Doctor Komarovsky about the need to swaddle

The baby was born. One of the first questions that will surely arise from parents is whether to swaddle a baby.

Grannies, of course, will convince in chorus that swaddling is vital, and it is even tighter, and then they will “wake themselves up”, “will not sleep well”, etc. The older generation has a thousand and one reason in the arsenal. any moment ready to explain the benefits of swaddling. However, parents should weigh the pros and cons. And Yevgeny Komarovsky, a well-known pediatrician and author of books and articles on children's health, is ready to help them.

Diapers appeared when people realized that the baby needed to be protected from cold, wind, sun. And it happened back in primitive times. The first diaper was the skin of the animal.

Diapers were modified along with humanity. Evidently, Yevgeny Komarovsky says that they existed for a long time so that adults could save on clothes. The first six months, the baby, who is tightly wound into rectangular pieces of fabric of different density, doesn’t really need pants and shirts.

A little later, diapers found a medical justification. So, even 20-30 years ago in the maternity hospitals, the doctors explained to the parturient women that from swaddling the baby's legs would be smoother, and he himself would be calmer. Swaddling was taught before birth, for "training" used rubber baby dolls, in size similar to newborns. They even managed to invent several diapering techniques - tight, free, partial.

Over time, pediatricians began to notice that the curves from the birth of the legs are not straightened, no matter how much a child is swaddled, and indeed children who, due to "negligence" of mothers, are not growing up, develop physically and mentally more quickly. So that which was a dogma, became questioned.

Later it turned out that the swaddled children breathed harder, and the babies, who were finally untied, immediately take on a certain posture - the legs and arms are pressed. It is this posture that is more physiologically correct for the baby, the usual, because in the womb for 9 months he lives and develops without diapers.

The first doctors and parents rushed to eradicate tight swaddling. Then they began to swaddle in a new way - widely. It looks like a child who, under the diaper, moves his arms and legs and presses his knees, is not as beautiful and neat as the "column", which is obtained as a result of tight swaddling. But it has become much more useful for him, if only because it has become easier for kids.

A little later, child psychologists and other specialists appeared who took upon themselves the responsibility to declare authoritatively that swaddling, even free, is dangerous for a child - he will never grow out of a boldly-minded, freedom-loving and independent person.

Yevgeny Komarovsky advises parents not to take such "scientific works" to heart. First of all, because they were written and invented by people who were swaddled in childhood too.

In order for a child to grow up a good, harmonious, developed person, he needs normal family relations in which he will be properly and rationally brought up. Plays the role of genetics, heredity, the degree of religiosity of the family in which he grows up, social conditions and many other factors.But no one in the history of our planet has ever succeeded in proving with conviction and scientifically that the personality traits of a person are influenced in some way by which diapers and with what force they were wrapped at a tender age.

It is for this reason that parents must answer the question, whether to swaddle or not, on their own. How it will be more convenient for adults themselves.

Pluses swaddling: economy, convenience, no need to update the wardrobe every month as the child grows.

Advantages of non-diaper:

• the opportunity to entrust the dressing to the pope, because he is unlikely to learn how to swaddle, and he is quite able to put the child in human pants and shirt;
• washing powder on shirts takes less than diapers;
• Dryer areas require less, and they dry out faster, besides, diapers need to be constantly ironed.

Only parents, and only on their own, must make this decision.

Count on some special benefits from swaddling is also not worth it. A restless baby in diapers does not become calmer, especially if he is half a night instead of sleeping and letting his mother sleep, he diligently wriggles out of the hated diaper just because he is hot or uncomfortable or the pen is numb and the physiological need to give it a different position in space.

However, sometimes swaddling really helps to fall asleep, if the child is nervous, often throws up his arms in a dream and bothers himself.

Many parents, after weighing all the pros and cons, decide in favor of swaddling. However, not for the whole day, but only for the night, so that the child would get used to sleep at night, and not to talk with his hands and feet.

Until what age to swaddle a child, decide his parents too. When the baby grows up, he, probably, will cease to treat the diaper favorably and will begin to protest against its use.

Parents always know better what their child wants and what they prefer. If he is uncomfortable in the sliders, Mom will feel it, and will use the diaper in time. There are no restrictions, rigid time frames, rules and contraindications, says Yevgeny Komarovsky.

The opinion of Dr. Komarovsky on swaddling a newborn is also given in the following video.

Detailed instructions on how to properly swaddle a child, see below.