 3 and 5 and wear the same underwear--they're almost the same size.

I think it's fine, but it's one thing that is really cheap to buy new. We are on a tight budget and it's the one article of clothing I would just pay for.

Sounds like my sons--I'm super cheap--really cheap--

But, I decided that the baby should have his own new underwear--especially as he begins potty training. It's not so much because I think they are aren't clean. It just seemed like Cars underwear won't be cool then and it just seemed like the right thing for us. I actually threw the old underwear out because I knew I would reuse them if they are in the house--it's just my style. My mom was the youngest and has always impressed upon me that the youngest needs some things that are her/his own (if you can afford it). Just my thoughts.

Ehh, my 1st son and soon to be 2nd son will be, like yours, almost exactly 4 years apart. I thought about the underwear thing, and I decided to get new for my 2nd. I even feel that way about socks kinda too. I just feel like I wouldn't want to share underwear with my sister. Granted if in a terrible bind, I may if i HAD to, but i'd probably just go commando instead.

I have kept my daughters for my younger daughters , planning to use it while she potty trains , after that I will get her her own underwear.

Ok so this is such a contradiction but I cloth diaper and I plan on using them on the next, but I won't ever share underwear. I know, I know. But I think she would be more excited to potty train if she got to pick them out. Soooo . . . I say get her new ones.

As long as it's clean.
I always bleach undies, colored or not, and passed them right down.

bleach kills everything. i think if you soak it in a dliuted solution and dry it in the dyer you'll be fine.

OH HECK YEAH!!!! I passed the underwear down - it's not like it wasn't clean or sanitized before I did it. They weren't "wholly" they didn't have saggy waist bands. So why not?!!

I don't do that with shoes - everyone's feet are different. however, with infants - no big deal.

As a matter of a fact I just passed along my daughters' panties to my friend whose daughter is potty training. Since my girls are twins all of their clothes are interchangable including underwear.

I do believe you should take your daughter shopping to go pick out her very own "big girl panties" too. She still needs the rite of passage. You don't need to buy all new though.

We just had this similar situation. My oldest daughter is 4 and my youngest 4 months. As I was cleaning out my 4 yr olds drawers for spring clothes I pulled out the small undies and decided to keep them for potty training purposes for when my youngest dd gets to that stage. My husband thought it was gross and said " we can afford to buy her new undies", lol. But I figured undies are expensive. As previous posters stated we will buy a few new for "rewards" but other then that we are reusing.

You know, I was like you and thought nothing of it.....until my husband said that was really gross :) I don't even put them in the goodwill pile - I just throw them away.

It would probably be fine, but it might make the potty training go better if she were able to go pick out her own special underwear.

My boys are 3 years apart. We've passed down the smaller sized undies. Once my oldest got into the bigger sizes he wore them longer and stuff so they weren't passable anymore.
My youngest got to pick out new undies too (he had so many he could have worn a new pair every day for months! LOL) but he thought it was super cool that he got his big brothers undies! He wanted to be like his big brother and use the potty so it was super cool to him to have the undies.

Perhaps she could have her own brand new underwear.

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I don't see the big deal as long as they are clean and without stains. My twins share a panty drawer and they take turns wearing their favorite Hello Kitty panties after they are washed. I throw out stained panties/underwear as soon as I notice anything gross.

I did pass down a few 2T/3T panities from my older daughter to my baby 2 yr old. They looked brand new. But the panties after that were pretty stained, so it have thrown those away. So i say as long as they are in like new condition, sure why not!

Waste not, want not!

I have no problem with it...pass em' down! It's not like the younger child will never get their own 'new' underwear too, right?

~I have 2 boys and then a girl...each 2 years apart...I passed down all the clothes and shoes (although I admit to going WAY overboard on the buying to begin with...and with each additional child) and yes, some underwear too...even for my baby girl. Nothin' cuter than a lil' girl butt in a pair of cute boy briefs and a tank top as jammies! IMHO!

Baby sister even has all the hand me down levi's and some Adidas, Nike's, Pumas, thongs, hoodies, etc, etc, etc...I get a kick out of pairing her brothers' old clothes with something girly! Just today she is sporting black leggings, a red& white striped long sleeve 'girl' shirt with one of brother's old black and red hoodies, hair all done up and braided something fierce with the black & white Pumas...too cute!

Don't even get me started on pairing her cute lil' printed tights with a skirt, cute boots and some of brother's old color coordinating band T-shirts!

I am kind of even hoping this trend lasts well into the teen years...can't wait for the time she goes in a raids her brothers' closets for something funky and makes up her own 'style'!!

I am also one of 'those' mothers that has a coordinating picture of each child, in the same outfit at the exact same age... :)

I kept the training pants (the thicker type undies, not the regular ones) and used those from one child to the next. And although I think it's fine if they are clean, I also decided that for me, the kid could have new undies all their own. It's not a hygene thing as much as they get so much hand me downs that why not at least let them have their own undies!

Underwear is the one piece of clothing that I DON'T pass down....

I don't see why not - it's economical and very "green" to recycle, even childrens' underwear!

Well when we started potty training my youngest daughter we did go to the store and get her a "special" package of new "big girl" panties. 2 years apart in age the girls have the same size rear. (One is petite and the other chunky) So now the panties didn't get passed down, they just plain old share them same with my 2 boys, who are 5 and 8. They share too and don't care at all.

I think that is completely fine!!! I plan on doing that with my girls...they are 3 1/2 years apart...As long as they are cleaned and still in good shape why not you know...My oldest DD has SO many panties its insane lol!!! She has grown out of most of them and moved up a size now so I just bagged up all the ones that dont fit...But when I do first start potty training my youngest DD which will be awhile cause shes only 4 months lol...but I will take her to pick out one special pack at the store just to get her in the potty training mood :) HTH!!!

Personally I do not see a problem with it. I have boys and i am doing the same thing. You know that you have taken very good care of your first daughters clothing...and you know that the underwware you are using is completely clean.... therefore i see no problem with it. It may not be for everyone, but with the economy today....it is TOO expensive to throw things out if they can be used aain.

I would pass them down. As long as you wash them to me it does not matter what they are. Shoot right now my boys wear the same size under wear and I don't deferintiate who's is who's. I just don't have my 8 year old wear the boxers that we got for my 12 year old but if all the boxers are dirty the 12 year old will wear the others. My 12 year old is very skinny!!!!

I personally throw underwear away when grown out of! You are lucky enough to reuse everything else, getting some new undies all her own could be really special! I'm sure it would probably be fine, but I wouldn't do it... just can't wrap my head around it... I would also never use "used" cloth diapers either.... but that's just me :-)

As long as not stained, a very practical solution. Especially when potty training.
I'd do it until the little one says she doesn't want her big sister's underpants.
I have two boys about the same years apart and we do pass down the underpants, but pepper in some new ones for the little guy as rewards for potty training.

Yup...I think it's just fine to pass down undies! My boys are 3 years (and two weeks!) apart and we passed down underwear. I also got a bunch from my girlfriend that her son outgrew. Really...no ameebas or nasties are gonna be growing on underwear that has been washes (with bleach). Pass them on mama!
L.

I don't see a problem with passing them down. I mean, if they are worn out, of course, you'd toss them. But if they are in good shape, then why not? I too have kids almost exactly 3 yrs apart. But one is a girl and one is a boy.. so pretty much everything gets passed on to someone ELSE. I have passed down some of my daughter's undies to another little girl's family that we know. (I asked first if they would be offended or if they would want them). I had bought her a LOT of undies... the packages are big (and sometimes have extra "bonus" pairs in them). And sometimes I would buy her some b/c the big ones (full cut style, lol) showed too much with the lower waist on some of the clothing these days. So some of her undies were VERY gently worn. They were clean. And I'd even venture to guess that some had NEVER been worn... since she doesn't like pink. And just TRY to buy a package of girls panties with no pink ones in them!
My son on the other hand, the elastic was shot in every pair he ever outgrew. haha I use those for dust rags. :)