Swaddling A Baby Could Increase Its Risk To Sudden Infant Death Syndrome: Study

Swaddling a baby might calm it down, and lead to less crying. However, a study shows that Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) can actually go up when babies are swaddled, especially while they sleep on their stomachs or on their sides.

The University of Bristol researchers arrived at this result when they conducted four studies through two decades and three geographical areas across England, Tasmania in Australia and Chicago.

"The focus of our review was not on studies about swaddling - a traditional practice of wrapping infants to promote calming and sleep - but on studies that looked at Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)," said Anna Pease from the University of Bristol's School of Social and Community Medicine and lead author of the study. "We tried to gather evidence of whether there was an association between swaddling for sleep and SIDS.

"We only found four studies and they were quite different, and none gave a precise definition for swaddling making it difficult to pool the results," she added. "We did find, however, that the risk of SIDS when placing infants on the side or front for sleep increased when infants were swaddled."

As the risks for the babies would double on their backs and fronts, scientists found that most babies after being swaddled would tend to move into these positions on their own.

"We found some evidence in this review that as babies get older, they may be more likely to move into unsafe positions while swaddled during sleep, suggesting an age is needed after which swaddling for sleep should be discouraged," Pease said. "Most babies start being able to roll over at about 4-6 months.

"On a practical level what parents should take away from this is that if they choose to swaddle their babies for sleep, always place them on their back, and think about when to stop swaddling for sleep as their babies get older and more able to move."

The study was published in the May 2016 issue of Pediatrics.