when giving a quilt to anyone, family or charity, i use poly batting, and NO chemicals of any kind...allergies are prevalent among the young when subjected to things they can handle easily when older. remember, they will be sleeping under these, breathing in anything you added. The poly is because of dust/pollen allergies, which cotton holds much easier and longer...lint is just as bad as dust for my family. In addition, I do want them to wash and dry quickly, which is easier with poly... my sons would actually stand and stare at the dryer till their blankets were done....

AS for the decline of children dying in fires ... there is another significant factor that occured inthe same timeline. SMOKE Detectors... and the laws requireing rental units and new construction. Most people added smake alarms once they became common place in the market and could be easily installed.
Any way .. more people die from the smoke ... not the fire!
As for being concerned enough to pretreat.... I would not add any chemicals.... any benifits ( as mentioned in earlier posts) would be washed away after a few washings.

Soap, such as Ivory Snow (advertised for babies!) destroys the flame retardents. Detergents shouldn't be a problem.

All good comments. Interesting conversation.

Wow! Al this is good to know!!

Wow! Al this is good to know!!

My feeling is that the fire retardants are a long term health risk. When I was young, many PJs etc were made from rayon, which is not merely flamable, but explosively so. My father refused to buy us any clothing made from rayon for that reason. I think the current laws and regulations are an overreaction. We do need to protect children from fire. But carcinogens are a problem too.

When I was a teen, my brand new that day heating pad caught fire when I slept. I used my great grandmother's quilt to put out the fire.

When they first came out with the flame retardant flannels I bought a bunch for my kids. When I got it home it smelled so bad of chemicals I put it away and even later it smelled so bad. So I put it away never to ever use it. Then threw it away, not too long ago I heard that it was proven that the chemicals in that flannel caused cancer. That was on a news report, so I was very glad I had never used it. Don't know if it was true or not, knowing how the news is sometimes, but I was still glad I threw it out.

Thank all of you for your responses. I ususally give to my local food bank as they give gifts to needy families and I remember getting a quilt when I was struggling to raise my kids alone and it was blessing as we didn't have good blankets and the landlord didn't have a good heating system in the apartment. So I want to pay back. My youngest son had a small quilt I made for him. He sleep walked and fell asleep in front of a small electric heater and melted a small hole in the outside layer of the quilt. So that made me think I should check it out.
I feel we bring on a lot of our health problems with the things we do to our invironment and fire retardent could be one of those. I know the stuff the fire department sprayed on the fire next door didn't help my plants.
Thanks again
Lynda