Bloom Muslin Swaddles

Details

A square of double gauze cotton, 110 cm on each side, which is the size that actually works for a swaddle rather than the size that fits a smaller box. The useful part of this page is not how soft it is. It is how to swaddle without getting it wrong, and there are four things. Hips. Snug across the chest, loose at the hips. The legs must be able to bend up and out. A swaddle that binds the legs straight and pressed together is the position associated with hip dysplasia, and it is exactly how a swaddle is most often demonstrated. Two fingers should slide between the cloth and the chest. Rolling. Stop swaddling at the first sign your baby is trying to roll, usually somewhere between eight and twelve weeks. Not the first successful roll, the first attempt. A swaddled baby who reaches their front cannot push up or turn their head, and that is the whole risk. Back, and only back. Swaddled or not, a baby sleeps on its back. Nothing else goes in the cot with them, no loose cloth over the face, and a muslin left loose in a cot is not the same thing as a muslin wrapped round a baby. Heat. A swaddle is a layer. In an Indian summer one thin layer is often the entire answer, and a hot baby is a risk in its own right. Check the back of the neck, not the hands, which are cold on a warm baby all the time. And the thing we are not going to tell you: this is not a sleep aid. Some babies settle swaddled and some hate it from the first night, and there is no way to know which you have until you try.

• 100 percent cotton double gauze, two fine layers tacked together, 125 GSM measured to ISO 3801, fibre confirmed by ISO 1833
• 110 cm x 110 cm, and the size is measured after the pre-wash, so it is the size you receive rather than the size before shrinkage
• Air permeability 1,050 litres per square metre per second at 100 Pa, ISO 9237, against roughly 150 for a woven cotton bedsheet. That number is what the word breathable is standing in for
• Pre-washed, so residual shrinkage is under 2 percent after three washes at 60 C, ISO 6330 measured to ISO 5077
• Saliva fastness DIN 53160-1 grade 5, because a swaddle ends up chewed. Washing ISO 105-C06 grade 4 to 5, rubbing ISO 105-X12 dry 4 to 5
• Formaldehyde below 16 mg per kg by ISO 14184-1, the infant level. Azo amines below 20 mg per kg by EN 14362-1. No optical brighteners, checked under UV
• Mitred corners and a double-turned hem all round, so an open weave does not unravel from the edge. Sewing thread is polyester, and it is declared
• Hips: snug at the chest, loose at the hips, legs free to bend up and out. Two fingers between cloth and chest
• Stop at the first attempt to roll, usually 8 to 12 weeks, not at the first successful roll
• Back to sleep, always. Nothing else in the cot, and never loose fabric over the face
• Heat: a swaddle is a layer. Check the back of the neck, not the hands
• Honest position: this is not a sleep aid and we will not sell it as one. Some babies settle swaddled and some refuse it, and nobody can tell you which in advance
• Honest trade-off: an open weave snags. By month six it will have a pulled thread or two, from a ring or a nail or a hook. The open weave is also why it breathes and why it softens with every wash. It is the same fact
• After swaddling it becomes a pram cover, a feeding cover, a burp cloth and a floor sheet, which is where most of its life is actually spent
• Rs 999 for two is Rs 499.50 each, Rs 1,399 for three is Rs 466.33 each. Machine wash up to 60 C, no conditioner, and it improves