Too tight swaddle ?

jasmineluke

DD is 12 weeks this Friday and we still use swaddle for her to sleep otherwise she brings her fist to her mouth and starts sucking my on it and it wakes her up. She also sleeps in the nursery in a rock & play which is 5 steps from our room.
The other night a friend came to watch the baby at night so DH and I can go out for dinner. She noticed that we swaddle tightly so keep her arms from her face and she said a tight swaddle can be a SIDS hazard since if she spits up she can't use her hands to move stuff out of her face. She also said it may compress the chest too tightly and affect her breathing?? She said this especially since baby sleeps in another room and we use a monitor so we don't see every little thing that happens to her overnight, just when she cries.
Any thoughts of "too tight" a swaddle being a safety issue? She just sleeps better that way! It's tight enough to keep the arms down. Does not inhibit the growth of her shoulders and her legs are free! We use a Velcro swaddle that is similar to the halo swaddle.

mrstps

I have never heard that before and we were told with swaddling to do so as tight as possible. In terms of spit up, the baby will turn his or her head to remove it as a reflex and in any event, I think babies who are still in the swaddling phase lack coordination to remove anything from its mouth with its hands.

millereliz13

Your friend is full of it. Sorry but if that was the case, we'd all be warned about that.

jasmineluke

Thank you for calming my fears .... Baby sleeps better with tighter swaddle!!

koriemo

Yeah... Your friend is way off. They only thing I've heard regarding swaddling and SIDS is to stop swaddling when baby can roll over... Though I doubt a baby can roll over in a rock and play anyways.