things work.  how they work and why they work is more important than
if they work. examples:  formula fed babies grow.  babies who are
'sleep trained' sleep.
rather or not swaddling in any particular method silences a babies
cries is not necessarily the answer to the question.  for me, now that
we know about baby's physical response to stress perhaps what we
consider 'working well' works at a cost we did not know the baby had
to pay for the silence we achieved. there is always a reason for the
crying. we do not always know that reason.  sometimes, the risk
benefit is such that silencing the crying at minimal cost is the
benefit when compare to the risk of shaken baby syndrome.  however,
maybe not so much when compared to being able to use proper cues for
feeding without the clock and parents determining allowed schedule to
unswaddle and feed. fine for the bottle feeding baby who is fed
according to parental desire, not so good for the breastfed baby who
must find that synergy with the mother to receive enough milk and make
in enough milk.  i am not saying all swaddling is wrong, since of
course, i can't know that any more than anyone else can assume it is
what babies expect.  if we use the concept of recreating the baby's
environment before birth, well, that would not include the restriction
of movement according to one particular method one becomes certified
in teaching. indeed baby is moving and most often is seen with hands
near face in ultrasound and it would not include a pacifier as there
is none in there that i have ever seen, and it would not include
removal from mother since mother and baby were never separated before
birth.

thinking we don't know what we know anymore than we know what we don't
know when it comes to babies' feelings, emotions, etc. because
communication is limited to body language and crying. thing is when we
swaddle we eliminate both.  i remember this discussion happening more
than once on lactnet and the argument from those certified in the
method and the marketer of the method was that it works, therefore it
is good.  the argument against the method was that we do not really
know that it works simply because the baby stops crying.  for those
who did not read this discussion in the past, a search of the archives
will give some very interesting thoughts on the topic.

pam mazzelladibosco, ibclc, rlc
private practice
florida, usa
where i have seen far too many swaddled babies sleeping so long
between feedings that weight gain is indeed affected.

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