Swaddling facts for kids
Swaddling is an ancient practice of wrapping infants in blankets or similar cloths so that movement of the limbs is tightly restricted. Swaddling bands were often used to further restrict the infant. Swaddling fell out of favour in the 17th century.
Origin and history
Several authors presume that swaddling was invented in the paleolithic period. The earliest depictions of swaddled babies are votive offerings and grave goods from Crete and Cyprus, 4000 to 4500 years old.
Votive statuettes have been found in the tombs of Ancient Greek and Roman women who died in childbirth, displaying babies in swaddling clothes. In shrines dedicated to Amphiaraus, models representing babies wrapped in swaddling clothes have been excavated. Apparently, these were frequently given as thank-offerings by anxious mothers when their infants had recovered from sickness.
Probably the most famous record of swaddling is found in the New Testament concerning the birth of Jesus in Luke 2:6–2:7:
And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.
Swaddling clothes described in the Bible consisted of a cloth tied together by bandage-like strips. After an infant was born, the umbilical cord was cut and tied, and then the baby was washed, rubbed with salt and oil, and wrapped with strips of cloth. These strips kept the newborn child warm, and were thought to ensure that the child's limbs would grow straight.
During Tudor times, swaddling involved wrapping the new baby in linen bands from head to foot to ensure the baby would grow up without physical deformity. A stay band would be attached to the forehead and the shoulders to secure the head. Babies would be swaddled like this until about 8 or 9 months.
In the seventeenth century, the scientific opinion towards swaddling began to change. William Cadogan (1711–1797) seems to have been the first physician who pleaded for the complete abolition of swaddling.
Philosophers and physicians more and more began to reject swaddling in the 18th century. Although swaddling has fallen out of favour in the Western world, many Eastern cultures and tribal people still use it.
Images for kids
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Votive offerings depicting swaddled babies from Agia Triada (Crete), Bronze Age, 2600-2000 BC., Heraklion (Iraklion), Crete. Archeological museum Iraklion
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Swaddled baby and bad mother, 1505–1510, detail from The Temptation of St. Anthony by Hieronymus Bosch (ca. 1450–1516). Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon
See also
- Babywearing
- Kangaroo care
