Stopping swaddling

[Anonymous]

Brian is almost 3 months old and we swaddle him anytime he sleeps in his crib and have since the beginning. But he is 95th percentile for height and is outgrowing the swaddle lengthwise. Just wondering for those of you who swaddled, how did you stop? Did you just go cold turkey and get rid of it or do it gradually starting with naps first, then night-time sleep? I’m also wondering if I should keep swaddling for longer and just do his arms and leave his legs out since they don’t really fit in the swaddle anymore. Just wondering what worked for others. I feel like we already have enough sleep issues I don’t want to add one more

[Anonymous]

I had one baby (Eliana) who would only sleep swaddled. It became a problem when she got old enough to break out of her swaddle and then could not get back to sleep. She was suffering from poorly treated reflux at the time which I did not know, so I may have done things differently had I known, but I decided to wean her from swaddling at some point. I started by swaddling just one arm (I had already stopped swaddling the legs because she was too big). She was a side sleeper so I’d put her to sleep on the the side that was not swaddled. Once she got used to that I started wrapping the other arm less tightly and let her get used to that for a while and then stopped swaddling altogether. It took a few weeks and then she was sleeping without swaddling which was a big relief to me.

[Anonymous]

Cooper constantly would break out of his swaddle, so I stopped cold turkey. It worked pretty well. He now sleeps in a sleep sack and that does limit his leg movement some but not a ton so that might be an option. He sleeps on his tummy now so he doesn’t have problems with startling from his arms anymore.

[Anonymous]

We stopped cold turkey too, and Caden didn’t seem to care…I’m sure every baby is different though. You could try without it during a nap and see how he does before you do it at night.

[Anonymous]

Ashlyn is 3mo also and sleeps swaddled. We have one of those swaddlers that has the velcro on it. (She could always get out of it when I used a regular blanket, so I cheated ) Anyway, when she got too big to be completely swaddled, I started wrapping it around her waist. She wanted her hands out, but could not have her feet free or she would wake herself up. Hope this helps!

[Anonymous]

My dd’s reflux made for some terrible sleeping and she also really needed to be swaddled! We swaddled for a really long time- 7 months if you can believe it- because we couldn’t get her weaned from it. We finally swaddled just one arm, then after a few weeks we unswaddled both arms and just the lower body. FINALLY we could nix it all together.

For us the gradual approach worked much better. We tried cold turkey and she wouldn’t sleep. So I would say if you’re willing to sacrifice some sleep, try cold turkey, and if it doesn’t work, don’t be dissapointed. I thought my kiddo would NEVER sleep unswaddled, but she did. 🙂

Also, since she was so old, when we were still swaddling at 6 months, none of the original itty-bitty blankets made for swaddling newborns worked anymore. We used some bigger blankets that my mom had made for me. When it was too hot (we live in Southern California), I used some pieces of sheet that I cut and hemmed to the right size.

Hope that helps. Happy swaddling!

[Anonymous]

Alana slept swaddled for months and months. I ended up using a cot sheet as a swaddle wrap and it worked fine.

[Anonymous]

I would try the gradual approach at naptime first and see where you go from there. The purpose of our swaddling (in my “Mommy PhD” opinion) is that Sarah would wake herself up frantically sucking on her fingers trying to get relief from the reflux (she was a comfort eater). We had to swaddle her tightly to prevent her arms from being able to move. Once her reflux was under control, we gradually removed it all together (during naps first) and then finally at bedtime. GOOD LUCK!

[Anonymous]

Hi, I am new to this forum and have a horrible refluxer (a 4 month old that spits up at least 60 times a day). The only way she sleeps is swaddled, but it is o.k. for her to have both arms out so it can be a loose swaddle. She is also in a positioner on her side (although she now rolls sometimes to her tummy) and has a blanket tucked in around her for security. I am concerned because now she moves so much if we continue this method she could suffocate. I feel, however, if we go back to what we used to do (sleeping her in a sleep sack with no blankets) there will be no sleep once again. Any comments or advice? I guess my issue is she still sleeps well with the swaddle, but I am concerned about suffocation because there are 2 blankets wrapped around her and a sleep positioner.

Thanks!
Carol and Julia (4 months)

[Anonymous]

If you want to continue with less worry, have you considered an Angel Care Monitor. Or one of my friends put bub in a sleeping sack adn then swaddled?

[hellbennt]

there are larger swaddle blankets made…

I’m of the opinion ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ LOL!

so if it were ME and baby did great while swaddled, then I’d figure out away to continue with it…that’s me though

[Author]

Posts