When babies are born they get totally accustomed to being in a place where they barely have space, the womb of their mothers, to suddenly have all the space in the world and limbs that do not control. This makes that sometimes, when they move themselves, they get scared and cry, as if they had the feeling that they are going to fall, for the simple fact of being able to turn without controlling it.
To avoid it, and to restore the feeling they had in the uterus, for a few years it has been recommended wrap babies with a blanket or shawl, so that you hold your limbs and sleep better. And it works, because for them it is like "coming home", to the place where they have spent more time and where they felt safer.
However, Australian doctors have given notice that hip dysplasias are increasing and with a study published in the magazine Medical Journal of Australia have decided to explain that wrapping the baby to sleep better can make them need braces and even hip surgery to solve dysplasia.
The importance of early detection of dysplasia
Hip dysplasia is a condition for which the head of the femur does not fit as it should in the hollow of the pelvis. This causes, if not solved, that at the time of crawling or walking the child has serious problems, and that is why it is always corrected before both through orthopedics and through surgery.
In the usual pediatrician examinations, some maneuvers called Ortolani and Barlow, with which it is detected whether or not there could be dysplasia. In addition, the pleats of the ass and legs are observed, to see if they are symmetrical, since an asymmetry could be a sign of dysplasia in one of the two extremities.
But these screenings are usually done to detect congenital dysplasia, the one with which the baby is born, and is not expected to happen later, when the reviews are more spaced. This means that if it is detected after three months, the treatment becomes more severe every time, to the point of needing surgery on some occasions. And how can it be that a baby does not have dysplasia at birth but later? Well provoking it, parents, with measures such as wrap the baby to sleep better wrongly.
Increase in cases in children of walking age
The fault is not all about wrapping babies, they say in the study, because there are other causes that also cause it (lack of training of people who must diagnose it, parents who do not take children to check-ups, use of baby carriers that leave the legs in extension, clothes that affect the mobility of the legs, etc.), but it is a cause of it and therefore the warning.
And they have seen cases of dysplasia in children of walking age they have multiplied by ten, and in those ages, over the year, the correction is much more difficult and the surgery more complex, with a worse prognosis and with greater complications.
And what is the problem of wrapping the baby?
Wrapping the baby has been proven Protector of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and a great help for babies, because it makes them feel calmer and rest better. However, if it is done badly, if instead of wrapping it you immobilize it and hold your legs in extension, the baby loses the freedom to put them in their natural position, which is in flexion, as a frog would put them, and the risk of the femur leaving the site is much greater.
What they have seen in Australia they saw a few years ago in Britain, and thanks to that study began to promote a way to wrap babies that were respectful of their hips, with the natural position they should adopt, and that in consequence was not dangerous.
This way of wrapping them consists in holding their arms, which is really what they extend the most when they have the sensation of falling (they reflect Moro), but leave your legs very free.
They can also be wrapped, but not limiting the movement, but allowing them to have them in the form of a frog and thus avoiding the commented dysplasia. In Babies and more We talk about it and as a picture is worth a thousand words, we leave you with a video which explains how to do this technique, which today we share again so you know how to avoid the problems we have commented:
