What Else Can You Use a Bamboo Muslin Swaddle For?
This is the best-value item we make, and I can say that without much risk because it's also the cheapest. A muslin square outlasts almost everything else in the drawer because it never had a single purpose to be outgrown.
Everything else it does
The swaddling window is short, from birth to when she first rolls, which is somewhere between two and four months. After that it does other jobs for years, and those jobs are the reason to own several.
- Over the shoulder at every feed, which is the job it does most and the reason to have one in every room.
- A changing mat on somebody else's floor, folded, and washable afterwards.
- At a push, a sheet for a travel cot or pram bassinet, tucked in firmly.
- A nursing cover, if you want one, because it's thin enough to see through and to breathe through.
- A comfort object once she's over a year, which is when a specific familiar cloth starts to matter to a child.
- A play mat on grass, a towel at the beach, a curtain over a hotel window, and a blanket over your own knees on an aircraft.
- Mopping up, of which there will be more than you expect.
What it isn't: shade over a pram. A muslin draped over a pram traps heat, and the inside gets much hotter than the air outside. It's a well-documented and dangerous mistake. Use a clip-on shade that lets air move through.
| Size | Best for | Lives in |
|---|---|---|
| 120 × 120cm | Swaddling, playmat, light blanket, nursing cover | The nursery drawer |
| 70 × 70cm | Burp cloth, face wipe, emergency bib | The nappy bag, permanently |
| Either | Pram liner, changing mat, comfort object | Wherever you left it |
Which size suits which job?
Two sizes cover everything. The large square, around 120cm, is the swaddling and blanket and pram-lining size. The small ones, around 70cm, are the over-the-shoulder, wipe-a-face, tuck-in-the-bag size. There may be a third size someone needs. I haven't found it.
Buy more small ones than large ones. The ratio most families settle on is roughly two large to six small, and almost nobody regrets the small ones.
The burp cloth years
Why does bamboo muslin outlast cotton for all this?
Most of the benefit comes from the weave, and the fibre adds to it.
Muslin is an open loose weave, so it breathes, which is the reason it's safe against a face in a way a dense fabric isn't. Bamboo viscose adds a smoother fibre and better moisture handling, and it softens with washing where cotton tends to stiffen. That counts for a lot on something that will go through the machine several hundred times.
Cotton muslin does the same jobs and does them well. The difference is softness and drying speed, and in this humidity drying speed is the one I'd weigh. Wash warm, skip fabric softener, and dry it properly.
Mentioned above
So how many do you need
Six small and two large will see most households through. Ten small and four large is comfortable and is the point at which laundry stops being a daily decision. Two safety notes, since these end up everywhere: nothing loose goes in the cot for the first year, and that includes a muslin, so if she's swaddled it's wrapped firmly to her, and once she can roll the swaddling stops entirely. And never over a pram, for the reason above. Beyond that, buy the cheap ones in quantity. This is one of the few things in the category where more of a modest product beats fewer of a good one.
Evidence
This guide is general information, written to help you understand a topic and ask better questions. It is not medical advice and does not replace your own doctor, midwife or paediatrician. Anything that worries you about your baby belongs with them.
Read next: What Is Swaddling? The Complete Guide · When Should You Stop Swaddling a Baby?
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