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The only time I've heard swadling is bad is if the child has a known hip issue. Otherwise, I say, swaddle away!

When E was born the LC told us we should unswaddle him if he was too sleepy to latch on, but that was it.

A nurse told us not to swaddle with receiving blankets but to use something with velcro because babies can work the receiving blanket up over their faces. I've never heard swaddling was bad though.

I was only told to be careful on swaddling with blankets too tightly around their hips as it could cause hip issues. Other than that I've never heard of not swaddling at all.

i've never heard anything but it makes sense what pps have said about hip issues. i figure if they do it in the hospital then we are good to go.

DS had hip dysplasia when he was born but we swaddled his arms/chest area only and made sure the bottom was loose enough for his legs to splay out (plus the harness makes it impossible to tightly swaddle anyway).
Swaddling in general I hear more advocating than anything else.
I mean, hospitals provide swaddling sacks (at least ours did) for your newborn so....?

Other than the hip thing, and some RIE people, I haven't heard it's bad. Basically what you said, nothing scientific, just crunchy folks. I'm a big fan of both RIE and attachment parenting, and I swaddle at night. I don't during the day, but mostly because I'm hoping it helps keep her from getting her days and nights flipped (so far, so good).

One book I read says not to because the author had someone swaddle her and it freaked her out so now she thinks it only calms babies because they're too freaked out to complain. Cause swaddling an adult with full control of their limbs is totally the same as doing it to an infant who has no clue what those things that keep hitting her in the face are.

I haven't heard this! We were only able to swaddle for a few weeks because LO turned out to be an escape artist, but everyone recommended it. Of course now my anxious paranoid mind will latch onto the SIDS thing and not let go... I remember baby being a good sleeper but I'd poke him awake because I didn't want him sleeping too deeply... Smh

@Mrs. Pickle: This is what our parenting class, too.

The hospital always swaddled DD while she was there so I thought it was okay. Then her first night she broke out of her swaddle (first time) and the blanket was up over her face. No more unsupervised swaddling after that!!

A couple of weeks ago my husband sent me a link to the new guidelines that say swaddling may cause SIDS. I probably should have posted here to share. There's so many ways to swaddle- blankets, premade swaddles and the research wasn't clear as to whether its all bad or certain products. The link we read also didn't say if swaddling- the act of confining the baby's movement- was the real issue.

Here's the link http://www.medicaldaily.com/infant-sleep-safety-still-misunderstood-many-caregivers-353322

I feel like swaddling is one of those things that goes in and out of "fashion." My mom was very surprised that swaddling was "back in" when I had LO.