Swaddling
Swaddling is it good or is it bad; once you get down to the heart of the matter, it is really the decision of the parents if swaddling is going to work best for them and their newborn. First, just in case someone is unsure what swaddling is, here is the definition.
verb
gerund or present participle: swaddling
wrap (someone, especially a baby) in garments or cloth.
Let’s move on to a little history on swaddling to just give you some idea about how old this practice is and just how effective it can be if done properly. Swaddling is an age-old practice of wrapping infants in blankets or similar cloths so that movement of the limbs is tightly restricted. Swaddling bands were often used to further restrict the infant. It is presumed that swaddling was invented in the Paleolithic period. In Europe the earliest depictions of swaddled babies are votive offerings and grave goods from Crete and Cyprus, 4000 to 4500 years old.
Probably the most famous record of swaddling is found in the New Testament concerning the birth of Jesus. Swaddling clothes described in the Bible consisted of a cloth tied together by bandage-like strips. After an infant was born, the umbilical cord was cut and tied, and then the baby was washed, rubbed with salt and oil, and wrapped with strips of cloth. These strips kept the newborn child warm and also ensured that the child's limbs would grow straight.
As things progressed, as they tend to do, swaddling fell out of favor with medical practitioners and parents alike. And just like anything; like 70’s and 80’s fashion having come back into style, so did swaddling. Most practitioners now highly recommend swaddling as a way to help babies sleep and keep them in one position. And by one position, I mean on their backs as most practitioners are concerned with Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS); which as a parent myself, there is always that worry buried in the back of my mind as am sure it is worry for other parents as well.
There are different ways that swaddling can be done. They are typically fabric blankets in a triangle, 'T' or 'Y' shape, with 'wings' that fold around the baby's torso or down over the baby's shoulders and around underneath the infant. To get a better idea about swaddling for all you visual people head over to the main page of the Ooh Baby Brand site and scroll down the page and watch the excellent video about swaddling, and then go ahead and make your way over to Amazon and buy yourself some high quality organic swaddle blankets; you and your newborn(s) will be happy you did. Take care.