In defense of swaddling: about the development of a baby’s sense of touch. When do newborns stop being afraid of their hands? When does a child stop being afraid of their hands?

Having been born, a newborn baby finds itself from a familiar and comfortable intrauterine environment into a completely different world. In this new and unknown space, he knows nothing, and only instincts endowed by nature help him survive.

Growing up occurs in several stages, which are summarized by the acquisition of specific skills and abilities. Although, as you know, they are very conditional, since each child develops individually. Due to the fragile muscular system, the movements of the baby’s arms and legs are unconscious and chaotic.

Quite often, parents can observe how a child is frightened by sudden movements of his hands, this can cause him to wake up, cry, and sometimes flinch not only at night, but also during the day.

Why is a child afraid of his own hands?

Those moments when the baby spreads its arms to the sides, as if frightened by them, evoke mixed emotions in parents. Some people are touched by this behavior, but for others it simply scares them and is a reason to wonder if everything is okay with the baby.

In reality, the child simply does not yet understand that these are his hands when they flash in front of his face or touch his body. In the same way, he can be afraid of them during sleep.

These symptoms are quite common in infants before they reach 6 months of age.

Of all the natural reflexes, only sucking is fully formed at the moment of birth in a baby, therefore, apart from his mouth, he does not know other parts of the body and will become familiar with them gradually and step by step.

Is it dangerous for children?

As a legacy of intrauterine life, a newborn child, after birth, has sharp, chaotic and uncoordinated movements of his legs and arms, which he is afraid of and may even cry about this. In pediatrics, these movements are called “throwing.” However, differences between these movements and intrauterine movements still exist. So, inside the mother’s belly, the baby touched the walls of the uterus with every movement of his arms or legs. Here, in a new environment for him, with such movements, they find absolutely no support, which is very frightening and alarming. However, as soon as the baby snuggles up to the warm body of his mother, he immediately calms down for an hour.

In addition, too free movements of the handles can be fraught with various types of injuries. So, for example, a child can hit himself with a pen on other parts of the body or scratch delicate skin with his nails (about caring for a baby’s nails).

What can you do to prevent your child from being afraid of his hands?

To prevent the child from injuring himself by throwing himself up, parents need to ensure that the nails are always trimmed to the required length, and their edges are carefully filed. Today, special anti-scratch covers are also sold that cover the baby’s arms along with his fingers. You can purchase them either separately or as a set with other children's clothing.

For nine months, the baby remains in a state of weightlessness in the mother’s womb. Having been born, he does not yet know anything about his body. Frail muscles are in a kind of tone and cannot yet serve the baby fully. In the first months after birth, the baby's movements are unconscious and chaotic. The limbs seem to not belong to him, so parents during this period may notice that the newborn is afraid of his hands. Sudden touches of hands to the body, scratching frighten the child. He shudders, wakes up and cries.

Why is a baby afraid of his hands?

At first, babies recognize only the mouth as part of their body, since it exists in the intrauterine state and is already fully formed by the birth of the child. Mastery of other parts of the body occurs gradually.

After birth, children's hands are clenched into fists almost all the time and relax only in sleep. And although there is an unconditioned grasping reflex, the child does not control his hands until about 2-3 months. Until this age, the baby’s grasping movements are reflexive; the child grabs what touches the palm or is close to it (Robinson reflex). This explains the presence of uncoordinated actions by the baby: pinching, grabbing, scratching, which frighten the child so much.

How can I help the baby?

During the day, when the child is awake, he is not often afraid of hands; this happens because the baby accidentally scratches himself and then cries in pain. Therefore, it is necessary to ensure that your nails are in place and wear anti-scratch guards. It is more convenient when they are attached to the sleeves. Many kids remove individual anti-scratches.

During sleep, sudden hand waving and grabbing really frighten the baby. In order for him not to be afraid of his hands, the newborn is swaddled.

Modern pediatricians recommend “loose” swaddling, which preserves the natural position of the limbs and the possibility of movement.

“Tight” swaddling, which was used in the past, can inhibit the development of the baby’s motor, tactile and other skills.

“Free” swaddling helps the newborn become more familiar with his or her own hands. Therefore, swaddling with arms should not last longer than the first month, and then, for up to three months, swaddling only the legs. After 3 months, there is no longer any point in swaddling, since from this age the unconditioned grasping reflex begins to fade and the formation of voluntary grasping begins.

IN Lately It is generally accepted that most pediatricians and child psychologists advise not to swaddle a child, so as not to inhibit the development of his sense of touch. But, most likely, the opinion of psychologists in this case is interpreted incorrectly. Most specialists in our time are also not inclined to see “violence” and “coercion” in swaddling. Let's try to turn to the cultural experience of different peoples and imagine what a newborn feels?

Skin sensitivity occurs in a child as early as the third month of intrauterine development. The baby swims freely in the amniotic fluid and develops the sense of touch by bumping into the walls of the uterus. And by the fourth month, with the appearance of coordinated movements, he begins to suck his finger or fist. From the 32nd week of intrauterine development, the uterus surrounding the baby is constantly in contact with in different parts his body. Periodic contractions of the walls of the uterus create a feeling of a tight embrace, and this remains in the baby’s memory an important part of a happy life in the stomach. In the last weeks before birth, the child, as a rule, is already limited in the shoulder joints - the arms are tightly pressed to the body due to tightness. The child also gets used to this situation. At this time, he feels mainly his own body, receiving tactile information from the entire surface of the skin that the uterus embraces.

"After birth, the child finds himself in an unusually huge free space. However, he still retains his intrauterine “habits”. One of them is sudden, uncoordinated movements of the arms and legs, the so-called “throwing up”.

If you observe a newborn, you will notice that he experiences panic with any movement of his limbs and calms down if he is pressed against the warm body of an adult or at least holding his dangling arms or legs. During the “throwing up”, the child gets scared because his arms and legs, accustomed to resting on the walls of the uterus, do not find any support.
If the baby's limbs are left free and their movements are not limited by a tight diaper, then he will “throw up”, experiencing fright. This is a very strong reaction that drowns out all others. Including the development of the sense of touch is disrupted! And for it to develop successfully, it is necessary that the child’s hands and feet constantly bump into different surfaces. Stimuli are absolutely everything that a baby can touch: a diaper, clothes, an adult’s body, his own body, etc. The more diverse the stimuli and the more often they affect the baby, the more active the development of his sense of touch.

What is useful for developing the sense of touch?

Carrying on hands. When a mother carries her baby in her arms or sleeps with him, she does not allow him to “throw himself up” and creates the familiar sensation of hugging. Next to her, the child sleeps peacefully without a diaper. The mother's body generates enough heat that the baby's arms and legs can be left bare. This way he will come into contact with various surfaces, perceive information, and comfortable conditions will help him calmly assimilate it. It is still customary among many primitive peoples to carry a child in their arms 24 hours a day. For this purpose, they create various devices: holders, slings. At the same time, there are no separate cradles and hammocks for babies.
Free swaddling. When a child is forced to be without his mother, for example, during sleep, the best way to develop his sense of touch is a regular diaper. As soon as the newborn is swaddled, giving him the intrauterine position, he immediately calms down. But it is important to swaddle the baby so that he can move his arms and legs.
It is useful for a child to push his arms and legs not only against the diaper, but also against his own body. Therefore, it is better to leave as little clothing as possible under the diaper. The diaper itself, hugging the baby, stimulates the sense of touch of all the skin that comes into contact with it. Its main purpose is to create the illusion of support, but to limit movements only in the shoulder joints, as in the uterus. A loosely swaddled baby can pull his arms up to his face, find his mouth, suck a finger or fist, and dangle his legs. By 10-30 days, the child gets used to his hands and controls them more confidently. From now on, babies stop waking themselves up with sudden movements. Children who continue to experience “throwing up” up to 3-6 months need longer swaddling.

The diaper was invented by those peoples whose cool climate did not allow them to carry a child on themselves during daily work. In their cultures, there are always separate places for children: shambles, cradles. They follow the shape of a diaper and can usually be rocked. Then it seems to the baby that he is still in the arms of an adult.

“A swaddled child often protests when, instead of a comfortable, cozy rocking “nest,” he is placed on a hard, huge bed. Parents often consider this a protest against the swaddle.

In addition, having noticed that the child has pulled his hand out of the diaper and is sucking his finger, the modern mother often swaddles him more tightly. Meanwhile, in this case, the child, if he is already more than seven days old, should be allowed to enjoy the benefits of free swaddling.

What is not useful for the development of touch?

Vest with sewn-in handles. A child wearing such clothes receives only one stimulus from the world: the feeling of a vest. If the baby is in the mother's arms, he will not scratch his face even without special protection. Without his mother, any erratic movement of his arms will frighten him, so it’s better to just swaddle them. When a baby stops being afraid of his hands, he stops scratching. Therefore, the need for such vests is greatly exaggerated.
Tight swaddling. In the villages, tightly coiling a baby was used to nurse weakened premature babies. Today, only a few specialists master the technique of tight plying. But most often, “tight” simply means tighter swaddling with straightening the baby’s arms and legs. This is exactly how children were swaddled in Russian maternity hospitals and nurseries 20-30 years ago. Such swaddling protects against “throwing up”, but, of course, does not in any way stimulate the development of the sense of touch. The number of sensory stimuli and responses is minimal. Moreover, thoughtless use of tight swaddling slows down the development of basic hand movements, and the child gets used to his hands only by 6 months and can even wake himself up with sudden movements even at 7-8 months.
Complete absence of swaddling. If the newborn is without a mother and without a diaper, then the number of sensory stimuli again decreases. The child flounders helplessly in a huge space, experiencing horror. Children who are kept without a diaper at all and left to lie for a long time, waving their arms and legs, subsequently adapt much more slowly to their hands than those who were introduced to them gradually. A baby dressed in a suit or overalls cannot touch his body with his palms - a warm, familiar and most developmental stimulus.
Putting your pants on too early. You need to stop swaddling when the baby stops “throwing up” in his sleep. For a child, the skin of the feet is the same source of information as the skin of the hands. Therefore, a baby who has “grown out” of diapers should not be immediately dressed in rompers. Suitable clothing at this age is a shirt and nothing else, or, as a last resort, a diaper. For children whose mothers carry them a lot, such clothing is simple and natural, because this way the child does not overheat and is easy to change. If parents give up swaddling too early, they have to dress the freezing child warmly, and often by the age of three months he finds himself dressed much warmer at home than his previously swaddled peer.

Of course, a baby looks cuter in socks and a bodysuit than in diapers. However, one should not discount either folk experience or modern research into the physiological characteristics and psychological needs of a child.

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At first, babies recognize only the mouth as part of their body, since the sucking reflex is present in the intrauterine state and is already fully formed by the time the child is born. Mastery of other parts of the body occurs gradually.

How can I help the baby?

During the day, when the child is awake, he is not often afraid of hands; this happens because the baby accidentally scratches himself and then cries in pain. Therefore, it is necessary to ensure that your nails are cut short and wear anti-scratch guards. It is more convenient when they are attached to the sleeves. Many kids remove individual anti-scratches.

During sleep, sudden hand waving and grabbing really frighten the baby. In order for him not to be afraid of his hands, the newborn is swaddled.

Modern pediatricians recommend “loose” swaddling, which preserves the natural position of the limbs and the possibility of movement.

“Tight” swaddling, which was used in the past, can inhibit the development of the baby’s motor, tactile and other skills.

You can often read in advice for young parents that swaddling a child inhibits the development of his sense of touch. Moreover, they assure that this is the opinion of pediatricians and child psychologists, and it is psychologists who advise not to swaddle a child. It is very doubtful for us, as care professionals, that a competent psychologist does not know the physiology and developmental psychology of a child and could be so mistaken. Most likely, these are incorrectly interpreted recommendations from a psychologist. The constant description of swaddling as a procedure of violence against a person, a kind of “tying up” of a child who so wants to move, is also surprising! It seems that the child is already running, and everyone is swaddling him and swaddling him... Such an illogical picture can only be drawn by people who have absolutely no idea what a newborn looks like, how he behaves and why he needs a diaper, as well as when and in which nations it is used was applied.

At another 3 months of intrauterine development, the child develops a sense of touch, that is, skin sensitivity. By the fourth month, coordinated movements appear, and the baby can find his mouth by touch and begins to suck his finger or fist. While the baby’s weight is not very large, he floats freely in the amniotic fluid and sometimes pushes his arms or legs against the walls of the uterus, thus stimulating his skin sensitivity and developing his sense of touch. By the 32nd week of intrauterine development, the child can no longer move freely; the uterus surrounding him is constantly in contact with many parts of the body, as if hugging him. Periodic contractions of the walls of the uterus (the so-called Braxton-Higgs contractions) give him the experience of stronger bodily impressions, tight embraces, which become an integral part of the memories of intrauterine comfort. In the last weeks of intrauterine development, the child’s arms most often stop bending and unbending at the shoulder joint due to lack of free space - they are tightly pressed to the body and this condition becomes another intrauterine habit. The baby's palms have the opportunity to come into contact only with his own body and mouth, so the baby receives basic tactile information from the entire surface of the skin, which the uterus hugs and stimulates.

After birth, the child finds himself in a huge free space for him, which is many times larger than what he is used to. While he has no other experience, he retains his intrauterine habits and is guided by them. A specific feature of newborns is sudden, uncoordinated motor acts with the arms and legs, which are a legacy of intrauterine life. These specific movements are called “throwing.” During the “throwing up”, the child experiences a feeling of panic and horror if his arms and legs, accustomed to resting on the walls of the uterus, dangle in the air and do not find any support. This is very clearly visible if you observe a newborn. He becomes very frightened at any movement of his arms and legs and calms down if he is pressed against the warm body of an adult or at least holding the dangling arms or legs with his hand.

After birth, the development of the newborn's sense of touch occurs due to the accumulation and differentiation of information that he receives from the outside. Just as in the womb, the baby is stimulated by touching the entire surface of his body and, especially, his arms and legs. Stimuli for the development of a child’s sense of touch are absolutely everything that he can touch: a diaper, clothes, an adult’s body, his own body, etc. The more diverse the stimuli and the more often they affect the baby, the more actively his sense of touch develops. If the baby's limbs are left free and their movements are not limited by the close embrace of the mother or the diaper, then he will “throw up”, experiencing fright. Severe fear and subsequent panic are a strong reaction that drowns out all others. Therefore, in the presence of unrestricted freedom and frequent “throwing up”, the development of the sense of touch slows down significantly.

Thus, in order for a child to successfully develop a sense of touch, it is necessary that the child’s arms and legs constantly bump into different surfaces that are close to his body, before he has time to “jump up” and get scared.

Which of the modern methods of keeping and handling a baby contributes to this:

Carrying on hands

When a mother carries her baby in her arms or sleeps with him, she creates familiar bodily sensations with her hugs. Next to the mother and in her arms, the child sleeps calmly without a diaper, because by hugging the child, she prevents “throwing up.” Warmed by the warmth of the mother, the child does not need much clothing and can be with bare arms and legs. This allows you to receive maximum information in a comfortable situation by touching various surfaces.

This is exactly how many primitive peoples treat babies, who still have preserved various devices for constantly carrying a child on themselves (various holders, slings, etc.). However, it should be taken into account that these peoples usually do not have any devices at all where the child would be placed separately from the mother (such as cradles, hammocks, etc.), so the child is in their arms 24 hours a day, which modern parents are unlikely to be able to do.

Free swaddling

If a child is forced to be without his mother for some time, especially during sleep, then in the best possible way A regular diaper can protect him from “throwing up” and stimulate the development of his sense of touch. As soon as the newborn is swaddled, giving him the intrauterine position, he immediately calms down. In this case, we are not talking about tight, but about loose swaddling, allowing the child to move his arms and legs.

The less clothing there is under the diaper, the better the sense of touch develops, because the child pushes his arms and legs not only against the diaper, but also against his own body. In addition, the diaper hugs the baby and stimulates the sense of touch of all the skin that comes into contact with it. The number of sensory stimuli in the diaper is no less than in the mother’s arms, because the diaper heats up differently in different places, is stretched in some places, gives way in others, etc. its main purpose is to create the illusion of support, but not to hamper natural movements, limiting them only in the area of the shoulder joints (as was the case in the uterus). A loosely swaddled child has the opportunity to pull his arms to his face, find his mouth, as he did in utero, suck a finger or fist, dangle his legs, etc. Gradually, the child gets used to his hands and coordinates their movements more confidently. This happens around 10-30 days, and from this time babies stop waking themselves up with sudden movements. However, some children retain “throwing up” until 3-6 months of age and need longer swaddling.

At one time, the diaper was invented and used by peoples living in areas with temperate and colder climates, where temperature conditions and the abundance of clothing did not allow carrying a child constantly during normal daily work. Along with the presence of a diaper, such peoples necessarily had some special places where they put the swaddled child (such as a cradle, cradle, hammock, etc.), repeating the shape of the diaper, which, as a rule, could still be rocked to create a complete illusion the fact that the child continues to be in the arms of an adult.

Modern parents, who often do not know how to swaddle freely, or consider swaddling “under the arms” to be free, do not see the advantages of swaddling at all, because they do not know how to use it. Clumsily, with difficulty, swaddling her “resisting” child, a minute later the mother sees that it has pulled its hand out of the diaper and is sucking its finger. Instead of leaving things as is and allowing the baby to enjoy the benefits of loose swaddling, she insists on swaddling him, making sure he can't pull his arms out. And she, poor thing, has no idea that this is what a child should do if he is already more than 7 days old. And of course, if a swaddled child is placed on a hard, huge bed instead of a comfortable, cozy rocking “nest,” he will protest. And parents transfer the child’s completely fair protest to their failures in swaddling and perceive it as a protest against the diaper. So who is uncomfortable with a diaper, the child or his clueless parents?

What will not contribute to the development of the sense of touch?

Vest with sewn-in handles

Of the many tactile stimuli, such a vest provides only one - the sensation of a vest - the same rag is everywhere, and its shape does not change, it does not disappear anywhere as the movements increase and decrease - that is, there is no variety!

Such vests were invented supposedly to prevent the baby from scratching his face when moving his arms erratically. However, if the baby is in the mother’s arms, then he will not scratch himself, even if he is completely without a vest. If the baby is lying without his mother, then any erratic movement of the arms will frighten him, and he will not lie like this for long, the movements of the arms will wake up the baby and his sleep will be restless. Therefore, in this case it is better to swaddle your hands - then he will definitely not scratch himself. When the baby stops being afraid of his hands, he stops scratching... Therefore, the need to use such vests is greatly exaggerated, and it can only be justified in the children's ward of a medical institution.

Tight swaddling
Nowadays, even in families that follow traditions, among city residents you are unlikely to meet a woman who knows how to tightly swaddle a child using a swaddle. In the village, tightly coiling a child was used to nurse weakened premature babies injured during childbirth, that is, as a kind of therapeutic procedure. Only a specialist who knows this method, is able to assess the appropriateness and timeliness of such a measure, and is able to teach this to parents can correctly use tight twisting in modern urban conditions. But in the process of forgetting the meaning of tightly wrapping a child, one got the impression that all the children in the village were swaddled barbarously tightly. Nowadays, “tight” is most often understood as simply a tighter swaddling with straightening the baby’s arms and legs. This is exactly how children were swaddled in Russian maternity hospitals and nurseries 20-30 years ago. Of course, such swaddling promotes calmer behavior during “throwing up”, but it also provokes more violent reactions in the waking child. Of course, such treatment does not in any way stimulate the development of the sense of touch. The number of sensory stimuli here is minimal, the responses to them are even smaller, and the advice of “literate” grandmothers “to keep your legs straight” or “to sleep more peacefully” cannot serve as an excuse for such violence. Moreover, thoughtless use of tight swaddling slows down the development of basic hand movements; the child gets used to his hands only by 6 months and can even wake himself up with sudden movements even at 7-8 months.

Complete absence of swaddling

If a newborn baby is without a mother and without a diaper, then the number of sensory stimuli again decreases. The child flounders helplessly in a huge space for him, experiencing panic and horror, and even touching his body, does not have time to react adequately, because as we remember, a state of panic is the most powerful reaction, drowning out all others. Since there are no reactions to sensory stimuli, information does not accumulate, the development of the sense of touch is inhibited! It has been noticed that children who are kept without a diaper at all and left to lie for a long time, waving their arms and legs, subsequently adapt to their hands much more slowly than those who were gradually introduced to their hands. The child becomes more restless, it is more difficult for him to fall asleep, and when he falls asleep he easily wakes himself up with his hands.

Due to the imperfection of the baby’s thermoregulation, leaving him lying without diapers, parents are forced to dress him in various suits and pants, which again impoverishes the child’s sense of touch, because only his palms remain free, and the warm body is the most familiar and developing stimulus. They practically cannot touch - everything is hidden in numerous clothes.

Thus, for the best development of a newborn’s sense of touch, it would be reasonable to combine two mutually complementary techniques - all the time that the child is in the arms of his mother or another adult, he can be minimally dressed, because he is warmed by the warmth of the human body and receives maximum sensory stimuli; and when the child is laid aside, he should be loosely swaddled, and able to receive the same stimuli under the protection of the swaddling cloth.

The age at which each child stops swaddling is different; some safely say goodbye to the diaper at 3 weeks, others at 6 months. The criterion for the duration of swaddling may be the presence or absence of “throwing up”. If the child throws himself up, he still needs a diaper while he sleeps; he sleeps peacefully - there is no need.

A child who has left the diaper on time usually already has the confidence and coordination of movements that allows him to react differently to different sensory stimuli. Moreover, the skin of his feet is the same source of information for him as the skin of his hands. The main condition for the continued development of the sense of touch at this stage is the absence of clothing on the legs, in other words, the absence of pants and rompers. A child's feet should receive information about their surroundings, just like their hands. However, for normal development it is important to receive this information over the entire surface of the skin, and not limited to a small area of the sole. The child retains the ability to receive information through his entire skin for a long time, therefore, the more surface of the skin we cover, the more impoverished his ability to perceive numerous sensory stimuli.

Suitable clothing for a baby of this age is a blouse, a shirt and nothing more. For those mothers who don’t know any other way and take care of their furniture or carpeting, they also need a diaper. For children whose mothers carry them a lot, such clothing is simple and natural, because this way the child does not overheat and is easy to change. Children are left to their own devices for very short periods of time, during which they do not have time to freeze even in winter, and after that they easily restore their warmth by clinging to the body of an adult. But mothers, who are accustomed to regularly and for a long time putting their awake children aside, almost come to the need to put pants on them - so, they say, it’s warmer and more aesthetically pleasing, and even socks on each foot, otherwise they’ll get cold!

If parents give up swaddling too early, they quickly begin to abuse rompers and socks, because the child is still too small to be completely naked all the time, he gets cold. Subsequently, parents become so accustomed to making sure “the legs are warm” that a child who was not swaddled, as a rule, at the age of 3 months, finds himself dressed much warmer at home while he is awake than his previously swaddled peer. By reducing the number of external stimuli, preventing the formation of appropriate reactions, preventing the accumulation of information useful and necessary for his development, parents are often sincerely confident that they are obeying the child’s wishes and are not violating his freedom in any way!

A paradoxical picture emerges. A great idea - let's raise a child without violence and give him maximum incentives for development. However, when implementing this idea, adults directly transfer their own feelings and experiences onto the child’s inner world, without taking into account either his physiological characteristics or his psychological needs. They consider a diaper to be violence, and pants, socks, diapers and a little helpless person lying alone on a huge bed as a manifestation of personal freedom. Just whose freedom are they fighting for here? Parents, under the guise of caring for the child, strive to quickly get rid of unaesthetic diapers and quickly put fashionable pants and suits on him. Maybe we won’t be so quick to discount either folk experience or modern research and take care of the child’s real needs.

Psychologist-perinatologist, i.e. child development consultant
Mayorskaya Maria Borisovna