still swaddling

[mololoko]

hi. our pfb 15 wo dd is still swaddled and seems to need it in order to sleep.

i have read here before that it's fine to swaddle for as long as she needs it, but i'm concerned that she escapes the swaddle and pulls the sheet over her face.

if she's not swaddled she thrashes her arms and legs about and won't settle to sleep. if we swaddle, she calms down instantly.

i really want to get her into a sleeping bag as i think it's safer (and though she seems to like it - i hate the 'idea' of swaddling her).

does this 'thrashing around' stop when they get a bit older?

if we stop the swaddling now and put up with a few sleepless nights, will she get used to it?

anyone had experience/advice of "weaning" babies off swaddling?

(she will nap in her carseat or sling if not swaddled, but won't sleep in her pram or cot or moses basket without it)

We swaddled our DS until he was 4 months then he was allowed one arm out, then both, then finally legs free. We started trying to unswaddle him from about 12weeks but found he couldn't even control one arm and it was too distressing for him so we waited a few weeks and tried again and he seemed more ready.

We swaddled DD until she was 11 months. One of the reasons for this was her bad eczema; the swaddling helped minimise the scratching in her sleep. She also found being swaddled very comforting and it helped her settle to sleep. As she got older and 'broke' out of her swaddling, we moved onto a grobag and she's loved that ever since.

dd was swaddled til she was about 15 weeks too and then she learned to roll over and I was frightened about her laying face down with her arms pinned to her sides. We started by just loosely swaddling for a couple of nights and she would get her arms free in her sleep, put her in her sleeping bag but with scratch mitts on (for some reason this seemed to make her feel secure almost as if her arms were tucked up) and soon after that she slept fine without either.
The arm thrashing does stop any day now. I think it goes as the startle reflex drops down.

hi. thanks for the answers. we are now swaddling with a miracle blanket over a 1 tog grobag and hope to get one arm out soon!!!

mamakoukla - what did you use to swaddle up til 11 months? dd keeps wriggling out of her sheets now she's a bit bigger and if we use bigger sheets i think she gets too hot...