Wool batting?
 

I am making a quilt for my son-in-law and I am trying to decide on batting. I suggested a soft wool batting which will give extra warmth. They live up north.
Our daughter says since he will be laundering it quite often that wool batting would not be ideal since it cannot be washed.
What say you? Is there a batting which is extra soft but also extra warm?

Modern wool batting can be washed, but you want to follow the directions on the package. I love Hobbs wool batting, and I pre-shrink it by pre-soaking before I use it. It doesn't have much shrinkage in the first place, but I always like to pre-shrink everything.

I just made quilts for my year-old twin grandsons with Quilter's Dream wool batting and they washed up beautifully when they were done. I used a warm wash and warm dry on my regular washer setting, because I knew they were going to be washed a lot and I wanted to be sure they could handle it, without needing any special care.

I also made a queen size quilt for my oldest son with the same batting, and washed/dried it in a big washer at the laundromat, warm wash, warm dry.

They all came out very cuddly and soft too, with no real shrinkage that I could see. :)

They recommend washing wool in cold water and drying flat or machine drying without heat; maybe others here can say if they have good results drying in the dryer normally. For a son-in-law, you might want to have the quilt as carefree as possible, so maybe use a batting that is less fussy. I haven't used polyester batting myself, but the Hobbs cotton/poly blend is very popular, would be carefree, and they say polyester is the warmest of battings. Quilter's Dream makes a polyester batting that they say is as warm as down.

I prewash everything.

made my son a quilt w/ wool batt..loved the loft and quilted like buttah!

You could definitely go with the Hobb's Washable Wool. If that doesn't work out & you're looking for a higher loft cotton, I'd recommend Warm & Plush. It's available on a limited basis at JAF, but I can almost always find it online. I just bought a 90" x 25yd roll from walmart.com because I love it so much (and it was a steal at $130 + free shipping). It is 50% fluffier than Warm & Natural/White, but every bit as warm & washing machine friendly. Cotton will definitely keep him warm on the coldest winter nights.

Modern wool batting is now washable. Just be sure to check the directions for washablity. I have an old package of Hobbs which I believe is NOT washable.

I have a well-loved lap quilt with a Hobbs wool batting. I wash it on warm and dry it on low until it is just slightly damp. Works great. My cats lie on it all the time, which is why I need to wash it frequently.

For my own new bed quilt, I am certainly using wool.

My favorite quilt on my bed has Dream Wool batting, it washes beautifully, I wash it gently, warm water, toss into regular cycle dryer. It comes out Oh So Soft, Cuddly, lofty, wonderful! It doesn't get laundered weekly or anything like that, 2-3 times a year, but has held up wonderfully for about 7 years now.