How to swaddle a baby | technique and safety

Getting your baby wrapped into a swaddle blanket might sound like something your great grandma would do to her kids.

And, it’s the part of newborn care practice parents and health care professionals often argue about, listing pros and cons of swaddling.

However, new parents often underestimate the benefits of swaddling a newborn child until they try to do that with their own restless and fussy baby and see how comfortable and calm he/she becomes.

Swaddling may be your infant care magic wand, as it has a couple of impressive benefits:

• When swaddled in a thin, but soft and comfy blanket, your newborn, who’s not adapted to living in the outside world and is still used to womb conditions, gets the same feeling of being secured in a limited, but really safe space.
  That’s why swaddling works like a really effective newborn soothing method.
• Due to the same reason, your little one will sleep much better and longer when swaddled than when covered with a blanket or just put to bed in his regular clothes.
• Really young babies can’t roll over. And that leads us to quite dangerous situations and risks (like SIDS) when your baby ends up falling asleep on his tummy.
  When you swaddle your baby, you can’t help but put him to sleep on his back. That is one of the most effective SIDS prevention measures.
  
• Swaddling works great when it comes to preventing your infant from waking up due to his startling reflex.
  That’s the problem parents of a newborn often struggle with while trying to lay a sleeping baby down to his crib.
• Newborns are known for speed growing quite thin and sharp finger nails and scratching themselves with those.
  If you swaddle your baby, you’ll prevent sleep scratching.
• You can’t constantly hold your baby. You need to do stuff around the house, and you need to rest and sleep as well.
  If you swaddle your baby, you’ll imitate that comforting cuddling sensation all newborns love.

But, you have to figure out and practice proper swaddling techniques in order to bundle your baby up safely and comfortably.

Therefore, you have to learn how to swaddle your baby correctly to ensure swaddling safety and comfort to your little one.

Steps to swaddle a baby

1. Choose a thin, breathy blanket that’s at least 40’’ wide and 40’’ long. The bigger your baby is, the larger blanket you’ll need.
2. Place your blanket in a rhombus position and fold the top corner down onto the rest of the blanket to create a small triangle. The smaller your child is, the more fabric you’ll need to fold.
3. Place your baby onto the middle of the swaddling blanket the way that the top folding line is on his shoulders’ level. Warning! Don’t cover your baby’s neck due to safety reasons.
4. Decide, whether you want your baby’s hands to be in or out. If your baby likes to bring his hands closer to his mouth, place them this way.
5. If you want to keep the infant’s arms inside the blanket, place them onto his body so that his hands lay over his chest.
   Most pediatricians agree that it is the safest swaddling position that doesn’t lead to the joint issues.
   On the contrary, more common swaddling technique of keeping the baby’s hands on his sides may cause such problems and make your baby feel not really comfortable.
6. Take the left corner of the blanket to the opposite side and wrap it around the baby’s body.
   Make sure to smooth out the fabric underneath the child’s body to get rid of folds. Those might disturb your baby and make him uncomfortable.
7. Bring the bottom corner of the blanket up to the baby’s neck and wrap it over his shoulder. Keep this corner in between your little one’s body and the part of the blanket he lays on.
8. Make sure that your baby is able to kick his feet inside this pocket easily. Ensure free fit around baby’s hips.
9. Take the last right corner, bring it to the left side to create a V-neck type ‘collar’ and wrap it around your baby. Smooth it out on the baby’s spine.
10. Tuck the blanket into the right and left corners’ folds on baby’s chest. Make sure that your baby isn’t wrapped up too tight once again.

That’s basically how you make yourself the tastiest and the snuggest baby burrito ever! 😉

This is one of the safest, easiest and most popular swaddling methods out there. But you may leave your baby’s hands out, swaddle below baby’s arms to wrap, use a completely different way to swaddle, etc.

If you could ask an experienced nanny to show you her baby swaddling technics on your baby and teach you how to do that in real life, it would be just amazing. Go to HireRush.com to get in touch with one in your local area.

Leave your request here

You may also visit YouTube.com to see how different parents and child care pros swaddle babies.

Besides, you may purchase a swaddling sack that ensures nice fit and makes swaddling much easier. It looks like an onesie without legs and hands. You just put your baby into this sack, zip it up and your baby burrito is ready to fall asleep:)

Swaddling don’ts

1. Using too thick blanket or a couple of blankets to swaddle. That might cause body temperature regulation problems and hypothermia.
2. Swaddling too tight to limit all of baby’s movements. That might lead to dysplasia.
3. Bringing the fabric too close to baby’s neck and face.
4. Swaddling babies, who’ve learned how to turn to their side or roll over.
5. Keeping your baby swaddled for too long. Using this soothing method to improve your baby’s sleep is fine. But, your infant needs to have the freedom of movement for the sake of his physical development and health.
6. Covering your baby’s head with a swaddling blanket (overheating risks).