Swaddling Help!

My son is 7 month old and is still not out of his swaddling. He is too big for the small blankets so we had to cut some sheets in half and then use them as his blanket. He is still being swaddled with his sheets. Hopefully he will grow out of it soon, but other mothers have told me that he will show signs when he is ready. Hope this helps.

I loved the swaddles that came with velcro...I got them at Goores in Roseville, Amazon and Babyrus..and got bigger sizes as my kids grew..although my son loved it more. My daughter like one arm out too. Hope this helps.

hi mom,
we used the miracle blanket (a nurse gave us one) and it kept our daughter swaddled until she was about 7 months old. she loved it.

www.miracleblanket.com

good luck

Our little boy loved swaddling, and we did it until he got out of it enough to have us worry about him getting wrapped up in it, maybe about 5.5 months. For now, try the Miracle Blanket. It's sort of expensive, but it's a great swaddling blanket.

try the miracle wrap.

I had problems with my 3 month old getting free and ending up with the blanket over his head. He's a wild sleeper. I also bought the miracle blanket and am so glad I did. I bought a used one on ebay for about $15. It's a well worth it pricey blanket.

Are you talking about when sleeping or all the time? Regarding sleeping she has probably outgrown needing to be swaddled since she is more mobile in general now. She wants more independence from the swaddle but has to learn how to adjust to it - you are seeing this as "miserable with mobility". She is simply learning what feels comfortable for her. Give her time. I agree with Christine H. - sleep sacks were the perfect fit/answer for our child too. If you are still swaddling in the day, you are doing a disservice to her. SHe is very capable of mobility and needs to learn/practice even more mobility. Talk to your doctor about what is developmentally appropriate for her age -she should be learning to lift her head 90 degrees, hold steady when upright, raise her chest when supported by arms, grasp a rattle put at her fingertips, reach for objects etc. Good luck!

I've had a similar problem, try a sleep positioned and lay baby in between the side rolls so her arms are held close to her. Look for an adjustable one so you can increase width as baby grows. I bought mine like this at target I believe. I swaddle my 4.5 month old with one or two arms out for naps only and use the positioned day and night.

Try the kidopotomus swaddle blanket. It's a blanket that has velcro strategically placed that enables a very secure swaddle. I also tried the miracle blanket, but I didn't like that one nearly as much. It's wonderful!!

Hi, I don't know if you use just a regular blanket to swaddle, but if you do...there is a great swaddling blanket you can get at Babies R Us in different sizes. It has velcro on it so it is more difficult for them to escape. Just a thought! I stopped swaddling my kids at around the age your baby is. So maybe this is a sign?!

Hi R.,
We had a lot of problems with our daughter (now 6 months) breaking out of her swaddle, as well. She LOVED it and it was the only thing that helped her sleep. We found "the miracle blanket" worked best to keep her swaddled but, as she grew she learned how to get out of it, as well. I was told as long as they haven't learned to roll over, you can keep swaddling them but some people even suggest swaddling them twice as its harder to get out of the 2 blankets. Once she could roll over, we had a lot more sleep interruptions throughout the night as she'd wake herself up flailing her arms or get frustrated with her position since she didn't have great control of rolling back and forth yet. I was also told that you should quit swaddling once they can roll so they don't get the blanket over their face on accident during the night. So yes we toughed it out until she got better at it. It took a couple months and some nights were better than others. She has just in the past couple of weeks been doing very well at night and I think its because she's developed to the point now where she has more control of her motions. We've just been putting her in her footed PJ with the Halo Sleepsack over her to help keep her warm at night.
Hope this helps! This was one of our biggest challenges, too but I do think it will get better.

We swaddled my now 3 year old son until almost 8 months. We used the Miracle blanket w/ just the arms part (he grew out of the feet part pretty quickly). Also, just heard of something new that we are going to try w/ our one that's due in 7 weeks called the Woombie (http://www.thewoombie.com/) that a friend of mine swears by for her 5 month old who is VERY active and can't sleep unless swaddled. Good luck and happy swaddling!

take care,
J.

Hi R.,

I am also the mom of a 4 1/2 month old baby girl. She started breaking out of the swaddle before she was two weeks old, and initially would startle herself because she was unfamiliar with the ability of her limbs to move so freely, but she quickly grew to love the freedom and after that I could never keep her in a swaddle. Have you tried sleep sacks? My daughter is almost through with those too because she is ready to start crawling around; but, that might give her the best of both worlds -- a little bit of mobility but not too much since the legs are in the sack.

We had the same problem with our son. We used the Kiddapotamous swaddles. I also heard from friends the Miracle Blanket is the best. Don't worry about people telling you she is too old to be swaddled. We swaddled our son until he was 6 to 7 months old. Our dr. said if it helps him sleep use it. Good luck!

Yes, I do believe your lil' one is trying to tell you something : ) She appears to be beyond the swaddling stage and well, it's time for her to explore her world. She will learn to adjust like all other things. You and her are just beginning!

Our son who is now 22 months is a bundle of joy! He liked swaddling for about the first 4 weeks, then I swaddled with his arms out, legs in. This appeared to work well. Then before long, no more swaddling. I know we were not swaddling at 4 months. He was sleeping independently in his crib by then.

And yes, patience and parenting go hand in hand. Safety comes first, but a child relies on us to provide the guidance in all the development and life experience ahead.

One last thing, redirection is also key. During this transition, she is just searching for another comfort tool. Our son found his thumb, he never liked pacifiers. Trial and error and well, just give her time and reassurance, she and you will be fine : )

Best wishes!

R.,

Get The Happiest Baby On The Block by Harvey Karp. He is a wonderful doctor with tons of wisdom from swaddling, colic, fussyness etc. I think you will like it and can learn new techniques to help the swaddling or do a partial swaddle.

Take care,

Molly

My son is 4 1/2 months old also and I cannot imagine attempting to swaddle him. He is almost crawling at this point...no disrespect intended, but maybe your daughter could use a bit more time to play and explore without being swaddled. Try it out bit by bit and see how it goes. Or maybe I should be swaddling my son to sleep!! Lol. I just would say that it might be time to learn to live without the swaddling. :) Good luck, and let us know how it goes!

When she's not sleeping you could lie her on her stomach. It will give her the feeling of security and control. Sometimes being on her back feels vulnerable.

Hi R.,
My son was the same...a very active sleeper, still is actually. When the swaddling technique had to stop, we transitioned to using the sleep sacks and had great luck with those. They come in different materials so you can potentially use them year-round. It was comforting to my son to still be wrapped up and it was comforting to us to know he couldn't get tangled up in a loose blanket. Good luck!

R.,
This is exactly what happened with my son. So, I hate to tell you this but it is probably time to stop swaddling. My son would get so frustrated when I tried to wrap him up like a little burrito that I ended up puting him in warm clothes instead and he was fine. At night or for naps, I just tucked a blanket around him and tucked it under.
Good luck.

I almost forgot about that! Yes, isn't it frustrating. My husband and I used to laugh as we would go in and find her hitting herself in the head and waking herself up. Sad but also funny. We kept trying to reswaddle her, swaddle tighter, tried the swaddle me wraps. . . she was just a little houdini. Finally we gave up and realized she really liked being able to suck her hand/thumb to go to sleep and we figured it was more important for her to learn to self-soothe. We still swaddled for a while, but gradually made it looser. And she did eventually learn to control her arms during sleep. It only took a couple weeks, so have patience she is probably very close to sleeping soundly . . . until she starts teething which is where we are now!!! :)

Hi Robin,

My son had to stay swaddled until he was 6 months old. I would periodically try putting him down unswaddled, but he would sleep horribly, so I would make him into a burrito dispite his resistence and he would fall asleep within minutes!! I think it is an individual thing, so whatever works better for her sleeping would be what I would do!!

Hope that helps,
K.