Starting a new family can be expensive. Just ask Miki, a nurse turned TikTok influencer that has been helping new parents adjust for years. Each room at the hospital where she works is filled with parenting essentials, including diapers, disposable wipes, and pads.
Miki explained on social media that she recently walked in to find a new dad shoveling diapers into his bag before leaving the hospital with his new kid.
The incident quickly went viral. Her followers used the comment section to have a debate over when it’s appropriate to steal medical supplies from a facility. Was it a five-finger discount or a natural perk of going to the hospital?
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“You know that’s like illegal, right?” Miki says to the dad in the video, before quickly changing her tone.
“Just kidding, I’m not a Karen. I hope I didn’t trigger you. I’m a nurse and I’m here to tell you that we have to throw away everything after you leave, so you might as well take it home.”
She ended up revealing a major secret about hospital medical supplies.
In another video, she further explains the reasoning behind the policy, and why it’s fine to “swipe” diapers, wipes, and other baby care essentials.
“As a nurse I’m here to tell you a secret. We can’t reuse stuff in your hospital room, so please take it home with you. In fact, if you need extras, most of the time we’re more than happy to send more home with you.”
That’s good news for all the soon-to-be parents out there.
Other nurses weighed in by stating what patients should and should not take from the hospital.
“Generally, if we can’t wipe it down with disinfectants, it’s probably disposable and will get thrown away. Take that stuff,” wrote one nurse.
This includes everything from diapers to wipes, baby formula, diaper cream, bottles, baby thermometers, and other baby things. As well as medical support for mom, too, like mesh undies, pads, nipple cream, water bottles, that amazing squirt bottle (you know the one) and numbing meds.
Other users said these items have likely already been charged to their bill, so they might as well take them when they leave because either the patient or their insurance company will pay for it one way or another.
“We want you to take everything!” another nurse wrote in the comments. “I would purposely overstock stuff before discharge, so families had extra to take. Diapers are ✨ expensive✨”
“We weren’t going to, but when we got discharged the nurse was like, why aren’t you taking everything? and helped us pack it up lol,” another viewer commented.
“When we brought our twins home, the nurses bagged it all up for us! We were so thankful!” shared another parent.
“They are charging thousands of dollars, you might as well take everything 😂 curtains and chairs included,” joked another person.
“Didn’t know this when my daughter was born last month. The nurse was like yea empty it for us 😂,” wrote one commenter.
If you ever catch a patient dipping into your hospital’s medical supplies, they probably need them just as much as you.
