Swaddling

[Grannylipstick]

I swaddled all my children from new borns and they all slept 8 hours at 5weeks old. Do people still do this?

I do. But - its frowned upon by my health visitor and MW, they tell me every meeting that we shouldn't be doing it. My daughter prefers it though, and because of it sleeps 8pm-3am, then 3.30-7.30am. She's six weeks old, and we've never had any sleep issues.

Touch wood.

I did, and would do it again. DD was swaddled from day dot and we stopped around 4 or 5 mo. We had an 'early sleeper througher' too.

Why aren't the MW and HV keen? They swaddle all the babies in my local hospital? I swaddled DS till about three months or so, then put him in a sleeping bag when he was less likely to wake himself up with his reflexes

Here in Sydney swaddling is recommended! In fact, if you ever have any sleep problems the first thing they ask is if the baby is wrapped, and recommend it if not.

i swaddled all mine, the boys grew out of it quite quickly but my dd LOVED it and was swaddled for sleep up until she was about 16mths!

hv dont recomend it now because of the risk of overheating and also if you swaddle a babies legs tightly ist not good for their hip, BUT if you are sensible its fine, i never swaddled the legs tightly and made sure they were dressed appropriately for weather i e vest, babygrow and then swaddled with a cot sheet, cotton one, in the summe ri swaddled with a big muslin cloth :)

5mad hit it on the nail there - recommendations assume everyone is stupid and incapable of adjusting for the weather - so they just say don't.

In the recent heat wave my DD wore her nappy and her swaddle blanket - its just thin cotton.

jambalaya which btw is a fave meal of ours, my boys love it as does dd! i have a lovely pic of my dd in the pram from the last summer, she just has a nappy on and is swaddled ina big muslin, her legs are splayed and her thighs are all gorgeous and squidy, then her arms are down by her sides (how she liked them some babies like them across their chest) with the swaddle and she is sound asleep, its funny the tightly trussed arms down and then the big fat chunky legs all splayed, soo cute tho.

i miss those days, now at bedtime she still likes to be wrapped up in a sheet, but not swaddled, she cuddles her lamby now but being wrapped up in a sheet is def still a sleep cue for her and swaddling her was very much her thing, the times i tried not to, esp as she got older, she just would NOT sleep. she sat, crawled, walked etc all at normal range and is now a very active 18mth old so it didnt harm her development at all!

and yes they assume people wont think about temp, but my hv was lovely and said, well she is your 5th, you know what you are doing, so am sure its fine!

When I was pg, my 'indulgent' purchase was a pack of four large musln swaddling sheets from Aden and Anais.

I used them year round and just adjusted what dd wore underneath. Even though she has outgrown a swaddle I still se them as bottom sheets for her travel cot or shade in the sun.

Im looking forward to her using them as a cape or to build a den with in the future.

My DD was really tucked up when I was PG, I didn't have a bump - so when she was born, all the space and freedom terrified her - if we hadn't swaddled we would never have gotten any sleep!

Think because she was my second I was more confident to do what was right for her and us, as opposed to guidelines.

We swaddled until about 12/14 weeks, and then as others here appear to have done, gradually made a shift to a grobag. She slept really well when swaddled and only ever woke up once for feeding. I was paranoid that when she moved over to the Grobag she would wake, but I think she obviously ready as it wasn't an issue. We had some specially shaped blanket (Miracle Swaddle something or other...) and passed it on to my SIL when she had her's. DH took great pleasure in showing SIl and her DH how to get it trussed up nice and secure .

And yes - all about being sensible with temperature. DD was born in the heatwave summer of 2006. We swaddled her in thin cotton swaddling blanket with just a nappy and a fan in the room.

I haven't swaddled but wish I could have - every time I tried, LO did a Houdini and escaped, plus she hated having her arms restricted. However she is a VERY active baby and also very tiny so everything was (is still) massive on her.

What 5madthings said about leaving legs unswaddled is really important - baby's hip joints aren't designed to let their legs lie straight like adults; forcing them to do so can cause hip displasia. So this may be the one piece of advice that has changed in recent times.

There's some good info here

Did anybody use those giant muslin clothes for swaddling? DC2 is due soon and i'm a bit worried about over heating with swaddling? I've got swaddling blanket from DS but he was a December baby

yes i did, i got given some by a friend buy you can by them, google big muzz? i think and they sell them in packs of 3, they were great :)

Yes, I bought these and used them for every nap and big sleep.

DD was born in the winter, so I added a blanket over the top, but once we got to about February she went onto just one of these.

bigmuz.com/ here these are the ones i found, aden and anais do nice ones but htey are expensive!

Oooo thanks peeps! I spotted some Aden & Anais ones in TK Maxx last week - might see if they are still there (muchos cheapness) or will get the bigmuz ones. What would have a summer (ok, well scottish summer!) baby in underneath - just a vest?

Well, im in NE England Newcastle and we still put vest and sleepsuit on DD. The only time we went with just a vest was in a hotel in Liverpool where the room was like an oven.

DD is now in a 1tog grobag (TK MAxx jobbie aswell, bargain), which is about as warm as her muzzy wraps were.

Her bedroom is north facing with no radiator though, so never gets above 18degrees.

depended on the temp here, when cooler a vest and babyrgrow but when hot my dd had a nappy and vest or just a nappy when really hot, it doesnt oftne get that hot here tho so a vest with ot without a babygrow would be fine most of the time in the uk :)

Just thought I would let you know I picked up a pack of four Aden and Anais swaddle Muslims for £20 in TK Maxx today, better than half price :)

I always swaddle, LO needs it to falls asleep! We've got a merino swaddle which is quite good, but I sometimes use a celluar blanket, with just a vest underneath. I leave his legs out though, he gets really mad if his legs are covered up with anything.