Does knitting harm babies?

"Health officials battling hospital superbugs have taken action to thwart a new peril stalking the hospital wards - knitting. There are fears babies' hats, blankets and bootees, knitted and donated by volunteers, could be spreading infections. Such gifts have been banned from the neonatal unit at the Royal Blackburn Hospital in Lancashire.

The hospital was hit by an MRSA outbreak in 2007, that forced it to close its neonatal unit after six babies tested positive. Last year babies were quarantined after traces were found of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase, or ESBL.

Every year hundreds of items are donated for the babies, many of whom are too small for manufactured baby clothes."

John Harris, Babies' bootees linked to hospital superbugs, The Observer, 8.3.2009, p.17