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Home › Articles › Basic Care › Swaddling Babies

Swaddling Babies

Ancient Practice Comforts Infants and Parents

By Laura Cone

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Suzanne Tayal of Columbus, Ohio, tried to swaddle her son, Aaron, 6, when he was a baby by copying nurses who tidily wrapped infants in the hospital nursery. "I saw the nurses in newborn nursery do it and I could never wrap it as tight as them," she says. It was not until she had her daughter, Marisa, almost 2, that Tayal learned the art of swaddling, or snugly wrapping, an infant in blankets or swaddling clothes.

Lowering SIDS Risks
Dr. Bradley T. Thach, a professor of pediatrics at Washington University School of Medicine, says the fact that many parents abandon the practice of swaddling is disturbing because 2 to 4 months is the peak risk period for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). "The problem is once a baby reaches 3 months swaddled in the traditional ways that Americans swaddle babies, they can escape and that's the critical time for SIDS that you want to keep them swaddled," he says.

Along with Dr. Claudia M. Gerard, an instructor in pediatrics at Washington University, Dr. Thach conducted research that showed the practice of swaddling babies lowers SIDS risk. And researchers at the Pediatric Sleep Unit of the University Children's Hospital in Brussels, Belgium, recently found swaddling does help babies sleep longer and better. That means more shuteye for parents.

Dr. Thach, who developed an escape-proof zip-up swaddle made of cotton, Spandex and Velcro, says his findings somewhat mirrored those of the study published in the May 2005 Pediatrics, where researchers found swaddling increases a baby's sleep efficiency and non-rapid eye movement sleep.

According to Dr. Thach, swaddling reduces the risk of SIDS by making it easy to keep babies on their backs. "Our swaddling, unlike traditional methods used for centuries, allows the baby to move his leg somewhat into the classic frog-leg position," he says, adding babies will be at less risk to develop abnormal hip growth if they can flex their legs.

Swaddling Techniques

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