Can swaddling the baby with arms down be harmful for the baby?
Absolutely not. In fact, swaddling with the arms down is the way babies are wrapped in many, many other cultures. The only recommendation for arms up swaddling is for preemies. This helps them be more alert and neurologically organized. However, this is not a concern for term babies who are being swaddled to improve sleep and to soothe crying. Many Native American Tribes swaddled their babies with the arms down until ~6 months and they were well known to be brave and independent. The evidence of swaddling with arms down shows overwhelmingly that those babies have more relaxed heart rates and respirations, and that they sleep longer (yet they have more arouse-ability so they are less at risk for death – SIDS). Swaddling coupled with the use of rough sounding white noise (about as loud as a shower) during sleep and fussy periods shows great promise for improving breast feeding success rates, promoting sleep and lowering the incidence of depression, marital stress, shaken baby syndrome, a
