Here are some tips about how to swaddle an infant and some of the benefits.

Swaddling means to wrap a baby in a cozy manner. When you carry your baby around or are just sitting down with it, the baby can get cold. Baby is used to the warmth of your womb. Before birth, the baby was enclosed in a membrane filled with fluid. As the baby grew, it took up more and more of the sac until it was time to be delivered.

That same warmth and coziness is good for baby even after they have left the womb. We lay babies on their backs because it is better for them and it keeps them from getting tangled in blankets, but they often startle themselves awake. The noises around them can cause them to flinch and even wake up, something that swaddling can prevent.

Swaddling allows a baby to feel the same type of warmth that it did in the womb. By keeping it bundled up, the baby feels enclosed on all sides. This can make it comfortable and help it sleep. If your baby is often awakening itself, swaddling can help to keep it asleep as it retains more heat and can sleep or relax comfortably.

Before swaddling, check to see that baby is comfortable in other ways. As long as it is not wet, hungry or hurting, the baby can be wrapped up for comfort.

Swaddling is usually stopped when the baby is old enough to move and have control of its head. When the baby discovers that it has arms and legs and can get move them around, wrapping the baby up might lead to crying because the baby wants more freedom.

How to swaddle:

* Take a blanket and fold down one corner.

* Lay baby on the crease so that they are in the center. Fold one side of the blanket over the baby and tuck it under the arm and body on the other side.

* Fold the remaining side of the blanket across the body in the opposite direction, just under baby’s chin. Be sure that baby is snug without being restrained.

* Leave the feet free for air circulation. If the baby wants to keep its arms free, you can swaddle under the arms.

Swaddling can help your baby to sleep and adjust to life outside of the womb in their first few months of life. It can also help them to stay warm and not startle itself awake.