How to Swaddle like a Pro

Do you remember the first time that your baby visited the hospital nursery? He probably came back to you neatly wrapped up like a little package with only his shaggy little head poking out of the blanket. It’s as if the nurses have perfected the art and secret of swaddling, which makes your baby clam, happy, comfortable and snuggly. You too can master this age-old technique called swaddling which has a lot of benefits for your baby such as, keeping him safe, secure, warm and cozy. There are other benefits of swaddling your baby like keeping him from being disturbed by his very own alarming jerks of his body called hypnagogic startles, which are perfectly normal. Swaddling also helps your baby to settle down, if he gets too stimulated.

So, how do you swaddle your baby like a pro? Well, you can start by checking to see if your baby is wet or hungry; because you wouldn’t want to wrap him up and then find out that he is hungry, which will force you to take him out of the swaddle in order to feed him. You will have to unwrap him because if you don’t you might get your cotton sheet dirty. In addition to this, you don’t want to cover his head or his face, as this may cause him to overheat. When you have done all your checks, you will need to place a cotton cot sheet on a flat surface. Then you should fold this sheet down the top right corner about six inches.

You should place your baby gently on his back with his head on the fold, now gentle pull the corner near your baby’s left hand directly across his tiny body. The next step is to tuck the leading edge under his right arm and around his back, giving him added comfort. The bottom corner of the cotton sheet should be pulled under his chin getting him into a perfectly snuggly position. After you have done that, you will need to bring the right hand corner over and tuck this corner under your baby’s back in the left side. If your baby loves his freedom, then you may need to consider swaddling your baby under the arms, so that he will have the access and freedom to move his fingers and hands.

Swaddling can prove to be important for your new born baby, however, when he grows and gets older, he will outgrow the need to swaddle all together. This is because when your baby gets older, he will prefer to have his fingers, hands and arms free. Additionally, swaddling may prove to be a hindrance to his development and mobility after a certain age like about a month old. In other words, once you baby has reached one month old, you should stop swaddling him, because it will interfere with his physical development. If you realize that every time you swaddle your baby like a pro, he begins to kick off the blanket, then his actions should be an indication to you that he no longer appreciates being swaddled anymore and therefore you should stop swaddling him.