When & How to Stop Swaddling

I have read some of the responses below and noticed some people say to loosen the blanket. I would highly recommend against that! I woke up one night after swaddling my daughter loosely and she had squirmed so much that it was around her head! It was a light blanket, but still it worries me! I hardly swaddle her anymore after that scare! Good luck!

I have a ten week old and I have already stopped swaddling. I have two rolled blankets on either side of his legs and I also tightly wrap a blanket over his legs and then under the mattress pad in the bassinet so that he is unable to pull it up around his face. This way he is still covered but his legs are free to move and aren't tightly wrapped in a swaddle.

My younges was almost 5 months old when he would sleep with out the swaddler. He had reflux and the only way I could get him to sleep was to swaddle him and put him in the aquarium table swing, he slept that way for almost 5 months but when he was finally able to roll over onto his tummy and back by him self he would sleep in his crib on his tummy with his but in the air... Good luck, AJ

Everything I read about swaddling suggested you do it until your baby no longer likes it. I'm not sure when I stopped, but it was very apparent when my son no longer need it. I even graduated to the larger size of the miracle blankets. Do it until she's ready...you'll know. :-)

My daughter is 4 months old and she still has to be swaddled to. She won't sleep without it either. We tried the SwaddleMe's but she would break out and all the bulky velcro would bunch up under her neck. I had to go get a yard of cotton fabric (so it wasn't to thick) and just continue doing it the way we were used to but we twist the bottom so if she breaks out of it the material doesn't go everywhere. She now brings her arms out and can sleep that way, but she has to do it herself. Best of luck to you, I really hope you find a method that works for you and your daughter!!!

I agree with the other posts - your daughter will stop swaddling when she wants to. My daughter is almost 4 months old and I still swaddle her with a blanket. She has been able to get one or both arms out a few times, and has slept well that way as well. I am not rushing to stop swaddling her because I don't think that it is a problem.

I swaddle my son every night. He is only 10 weeks old, but I have friends who swaddled there babies until the babies were 5-6 months and decided it was not for them anymore. In my opinion, you should let your baby girl decided what is best for her. Plus, there are so many benefits to swaddling. Good Luck!

I swaddled my dd until about 6 mos. You can let one arm loose & swaddle her to see if she will sleep. If that works for a couple of naps, then she is getting used to not being swaddled.

We had to swaddle my son to get him to sleep at all, but once he got too big for the swaddle, it was a problem b/c everytime he would 'unleash' his arms it would wake him up and we would have to reswaddle him. This is gonna sound crazy but a friend told me the perfect solution!
For about 3 nights we put him in footed jammies and tied the arms of his sleeper into knots at the sleeve. We put his arms inside the jammies up next to him so he felt like he was swaddled but just a bit looser. He loved this. By the end of three days we let the knots out and he slept fine! I know it sounds a bit weird but it was the only thing that worked for us!

I swaddled my baby until she was 5 months old. She was the one that broke herself of it. I was too terrified of SIDS to stop swaddling, so I kept her bundled in blankets so that she couldn't move. She loved it, but then she started getting irritated with it somewhere around 5 months. She would scream and fuss more than sleep, so one day I just put her in her crib without them, and she was fine. I hope this helps.

Being both a registered "Happiest Baby" educator and very familiar with the owners and concepts of the Miracle Blanket, I can tell you that while they say 14 weeks to stay on the safe side for everyone, it is not uncommon to swaddle as Dr Karp suggests up to 8 or 9 months. The key factor I have found is when they can roll over onto thier stomach even while they are swaddled. To transition a baby when rolling over begin by leaving one arm out, then the other, then finally no swaddle. That is the perfect time to try the Halo sleep blankets that zip. I do like the Miracle Blanket best because of the feature that goes around the arms and under the body. It prevents the blanket from sliding up and around the face as babies scoot backwards. It also allows for the ability to leave the feet out and prevent overheating without compromising the gentle tummy pressure they are looking for. I have the miracle blankets, swaddle by design and a wonderful muslin 45x45 blanket that is light weight and large enough for long term swaddling if you prefer a blanket. Of course I also have the Miracle blankets here.
I hope this is helpful.
K. @ The Nestingplace
www.thenestingplace.biz

I started by taking out one arm and then progressed to both arms being out. At her four month check up, my daughter's pediatrician said most kids around 4 months start sleeping unswaddled. After that appointment, we just cut her off cold turkey! It was a really easy transition, probably more for her than me!

I asked my pediatrician the same thing and she said to swaddle my son as long as he would let me do it. They make SwaddleMe's (from Kiddopotamus) for babies all the way up to 22 lbs. If you want to get out of swaddling but your little one still needs the comfort of something wrapped around her, try a sleep sack. But I definitely agree that you should not loosen the blanket for fear of baby getting wrapped up in it. Best of luck!

we just stopped swaddling our 4 month old son about 3 weeks ago. we used the kiddopatamus ones and he slept SOOO well with them! he gradually started to "escape" from them as he got bigger. when he was 3-1/2 months old i started to leave one arm out when i swaddled him. i progressed to leaving both arms out and just fastened the swaddle blankie around his torso. this was a really nice, gradual transition that worked well for us. with our older son we went cold turkey and it was awful for about 1 week. good luck!

My children both stopped accepting swaddling around 6-7 months which was good because I was starting to think I would have to custom make blankets that were big enough. It was no big deal with either one. We always swaddled with blankets so it maybe different with the swaddling wraps. Basically, they get strong enough to get out if they want to anyway and around 7 months of age, it just started to make them mad rather than comforted. After I stopped swaddling, I would sometimes wrap their legs in the blanket just because I figured they associated the blanket with sleeping.

Your daughter is still very young. I recommend just letting her outgrow it on her own.

S.

wait until your daughter is ready. no need to rush getting out of swaddling...

J.,
I asked this very same question on this website about 2 months ago for my twins. They are now 6 months old. I didn't have a miracle blanket, but would just wrap them up in blankets tightly. They would always break their feet out and I thought they were waking themselves up from their naps because they were moving around too much. What I eventually started doing was unwrapping their hands and just swaddling them from the waist down. They seemed to like sucking on their fingers and hands (they still do!). I just kept on trying to put them down for naps without their swaddles and eventually, it worked! Just keep on trying. I wouldn't say that your baby is at risk for SIDS unless he/she is rolling over already, but I'm not a doctor. I didn't stop swaddling my twins until they were over 4 months old - they just needed that security until then. Some babies don't need it that long and others do. Just try putting her down from time to time without it and one day, she'll fall right to sleep and the swaddle will be a thing of the past.

Good luck!

My son was like that. He would only sleep when swaddled. The hospital where I had my son also taught my husband how to swaddle. We were also concerned about how long to keep him swaddled and our doctor said that he would eventually grow out of it. He was right. Our son kind-of weaned him self out of it...1st one arm, then another. The doctor also said that as long as our baby could turn his head and the blanket we used was light wieght then it wasn't a safety concern. hope this helps.

I swaddled my little one as long as possible, but he was one heck of an escape artist. I would have swaddled him for months if he would have let me. He still snuggles like he is swaddled and likes to cuddle with his blanket. He is almost a year old. I didn't even realize there was a point to which parents were supposed to stop swaddling. I figured that when he broke out of it every time, it was time to stop trying! My advice may be wrong, but I would do it until she breaks out of it every time. Eventually, she will find a position that is just as comforting.

I say keep swaddling her as long as you want. I have heard of babies sleeping swaddled until they're 8 or 9 months old. I don't see any harm in it.

I know that you have received lots of emails about this, but I swaddled my daughter until she was 8-9mths. I think it made her fell secure. Now she would usually have it all undone by the time she awoke, but that is the only way she would go to bed. I finally started not making it as tight, and slowly made it more loose until she didn't need it anymore. I wouldn't recommend just not doing it at all, I would let her work her way out of having it. The good thing about her being swaddled right now is how cold it is. My daughter has slept with a blanket in her bed since she was born. If that concerns you, maybe try the sleep blanket that you zip her up in, fold it around her and see if that works. Good luck!!

I wouldn't worry about how long you swaddle your baby. Some kids need it longer than others. My son stayed swaddled until he was about 3 1/2 months, and I only stopped when he was routinly working his way out of the wrap and starting to roll over. You may have a few rough nights when you try to go without, but that shouldn't last more than a few days. I hope this helps!

I swaddled my daughter until around 4 or 5 months. I would try every so often to see if she still needed it. If she did, I swaddled her. In the end I didn't have to do it all the time, but there seemed to be times when she needed it, so I did it. It helped her sleep. Watch your baby and do it on the schedule that is right for her, not someone else's schedule!

Hi. I had a girl who loved to be swaddled, but she started rolling over at 3.5 months and we stopped then. I went to get her out of bed one morning and she was face down with the swaddle on her. The transition was rough, but the sleep positioner we used when she was an infant helped her get through it. If I had to do it again, I think I would try just swaddling with her arms left free and see how that worked. It was just so scary to walk in and find her that way. I wished our swaddle had told us to stop when they start rolling over.

I swaddled my daughter until she wsa almost 7 months old, your little girl will stop when she is ready. With my daughter we just stopped every once in a while to see if she was ready, if she wasn't we kept swaddling. Finally about 7 months later she was comfortable enough to let the swaddling go. No one knows your baby better than you, so don't worry about it to much. Swaddling cannot hurt.

I swaddled my daughter until she was 1 1/2... she took it off herself and never went back to it. It doesn't hurt to do it longer than recommended if it makes her feel secure and helps you BOTH sleep better. I have four kids - teenagers down to 5 months old... I know what I'm talking about. :-)

I am a nanny and i went to a nanny conf. In may and one of the sleep trainers had her son swaddled for 9 months. She had specialy made recieving blankets made by a company called cortney gibson(part of the nanny dream team) she sales them for $15 each and they are really nice for big babies.. I recieved one as a door prize... There is also many ways to swaddle a baby to keep them tight.

Loosely swaddle with a very thinly knit blanket - if your daughter can get out of it, I wouldn't be concerned anyway.. the risk with swaddling too long is that baby won't stretch and move and develop the way they're supposed to.

We stopped swaddling our son when he was completely kicking himself out of his "swaddle". He still hated being in the "big crib" all by himself (he was a month early, so he was pretty small starting out), so we tookd "swim noodles" and cut them in half, then laid them across the foot end of his crib, which made them curl in a "U" shape up around him and made his crib feel smaller to him. This was recommended to us by the NICU staff.

Since we're coming into winter, your baby will probably get the same feeling of "swaddling" in her winter "footed" pj's, too, and you won't have to worry about her getting suffocated by a blanket, or getting too cold, either. Make sure you have several pairs of "heavy" pj's, as well as "light" weight pj's, since we'll still have a few warm nights over the season.

My daughter would start to break out of the swaddling at night, but she wouldn't wake up. I did what you did... started swaddling looser. I got some really nice long sleeved fleece sleep sacks and had her in a footed jumper underneath. She still felt nice and toasty and had some weight on her, but she wouldn't kick off the blankets and so she wouldn't get cold at night. She was an October baby, and I was worried she'd get too cold at night and wake up. She wore the sleep sacks all winter. I would still swaddle her for naps, or while holding her if she was fussy, and it was a great transition for her.

Good luck!

J., your little girl will tell you when she is ready to quit being swaddled. My son was really particular when he slept. He had to be swaddled and put between those sleep positioners in order to sleep. Eventually, I'd say around 5 months, he kicked himself out of the blankets every night and just used them to cuddle with, like a lovey. Now we just put him to bed in his footed jammies and give him a blanket, he wraps his arms around it and rolls himself up in it and sleeps through the night. Like someone already said, you know your daughter better than anyone and certainly not the manufacturer of a swaddle blanket, just let her tell you when she's ready.

My son would not sleep unless he was swaddled really tightly. We called him a little burrito! LOL He finally slept without it when he was about 8 months old and was starting to roll and scoot around and was holding bottles or toys in his hands.

We swaddled our daughter until she was about 7 months! I tried many times to put her down without it.....it didn't work! She just slept better with it even though she could get out of it. I felt that she'd let me know when she was ready and she did. I think 13 weeks is still fine to be swaddled and just wait and keep trying, but take your cues from her. :) Good luck!

Oh, and with the miracle blanket, you can start to leave her legs out when she gets bigger...it helps them stay in better too when they're stronger.

I planned to swaddle for about 3 months but at her 1 month check up the doctor suggested we stop because she said they start to dislike it at that age. I loosened the swaddling but we used the swaddling blanket with velcro by Kiddopotomas so it wasn't loose enough to get over her face. Maybe loosen it but use safety pins so it can't come any more undone than you choose.

My two were close to six months when they did not want/need to be swaddled. When mine were transitioning, I went from a full swaddle to swaddling their arms by pulling the blanket between their legs instead of tucking their feet in too (the feet is how she is getting out probably--strong lil' gal). I would drape a blanket over the legs. I did not ever loosen the swaddle...I just started at naps seeing if they went to sleep without it. If not, I swaddled them. Gradually they adjusted. I found some stretchy blankets that make great swaddling blankets. They get all the way around the baby. Honestly I think they were from the dollar store or something.

I only swaddled my babies when they needed it....and never thought about their age, really. If they were sick or unusually cranky, I would swaddle. If they were fine, then I would just rock them to sleep with a loose blanket.

Don't worry about when the makers of the swaddling blanket "say" you should stop swaddling. You do it for as long as your baby benefits from it, girl! Anyway, I have a 7 month old and we gradually loosened the swaddle blanket every few nights. I also started by leaving 1 arm out for maybe a week and then left the other arm out, too. Within a week or so, she didn't even need swaddling anymore. She slept great without it! Good luck!!

Hi J. - according to the book "happiest baby on the block" you can swaddle as long as the baby wants to. I swaddled my boy till he was too big for the store bought swaddler, (about 3 mos.) then stopped. I've started again with a big piece of material (he's 6 months old), leaving one arm out, and he seems to like it. His napping was awful till recently, but it's gotten better since I went back to swaddling. I've also recently seen the sleep sacks with swaddle arm sections at babies-r-us - that might work if she's too big for the miracle blanket. hope this helps!

Is it the kind that has velcro on it and swaddles her? I still use mine and my baby is nine months!! I just put it on her waist instead of her arms cuz she hated her arms being tucked in after awhile. it is the only way to do a "blanket" but not a "blanket" to keep her warmer....They make them in bigger sizes so why would you have to stop?

J.,
I don't remember how long I swaddled, but I used baby blankets and did it until they just would not fit anymore. I honestly don't think I thought about reading when I should stop, just did so until I could not any more. I really think it helped comfort them and helped them to sleep. I always put my girls in bed awake and they were great sleepers-- until they hit about 2! Ha, ha!
Congratulations on your little one,
A.

As someone who does attachment parenting, I would swaddle as long as they want it. Its the security they need to feel. Only one of my kids wanted to be swaddled very long.. and he was my smallest of the 5. The others wouldn't tollerate being cooped up any longer than they had to. LOL What is your concern about swaddling? Is there a safety concern? I hope this email helps and finds you well.

Just swaddle till they quit letting you. Trust me they'll out grow it for sure before the first 6 months. I used to swaddle mine and they out grow it before you want them to. By like 4 months. Made me kinda sad.

My youngest daughter wanted to be swaddled until she was nine months old! By the time she grew out of needing the swaddle, I was using a beach towel to wrap her up every night - it was crazy, but she loved it and she slept well.

To this day she's a cuddlebug and really enjoys being held closely.