I've also read the posts that say to wash and dry 3 times, but I haven't done it. I wash once in hot water, and dry with heat and that can result in quite a bit of shrinkage. However for receiving blankets I can see that you might want to get rid of all the lint, which happens mostly in the dryer, so I can see the wisdom of washing and drying more than once. I guess it might also depend on the quality of the flannel. Maybe if you don't see any more lint with the second wash/dry, you could stop there?