How to stop swaddling

[MumToAPiglet]

I am new to Mumsnet and this is my first post. My dd is 13 weeks and we have swaddled her from day 1. We use one of those special velcro swaddle wraps. Now she is getting too big for the wrap and we are trying to transfer her to a sleeping bag but she CANNOT sleep with her arms free. She associates sleep with the swaddle and even if she does drop off without it she wakes herself up by hitting herself in the face. Has anyone got tips for weaning off swaddling??? Her legs being free is not a problem they usually escape the wrap in the frist 5 mins anyway.

Hi Mumtoapiglet, I don't know much about this at all, but I did wrap up my dd3 quite firmly in a light fleece blanket when putting her down as a young baby. It's obviously not as firm as a swaddling wrap but could provide a next, slightly looser step while still holding her fairly firmly.

I'm sure someone with better advice will be along soon!

Hi, I used to use those cellular blankets which are quite big really and you can get them wrapped up quite tight.

Why do you want to stop swaddling if it works? I swaddled my babies for months (past 6m with some) Ended up using a cot sheet to wrap them up. They felt secure and I got some sleep.
Worked well for us.

If you want to stop swaddling try to leave one arm out and then, when she is used to that, leave both arms out - also try using a grobag. These are great as baby still feels secure and can't kick blankets off. However, the moro reflex (which is when the arms jerk about when they are tired) is still strong in some babies for a long time ... if you don't need to unswaddle her yet then leave it for a while. I know lots of mums who swaddle their LOs at 5/6 months.

Its good to know some people keep swaddling for months. My HV told me to stop at 8 weeks so I was worried that at 13 weeks she was oldest swaddled baby in London!She is too big for her wrap though and no one seems to sell bigger ones. I will try it with a blanket which will probably be a little looser anyway so might be a step towards stopping. Thanks all.

You could combine a light sleeping bag with swaddling her in a light blanket over the top too - then add blanket on top of that if she's cold.

Personally, I'd be more bothered about keeping her sleeping well so would carry on swaddling but with a blanket until she'd bigger then go on to sleeping bag.

hi we still swaddle at 16 weeks, i cut a cot sheet to size so that its big enough but not too big.
once they are more mobile and able to roll etc really well then try stop swaddling then. we did this with dd when she could roll and she found her own comfy sleeping position ie on her knees, bum in air which stopped her waving her arms about so we stopped swaddling then.

I swaddled til 14 weeks when he started to be able to wriggle free. He's now in grobag and although I was really quite stressed about the transition, first night he slept through. He had a strong moro reflex but this has got better. I do however tuck a sheet over the grobag (he has a coldish room and only a 1tog bag) and tuck the bag (it's long) down the end of the mattress. If they've found comfort in the swaddle then I think this helps the transition. You might find it takes a few days for you all to get used to it, but persevere if you want to. As others have said though, use it for as long as you feel comfortable. I only stopped it because he was ending up half way down the cot, out of the swaddle and a bit cold so was waking up anyway - so it seemed like the sensible thing to do at the time. I did consider sewing some arm things into the grobag to keep them down but when we didn't have a problem, it worked.
Good luck

I was still swaddling at 7months! I stopped for a month when dd was about 10weeks. She was in a grobag but still in her moses basket- which worked fine. When we moved her into a cot she just couldn't stay asleep, literally she would wake up every 5mins! so after a week of no sleep (me holding her arms still through the bars of the cot) we went back to swaddling. Used a fleece blanket and it worked just fine. i wouldn't worry about it, just go with what works best for you and your baby and stuff what the HV says!

I swaddled till about 6/7 months, but used one of those cellular blankets instead.

Can't think of any reason as to why it would be bad to swaddle them after 8 weeks. Did your HV give a reason?

my fifth is still swaddled at nine months!

I carried on until at least 8 months or so. I remember beause it was a nightmare on holiday in Spain when it was so hot but I had two babies who wouldn't sleep unless tightly wrapped up in cellular blankets. When we did come to wean off them we loosened them, then jsut used muslims for a bit before stopping.

We swaddled up until 16 weeks and our dd was/is big; 16 lbs at 16 weeks! The miracle blanket swaddle from Mothercare still fitted her at that point, and if you do it really firmly they will struggle to get their arms out. We then tried her with one arm out, then another and finally kept her bottom half swaddled and moved her into a grobag at the same time. This all went fine, and she has now (at 19 weeks) sleeping absolutely fine without her swaddle.