Towards the end it was very tight in the womb for the little ones. Arms and legs barely had room to stretch out in any way. They felt a limitation all over their body. Hardly in the world, this limitation is gone from now to after. Many babies cannot cope with this unfamiliar situation and cry a lot, although they don't seem to be missing anything. However, they long for the tightness of the womb. This feeling should be recreated by swaddling.
What does puck mean?
When swaddling, the babies are wrapped very tightly in a cloth or swaddling bag. The arms are close to the body. The legs are also loosely wrapped. With this technique, the feeling in the womb is simulated and the effect of swaddling on parents and child is often very positive and the children calm down quickly.
What is the reason for swaddling?
As already mentioned, swaddling simulates the feeling in the womb. Another factor is the Moro reflex. This reflex causes the little ones to jerk out their arms when they are laid on their backs or when they are asleep. If this happens during sleep, it is not uncommon for the babies to wake up from this movement. Therefore, swaddling is also used here, so that this cannot happen through what swaddling.
Criticism of swaddling
Swaddling is not only met with approval. Various experts are critical of this technology. But why? Swaddling seems to be related to sudden infant death syndrome. The puck technique and the positioning of the child are particularly dangerous. Since not all parents know the right technique and when to unpuck, swaddling can become a life-threatening danger. Because if a child turns on its stomach and swaddles, there is a risk of suffocation. Another aspect is that swaddling promotes hip dysplasia. The risk of overheating is also an issue, as is changing diapers too tightly, which may prevent children from breathing properly. Wrapping them too tightly or incorrectly can also pinch nerves and the flattening of the back of the head is promoted by the motionless supine position.
Note the following aspects
In general, there are children who cannot do anything with this technique and who refuse to swaddle. Even children who have no problems sleeping do not need to swaddle. However, it can work wonders for children who are very restless and find it difficult to sleep, are whimpering and also with baby cribs. It can also help children who wake themselves up several times during the night. Therefore, it must be decided individually for each child whether swaddling should be used. Here parents can contact their midwife or they can simply try it out, the success or failure will be noticeable.
Timely spitting
The latest sources advise swaddling babies only until they are eight weeks old. Until then, the rule was that swaddling was allowed up to a maximum of six months. The reason for spitting earlier is that some children start spinning very early and without warning. If the little ones turn on their stomach, swaddled, they can no longer turn back on their own. If this happens unsupervised at night, the child can suffocate in the prone position.
Supine position
Very important, swaddled babies may only be placed on their backs. When children are wrapped and put on their prone position, they are often unable to turn on their backs due to the restricted freedom of movement. Babies are also unable to turn their heads sufficiently, so the risk of suffocation is drastically increased.
The right team
There are special swaddling clothes and swaddling bags. But no matter what you use, the fabric should be elastic, breathable and not too thick.
Leg and hip room
When swaddling, it is important that the hips and legs are given sufficient freedom of movement. You should be able to move your hips and extend your legs.
Beware of overheating
Very important, the tight wrapping promotes overheating. It is therefore important that the children are not over-dressed. However, this depends on the time of year and varies from child to child.
Puck technique
There are different puck techniques. The following video shows a technique from the Goldenes Kreuz private clinic:
If the baby can no longer be swaddled, what then?
Very clear recommendation: Our Wombi 🙂 The Wombi combines the advantages of swaddling with sufficient freedom of movement. You can find them all here Advantages of the Wombi or Our instructions for spitting with the wombi.
So much for theory
I am clearly in favor of swaddling. But only for babies who really need it. Leon slept unpucked for the first two nights, then it became apparent that he is not a good sleeper. A friend gave me a swaddle for my birth. In all honesty, I looked at this part and didn't know where up and down is 😀 So, grabbed the YouTube tutorial! So far so good, so I wrapped Leon in a swaddle bag. I have to say, it looks a bit strange and as an adult you can't imagine that you can feel so comfortable. The first attempt went straight to my pants, already while wrapping Leon screamed like crazy and I was totally excited. I then canceled first. However, I started a new attempt after a few hours and with more calm. Unfortunately Leon screamed again, but I wrapped him up completely. I picked him up and calmed him down, and after he calmed down and fell asleep, he slept much, much calmer, longer and better. As a very little baby, I sometimes swaddled him and sometimes not, because it didn't always work out to calm him down. When sleep got better in general, I swaddled him every night. At that time, the rule was that babies could be swaddled until they were six months old. When I was around six months old, I thought to myself, yes, it's about time we had to stop swaddling.
So get to the spitting. Then of course I tried to put him to sleep unpucked in the classic way in the sleeping bag, I just say: pure disaster! He didn't let himself calm down, waved his arms, scratched his face, rubbed his eyes. He just didn't know what to do with his arms. So it really didn't work. Then I slowly tried to spit out him and left one arm unpucked. It went so-so, even with a free arm you can do a lot of nonsense, but it was better. However, I couldn't and couldn't free the second arm and Leon was already turning at the time. So I had to do something. I then met the Wombi through a forum. And to be honest, I was really skeptical, especially with Leon. I felt I tried so many tips and tricks for a better sleep and somehow nothing really helped. But, tada, the Wombi really helped us. On the first night with Wombi, Leon slept as good as swaddled.
The bottom line of swaddling for us was that we probably wouldn't have gotten around it. However, spitting out was really tedious. You are under a certain amount of pressure, as the fact that the babies turn independently is a very clear sign to stop swaddling. I simply suppressed the fact that unpicking doesn't happen overnight and that it takes weeks, if not months. So I can only advise you to start spitting in good time.
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