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That's a wrap: How the burrito wrap can save your baby's life

© Dale Kiefer

For several years pediatricians have been telling us how important it is to avoid putting our babies to sleep on their bellies. In fact, the Back to Sleep campaign emphasizes the importance of placing newborns and infants on their backs to sleep.

The recommendations were devised in an effort to prevent cases of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), and the campaign has evidently worked. Deaths from SIDS are down dramatically now that we're putting our infants to sleep on their backs. It's also important to avoid soft, fluffy bedding, pillows, fancy bedclothes, ruffles, comforters, etc. Even stuffed animals in the crib are taboo under the new guidelines. A plain sheet-covered mattress, and a single, thin blanket (tucked in at the feet) are the only bedding most infants, need according to the new rules for safe baby care. The rationale behind these seemingly austere recommendations has to do with an infant's extreme sensitivity to increases in carbon dioxide, which can build up if a baby's airway is restricted in any way.

While it seems counter-intuitive to remove baby's stuffed Elmo doll, it is clearly in baby's best interest to do so. SIDS is a horrific condition that all-too-often robs a new couple of their infant. Anything new parents can do to prevent it occurrence is clearly warranted.

Taco sauce with that?

But what about the small (but not insignificant) percentage of infants who simply will not sleep peacefully on their backs? According to a new study performed at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, there is a simple solution: the "burrito wrap". More commonly known as good old-fashioned swaddling, the answer lies in tightly wrapping these unhappy back-sleepers in a blanket, much as one would wrap the filling for a burrito in a soft tortilla.

Although it may seem to adults to be uncomfortably restrictive, infants actually feel more secure when firmly wrapped. This is nothing new, of course. Even the Bible refers to wrapping the baby Jesus in swaddling clothes. Perhaps he was a fussy back sleeper, too. In the Washington University study, pediatric researchers have so far received encouraging results with this simple, age-old technique. Of nine fussy back sleepers, seven responded to swaddling by promptly falling asleep. On their backs. So, before you throw in the towel on SIDS-prevention guidelines for sleep time; try wrapping your little bundle of joy like a hot burrito. But hold the hot sauce.