Do I need to swaddle a newborn?

First, let's figure it out, why do we need swaddling?. Movement of newborns is still veryuncoordinated and spontaneous. The child himself can scare his sudden movements of pens or legs - throwing up. Therefore, it is important that the child constantly felt the surface near his body, ideally - his mother. When the mother is not around, for example, during sleep, it can be replaced by a diaper.

At the beginning of pregnancy, the fetus is so small that"Floats" in the amniotic fluid, without touching the walls of the uterus. As the fetus grows, it gradually occupies the entire space of the uterus and completely touches it. But for him this does not mean limiting freedom, but knowing the form of his body. Therefore, in a diaper, being in a "kalachik" pose, pressing the legs to the chin and crossing the handles on the chest, the child feels comfortable, just like the mother "in the tummy". The diaper does not "clamp" the child, but only "envelops", not hampering his movements. Is called a swaddling "Free".

A small roll, stretched out on the arms and legs at the counter "quietly". So in Soviet times babies were usually swaddled in maternity hospitals. This method is commonly called "Tight" swaddling. Newborns in the hospital were not left with their mother, as is customary now, but placed in a separate ward, where they were courted by medical staff. And a tight swaddling was used mainly to quickly change a lot of babies, because then were not yet distributed disposable diapers. In addition, sterilizing diapers is much easier than children's clothes.

Now, Tight swaddling - harm for the baby. Although supporters of this method argue thatsuch swaddling promotes the normal development of the child, but in fact everything is exactly the opposite. Grandmothers, persuading a young mother to swaddle their child, like to say: "To the legs were even." But swaddling with a rigid fixation of the baby's legs contradicts their physiological position. For the infant, on the contrary, it is necessary that the legs are slightly unfolded.

With tight swaddling, the baby is at a lossbreathing, slowing blood circulation. In addition, tight swaddling interferes with the normal development of the child's sense of touch. Unable to move arms or legs, the child gets used to his handles only by the half-year. With a free swaddling, the child gets used to his handles gradually and significantly faster than with tight.

At the age of two to three weeks the child himself canto show desire to be released from a diaper, after all it is already interesting to consider surrounding subjects and it reaches to them handles. For mom it is a signal that the baby can be swaddled so that the pens remain free.

Is it possible to do without swaddling? If a child sleeps with his mother, if the mother is oftenhugs him, then there is no special need in the diaper. In addition, modern clothes for newborns to put on the baby mom is much easier than to properly swaddle it. In any case, from the tight swaddling should be abandoned at all, and free to use no longer than three months. In this case, the child's handles can be left free after the first month of life.