sleeping 6-week old restlessly worrying at his face and head /drool

[HardCheese]

Hi everyone,
My six-week-old keeps hitting himself in the face and on the head, and scrabbling at his head and face, when asleep. He's always had a very strong startle reflex, but this seems to be something else, a wriggle that means he throws his hands up to his face. It either wakes him up when he hits himself, or keeps him only in a very light sleep. He's now too old (and too strong!) to swaddle, so all I can do is try to have him fall asleep on me, so I can hold his hands away from his face until he's deeply asleep. Any thoughts on what might be causing this - is he simply a restless sleeper? Is there anything I can do?

Also, for the last few days, he's been drooling a lot - surely six weeks is much too early for even the earliest symptoms of teething?

PS. Thanks to everyone on here who responded to my thread on my baby refusing to be in his pushchair - he's now much better with that.

I wouldn't say he is too old for swaddling, my 5mo sometimes gets swaddled if she is overtired. If he is too strong, that's another matter, but a good tight swaddle should hold most little ones in.

My DD dribbled a LOT from a young age, and is still not cutting any teeth, so I do think some just feel it early.

Sorry, other than swaddling I don;t know what else to recommend, am sure someone else will be along shortly with other ideas.

Swaddling is the only thing I can think of too. I used the method from Happiest Baby On The Block. I don't recommend the whole system, rocking a baby to sleep etc but this is a clip that shows how they swaddle to keep the arms in. It worked on mine til about 3 months.

Thanks everyone. Chocolate, we did swaddle using the Happiest Baby on the Block method when he was a newborn - with a purpose-made Grobag swaddle - but he both hates being swaddled to the point of getting very distressed when his arms are confined, and he is now also rather too strong for it. He is a strong baby and he's managed to get his hands free every single time!

Ds was the same, he always got free of my (and everyone else's) swaddles and even the wraps. I got him a swaddle pod, which he hated going into but wouldn't sleep without it.

Stopped using it at 7 weeks when I went away without it but by them he was ok, he still does startle himself awake sometimes but not often and he's 20 weeks.

Oh, and the pod was great because I only had to unzip by the bottom zip to get his nappy changed so no trying to get him back in it!

He did manage to get his hands up sometimes tho, but only a bit out.

I know this might not be to everyone's taste but have you tried sleeping him on his tummy? Our DD also hated being swaddled but she would often wake herself up with her flailing arms so at about 9 weeks we put her on her tummy (she has very good neck strength and could roll from tummy to her back at that age), she sleeps so much better it is unbelievable! I did spend the first week thinking she was going to stop breathing but I've stopped worrying quite as much now!

Matilda, is that a good idea? I thought sleeping on fronts was now a total no-no, because of risk of SIDS???

However, you are perfectly right that it would solve the flailing arms issue - in fact my current 'solution' (letting him fall deeply asleep on my shoulder, so that he can't hit himself), is a version of the same thing. Obviously, it's not ideal, though, as it means I have to sit up with him to get him back to sleep.

This thread is making me realise that I do actually hate swaddling him - he gets so distressed that I feel like I'm putting him in a baby strait-jacket, and wonder how I would feel in a similar situation...

Hiya, yes, tummy sleeping is a big no no but after a few weeks of her sleeping on her tummy on my chest I realised that sleeping in her crib on her tummy wasnt that much different! I am aware that the guidelines state that babies shouldnt sleep on their tummys but when I was a baby the guidelines were different and apparently I always slept on my tummy! A friend of mine has a 5 year old and a 3 year old and when she had her first she was told that tummy sleeping was correct but when she had her second the HVs told her that babies should sleep on their backs!

You could invest in a pressure pad for the cot that detects breathing, we don't have one but it might be an idea? Maybe see how he sleeps at nap times?

How well does he hold his head?

I worried a lot when we first started putting DD on her tummy but when you look at SIDS statistics there are many other factors that may increase the risks so we went with the tummy sleeping as it made everyone a lot happier when we started getting more sleep!