About That Scary Swaddling Study

"These are good suggestions, but the idea that swaddling and SIDS are substantially linked is misleading.

The biggest limitation to this research may be the definition of swaddling itself. The authors of the study acknowledge one of the “several” limitations to their meta-analysis is the fact that none of the studies they reviewed clearly outlined what constitutes a swaddle. And besides that, as anyone who has tried to swaddle a baby can confirm, good swaddling takes practice. Many parents, for fear of too tightly wrapping their babies, end up swaddling too loosely, which is itself a suffocation hazard. (Some daycare centers in the United States don’t allow swaddling for this reason.)

The biggest takeaway here, then, may be that if you’re going to swaddle a baby, you should make sure to do it properly. And if you don’t think you can do that, given the importance of keeping a baby’s crib free of loose blankets and bedding, perhaps it’s best to skip the swaddle altogether."