Swaddling May Increase SIDS: Let Your Baby Sleep On His Back If You Must Swaddle Him, Experts Say

Swaddling your baby while letting him sleep on his stomach or on his side may increase his risk of developing SIDS – that is, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, according to a new study by an English university.

As Medical Xpress reports, lead researcher Dr. Anna Pease and her team from the University of Bristol’s School of Social and Community Medicine reviewed four studies of swaddling and sleep spanning four decades and covering subjects from such diverse places as Tasmania, England, 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). We tried to gather evidence of whether there was an association between swaddling for sleep and SIDS.”

What Dr. Pease and her team found is that in some cases, there’s a slightly increased risk when it comes to swaddling and SIDS, particularly when it comes to how your baby sleeps.

Dr Anna Pease talking at the negotiating infant sleep conference @IsisOnline1 @AnthDurham1 #infantsleep pic.twitter.com/klhz0VSd8m

— Alice-Amber Keegan (@Alice_Amberkeeg) April 11, 2016

Without getting too deeply into the specific numbers in this article, Dr. Pease’s conclusion is that if you’re going to swaddle your baby, make sure he or she is sleeping on his back when swaddled, according to Medscape. Infants who sleep on their stomachs and are swaddled are at a significantly increased risk of SIDS compared to non-swaddled babies sleeping on their backs. Swaddled babies sleeping on their backs are also at an increased risk of SIDS.

And, of course, experts agree that the safest position for a sleeping baby, particularly when it comes to SIDS, is on his or her back.

Dr. Pease also noted that, when it comes to swaddling, you have to be careful as your baby ages; the older they get, the more likely they are to wiggle around and wind up on their stomachs.

“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. Most babies start being able to roll over at about 4-6 months.”

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, or SIDS, occurs when an otherwise healthy baby, under 1-year-old, dies unexpectedly and for no apparent reason, according to American Family Physician. SIDS is the leading cause of death among healthy infants, claiming some 2,200 lives per year.

Since 1994, however, SIDS deaths have plummeted dramatically in the U.S. The reason for that drop can be attributed to the Back to Sleep campaign, which encourages parents to put babies to sleep on their backs rather than on their stomachs.

Besides the baby’s sleeping position, other factors can play a risk when it comes to SIDS. Boys and preemies, for example, are more prone to SIDS, and so are babies whose mothers smoked or drank during pregnancy. Babies who are breastfed are at a slightly lower risk of SIDS compared to babies who are bottle-fed.

Besides the Back to Sleep campaign, other advances in prenatal care and public health have helped reduce the number of SIDS deaths worldwide. Far fewer pregnant mothers smoke than they did a generation ago, exposing fewer babies to the risk of SIDS. Further, certain drugs given during pregnancy can speed the lung development of a fetus in danger of being born preterm.

Still, SIDS remains an enigma, and despite decades of research and falling SIDS rates worldwide, its causes and ways to prevent it are not fully understood.

You can read Dr. Pease’s report about SIDS and the increased risk from swaddling in its entirety here.

[Image via Shutterstock/Tuan_Azizi]