Basic Baby Swaddling Tips

Writen by Alice Williams

Things go in and out of fashion and swaddling is definitely one of them. For millennia babies were swaddled but a couple of hundred years ago the idea that it was "bad" to restrict a baby's movement began to rapidly take hold in the Western world.

It was still out of my fashion when my daughter was born, but when my grandson was born I bought her a book that explained the benefits of wrapping a baby tightly. Why? Because there's nothing like a decent night's sleep for both parents and baby.

Swaddling works because babies are born too soon! You'd think that nine months would be long enough but all those complex neurological processes really need longer to mature (about three months or more). Babies need to be born at nine months otherwise their heads become too large to pass through their mother's pelvis.

As a result babies are born at a time when they aren't quite ready for the outside world. Naturally placid babies cope by switching off and are able to sleep most of the time. But many babies find life outside the womb more difficult. It's too bright and distracting and they can't control their flailing arms and legs which they find distressing.

What they want is to be warm and restricted. Think how squashed a baby is for their last few months in the womb. Such a restricted environment may seem like a nightmare to you and me but to a baby it's what being safe and secure is all about.

Swaddling reproduces this feeling of being tightly restricted. The result is a more relaxed and less stressed baby. And that means a baby that's more likely to sleep. Remember young babies need lots of sleep and so do their parents!

Here are a few tips that will help you with swaddling.

Practise before your baby is born. There is an art to good swaddling so you'll need several goes before you learn how to do it well. Learning on a crying, wriggling baby is difficult. Borrow or buy a baby-size doll. If you need to repeatedly re-swaddling to get it right, dolls don't complain.

Swaddling needs to be tight. The most common reason a swaddled baby fails to calm down is because they don't feel restricted enough. It seems strangely cruel to adults, and this is why they often swaddle on the loose side, but tight is good.

Choose your swaddling blanket wisely. You don't want the material too thick as it'll make the folding difficult. Don't choose silky material either as it's too slippery to keep in place.

If you buy a pre-formed swaddling blanket check that it does actually swaddle. They are often designed to fit a variety of different size babies resulting in a loose fit. You need something that swaddles not snuggles a baby.

Keeping a swaddling blanket tightly in place can be difficult especially if you have a wriggly baby. Parents have used anything from safety pins to duct tape. Strategically placed pieces of velcro can be an easy solution. If your swaddling blanket keeps coming undone find something that you feel comfortable with but always make safety your top priority.

Alice Williams runs http://www.baby-burp.com which provides all sorts of information about babies including baby swaddling.