chin burrito?

[spochins]

I need help making a chin burrito. Every time I try to wrap my squirmy chin in a towel with only her head showing, she manages to work first one front leg out and then another. Is their a trick? Does it require 2 people? Am I totally inept or is it a matter of practice?

 

[Essentia]

It's just a matter of practice. When I was handfeeding my chin he often managed to get out of the burrito. After a few days he got used to it enough that I could feed him without being burritoed. Some chins are just more squirmy than others.

 

[Carol~Anne]

The best way that I found to burrito a chin was using one of those thin fleece baby blankets. They've got some good stretch to them, they're light and big enough that you can completely wrap a chin up from neck to wiggly hind legs.

When I was force feeding Critical Care to one of my chins, I'd throw a sheet over my couch, have a little cat carrier sitting on the couch and all the necessary equipment I needed right there on the coffee table on a towel.

I'd take the chin out of the carrier, pick it up with one hand and then drape the fleece blanket over its back, bring one side of the blanket around the chin and then wrap the other side around. By doing this you have contained the front feet. Then just do the same thing with the back feet and keep wrapping, just like you would when swaddling a newborn human baby. There should be no movement at all on any of the legs otherwise if they can move they will wiggle. I found that I had to adjust the blanket often b/c those little front feet can really squirm out of the blanket b/c they're so short.

I'd also flip the swaddled chin on its back and put it on my lap and put my hand over the front feet to help keep them contained in the blanket. I also gave the chin plenty of breaks by unwrapping them and putting them back into the carrier and then bring them out again for another go. It does take some practice but it does get easier and I found that not trying to keep them contained for a really long time and giving them breaks worked for me. I did try at first with a towel but the towel was too thick, heavy and didn't wrap as nicely as the stretchy fleece baby blanket.

 

[spochins]

Thanks for the helpful advice! Last night I made the best burrito to date. I used a very thin towel instead of a big fluffy one. (I would of used fleece as you suggested but I didn't have any on hand.) I swaddled Izzie by wrapping her in multiple layes of the towel. If her front feet managed to wiggle out the first wrap, the second layer of towel kept them in.She kind of looked like a catapillar emeging from its cacoon but it worked. I REALLY appreciate your detailed instructions!

 

[Carol~Anne]

I'm so glad that you were able to get her contained so you could do what it was that she needed done. I've got a stack of those baby fleece blankets and a lot of them I got from Dollarama for $1 and the rest I picked up off clearance in the baby department at different stores. I went through a lot of them while force feeding b/c that was a very messy affair, especially at the beginning when I was learning how.