do you think swaddling may interfere with arm strength and development?

[rabster]

DS (10 weeks) loves to be swaddled, and pretty much NEEDS it to settle to sleep. I swaddle him lightly, using a miracle blanket, and he sometimes gets 1 arm free by the end of his nap. We daren'y try this at night though, and swaddle him tight from 7pm to 7am.

He plays for about an hour after a feed (give or take), but doesn't really bat at things too much (takes some encouragement), and can't even BEGIN to do a mini pushup (which they are meant to be doing at 3 months).

So, do you think his being swaddled is affecting his arm development? any stories about batting etc from other mums who swaddled?

mini pushup????

quite simply no!

No

no it's fine. don't worry. people have been swaddling for years. think of traditional cultures as well where baby is strapped to mum's back all day long while she gets on with making bread, etc. baby hardly moves at all. just feeds, sleeps, gets carried around.

lol- do you have one of those what to expect books, by any chance?

He sounds gorgeous and developmentally fine, btw.

umm, no... in fact the reason i swaddle is to strap those arms down... he starts waving them the more tired he gets, knocks himself in the face, hits himself, knocks his dummy out and screams more!

No

oh, and ds2 is just 4 months and has only just started doing those things more and more!!

They don't really bat at 10 weeks, do they? Neither of mine did.

the thing with those books is that you can get into the mindset of seeing the development milestones as sort of targets. but you see, babies don't need training or coaching or anything at all to develop. it's like when people buy baby walkers to encourage walking. pointless, baby will do it as and when.

wow! that was a quick and resounding no!

I think I just get paranoid about swaddling him (cos it is a pain to have to do! lol!). I think my parents have been putting thoughts into my head again ("do you think you should keep swaddling him?")

Yeah, I have one of those what to expect books! He does everything else, and is ahead on a lot of things, but his tiny puny arms are a bit rubbish!

Thanks everyone!

Aww- he sounds like a cutie with his puny arms.

DS was swaddled until 5 mths. Crawled at 6.5 mths and has just started pulling himself up at 7mths. Absolutely no problem with strength!! just balance However, he never moves in his cot (unlike friends' babies who roll over and wake up which is apparently v frustrating) and I'm sure this is to do with being swaddled. FWIW, he only started swatting at things at 3ish months.

Swaddling is GOOD! You wait till he's five months old and wakes himself up every five seconds because his arms and legs twitch and you'll realise how good being able to swaddle was.

Actually getting better rest AIDS physical development so swaddling could be said to do the opposite of your assertion.

So, sorry but you'll have to find something else to be neurotic about now NB - go see your HV, she'll no doubt give you fresh worries to replace the one you've just expunged .

Swaddling is a lifesaver - esp for babies with a strong startle reflex. I swaddled mine until 5 months and no development problems - and they were tiny prems. Sounds like your DS is doing fine, babies develop at such different rates.

Message withdrawn

Not at all. Swaddled all mine (9 of them) for months and I swaddled them very tightly. None of them have had any problems with their arm development.

no, not at all, your parents clearly don't have enough to worry about if they have to go around inventing stuff, bless them. (I don't remember anyone in the Bible saying Jesus had puny arms, either. Remember the bit about swaddling bands?)

No, Just try telling our DS 5yo, That he has weak arms, he'll pin ya down then jump up and down on ya. We always swaddled him, ok so most nights he'd fight his way out by morning. But hey, i'm sure the scrap with the blanket made him stronger!

Never swaddled DS....so cant really answer your question as I have no experience of it....but he did find his thumb at 6 weeks or so weeks & it helped sooth him back into a deep sleep inbetween cycles - not sure what he would have done if he couldnt do that?