Swaddle weaning

[massagegirl]

Our nearly 7 month old wont sleep without bring swaddled. Have tried sleeping bags but she gets so distressed, it's like she's so tired but her hands are around her face stopping her from sleeping, as soon as we swaddle her she sleeps. She currently sleeps 7-7 swaddled. I'm thinking we need to wean her off. Any thoughts/experiences?

DS was the same. He simply hated a sleeping bag and he went right up to about 8-9 months in the swaddle.

When the weather started getting warmer I was keen to get him to "loosen up" a little. The way we did it was to put him in a sleeping bag and then place a large muslin over his arms and tuck it in at the sides just underneath his arms/body. This allowed him to fall asleep calmly. Of course, as soon as he moved or rolled then the muslin fell away anyway, but it was fine as he just needed that sensation to fall asleep with. Once he became even more active then he didn't even need or want the swaddle any more. By the height of summer he was happy having just a large muslin covering him loosely as a sheet. He loved pulling it right up and over his face though, often with feet sticking out the bottom.

When we went back to sleeping bags for cooler weather, I found that giving him a muslin helped to soothe him (again with the pulling up over his face). Even now at 15 mo he enjoys a good ol' muslin cuddle and I always make sure he has one lying in the cot on each side of his body.

Thanks loo... Good to hear! She's the only baby I know that loves to be swaddled so much!

My daughter loved to be swaddled, she ended up swaddled for sleep until she was 16mths! I used a muslin when it was hot. She eventually grew out of it.

My eldest was swaddled until about 10 months, I just invested in some 6 - 12 month swaddles that you can buy online with the velcro fastenings, he loved them.

We decided that the only solution for us was to move from swaddle to grobag, and do sleep training the same day. It was hard but in 3 nights he was able to put himself to sleep and sleep through in a grobag. We did it in the summer when he had been getting too sweaty in a swaddle, and he had been breaking out of them and waking himself up, so we thought there really wasn't any choice.

As long as your DD sleeps soundly in them and doesn't break free of the swaddle then you are probably fine to continue?

I'd agree with it being fine to continue, we just always made sure that DS' hips/legs weren't restricted as I read somewhere it could be bad for development.

Thank you. Have found something which is cross between swaddle and sleeping bag to help ease transition. But good to know babies older than her were still swaddled.

Massagegirl, can you advise where you have found the swaddle/sleeping bag?

My LO needs to be swaddled too but I'm eager to have her in a sleeping bag type thing as she kicks off her covers, even when swaddled!!!