weaning from a swaddle blanket

[miamama09]

I want to wean my son from his swaddle blanket, so he can start to find his hands/arms a bit more and use them. I've read online some advice about starting gradually with one arm out...

I've also found some sites with 'transition' blankets - the Baby Merlin Magic Sleepsuit and the Zipadee-Zip blanket - does anyone have any experience of these?

I tried going cold turkey, with a sleeping bag, but he wakes up after a few mins by hitting himself in the face. It's just his arms that he likes being pinned down, as his legs are already out of the swaddle blanket.

any tips would be greatly appreciated!

How old is he? Some love the swaddle for a long time, although various 'experts' recommend you start weaning from it after the first couple of months. I would be wary of creating sleep problems, have heard of this happening...

If he gets enough 'exercise' during the day, then I can't see the harm in him being swaddled at night unless he's objecting to it.

he's 15 weeks tomorrow. I read you should stop doing it around 3-4 months... trouble is, it's the only way he sleeps. Then other advice says they grow out of it in the their own time and show signs when ready. He's not showing any signs yet!
I don't want it to get harder to wean him out of it once he's older, but I also don't see the harm if that's how he likes to sleep?!

We swaddled DS at night in a miracle blanket from the day he was born until about 17 weeks - when he started rolling on his side I think.

We went cold turkey I think but he did keep smacking himself in the face, so we got a Peke Moe (from NZ, google it - like a zipidee day thingy) - anyway, he used that for a couple of nights and he did like it but he was pretty quick to go from not rolling around to rolling everywhere and he didn't like to be restricted, so now we just put him in a sleeper suit - he's 7 months. We live in the tropics though so don't used blankets so depending on where you are, perhaps a sleeping bag is better. I didn't find his legs to be the problem though, it was his arms!

Give it a few more weeks OP, but if he isn't looking like he wants to be unswaddled then keep on going with it. My niece was swaddled til about a year!

I tried several times to wean DS off it, but he woke 8+ times a night instead of 1 or 2 times so we always went back to it.

I kept on swaddling till he was 5.5 months and started screaming when I started to swaddle him. At that point, he was ready to stay asleep without it (and my previous attempt to ditch the swaddle was only a week or two previously, when he'd been completely unable to stay asleep without it).

I don't believe in 'sleep problems' though (DS has never been a good sleeper).

Most babies grow out of the Moro reflex (which swaddles help contain) by about 6 months. As long as they're only swaddled for sleep, it's not a big deal if they're swaddled till relatively old.

We actually re-started swaddling at 12 weeks, having previously put DS into a sleeping bag - it made a huge improvement to his sleep. 17 weeks isn't a great time to try it IMO as you're in the middle of the 4 month sleep regression / developmental leap - better to try after the leap is over (19 weeks or so).

Our 13 week old has always been swaddled and she is exactly like your son, its the arms that are a problem. The past few nights we have done our swaddle a little looser (its a SwaddleMe, one of the velcro ones) and she has gradually worked an arm out on her own. So far she seems ok with that - in fact, I think she quite likes to be able to chew her hand for comfort. Could you maybe try something like that?

I also have a friend who tucks her lo in to bed REALLY tightly with the blankets right under the cot mattress and she says this is working well.

thanks for all the replies, I think I will wait a few more weeks as he's showing no signs of rolling over yet or wanting to be free from the swaddle! plus he's only 15 weeks so will wait until after the 4 month developmental stage.

Fingers crossed he's ready soon, as I worry that it might be delaying his progression, i.e. learning to grab etc? maybe not, but we'll see how he gets on.

thanks again, I'll give it a few more weeks

Hi op, we had the same problem with DS......until he was 10months!! He was in a miracle blanket until about 6 months, as he kept hitting himself in the face with his hands, and waking up when we tried him without, and he wasn't a great sleeper to start with.
Then I bought a 'swaddle me' thing (blue with footballs on it) that let his arms out, but had a wrap around thing, totally useless, until I sewed up the arm holes and took off the wrap thing- like a peekamo but alot cheaper. He loved it.
So he basically slept in a vest, or vest & baby gro (weather dependent) then this zip up bag thing, and happily slept/rolloed around the cot content . This is when he started sleeping through. We went to a sleeping bag at 10 months, and after 1 night of being a bit bobbly, he now sleeps 7pm to 6:30am pretty much every night .
But I remember thinking he would never get past this, and anticipated being the parent of the only 10 year old to be swaddled!
Your DS will get there when he's ready, go with what you think is right, you know him best. xx
(sorry for the long post!)

tried to stop swaddling a couple of times at around 4-5 months, was a disaster! then at 5.5 months he started to roll on face so stopped and no problems at all. we tried a swaddlepod and a swaddle me graduate blanket and he hated both, what a waste of money, although they might work for you we found he still got his arm's out (he is only small though - below 9th centile)

thanks everyone. will keep swaddling until I think he is ready to be without it. But you have all given me hope that I won't have a 5 year old needing to be swaddled to sleep! fingers crossed!