flinging arms and legs about

[kbaby]

you may have seen my other 1000 odd threads about the fact that i have a unsettled 6 week old baby who wont be out down to sleep and prefers to sleep in my arms. Well ive found out why. I stayed next to her one nap and watched and within 5 minutes her leg twiches which seems to set her arms off and she then flings them about hitting her head and the sides of the basket. She then gets aggitated and moves and kicks even more and so wakes up. We started swaddling her which seems to work. however, when i mentioned this to my hv she told me that swaddling is outdated and dangerous due to overheating and is not to be used. She could not provide me with any alternatives on how to get the baby to sleep. I know in GF it says not to swaddle after 8 weeks old. Does anyone have any suggestions. I was thinking of still swaddling but perhaps using voile/sheer material to prevent overheating or perhaps putting her just in a vest. Anyone overcome the arms flinging problem. ive tried holding them down but once i let go they start again.
thanks

I swaddled my dd until she was about 6 months as hse suffered with colic and it was the only way to settle. Try the voile/thinner material but IMO it's what works for you, I did read baby books but didn't follow them strictly. HTH

Swaddling is outdated but imo it works. Be sensible about it though. Make sure that the room isn't too hot, only put a thin layer on her and swaddle with a thinnish material in this weather. If you still feel unsure(brace yourself as this is a bad mummy alert) have you thought about letting her cry? If you know that she is well, not hungry/thirsty and has been awake for a long stretch she may well need to cry to express how tired she is. I let DS have a cry for about 10 minutes the first time and after a couple of days repeating this he started to learn to settle himself when he was tired. Now, don't get me wrong - I'm not talking about cc at this early age, not up to the point of facial sweating, sickness and hysteria!! but enough time for her to learn to settle....
I think as new mums we are frightened to let our babies cry and feel ashamed sometimes that we cannot settle them ourselves and that they cry so much. Crying, don't forget, is a natural thing and is a release of tension and a form of expression. Why shouldn't babies cry when they are tired - they are telling you all about it!!
I know this probably won't be music to everyones ears and is intended as an idea for you to mull over..

We swaddle! Baby in just a vest in this weather, and just one thin soft blanket as tight as I can get it. It was a MW who showed me how, only 4.5 yrs ago! Pie (if you remember her) was a master swaddler.

I swaddle in a cotton sheet and dd wears a vest and babygrow. I make sure the room is under 20c and i dont put on any other bedding.Is this ok?

The other option is to put her under a sheet that is tightly tucked in. So put her feet to the end of the cot then put a sheet right round the mattress so that it traps her legs under it. Just a tight way of tucking them in.

And don't worry too much - I had the most restless babies in the world - as you may have seen from my contribution to the grobag thread - but now they both sleep like angels.

I put my daughter in a vest and babygrow, but her room is always about 23 or 24 degrees. We don't have aircon. She kicks off any cover. Check in the night and she doens't seem too hot. Do you think she is - I am never entirely sure?

TBH I can never tell if shes too hot. I check her neck/chest but dont know what it should feel like. I tend to feel mine and see if it feels the same!!!

I was SOO glad when I discovered swaddling - it turned things around for us completely. Used a cotton sheet like kbaby. DD infinitely happier swaddled. At about 14 weeks she was strong enough to get out of it so regularly we stopped but she didn't really need it then.

We swaddled dd until she was about 4 months - she kept waking herself up by whacking her hand against her face. Try this website - it's the product we used when dd bacame too big for a receiving blanket. I loved our Amazing Miracle Blanket and dd smiled when she saw it, she settled down very well and loved the snugness of it. We had her in just a nappy and maybe a light weight vest if it was a bit cooler. Sorry I'm so late to this thread.....hth!
mit x

I discovered swaddling when DS was 9 weeks old and didn't look back. I only swaddled him till about 12 weeks and then did what GF suggested and swaddled him under his arms (by then he had stopped punching himself).
I swaddled DD from birth and now at 6 months I still wrap her in her blanket under her arms. I use a thin and slightly stretchy cotton blanket.
When she began to struggle against the swaddle at around 10 weeks I began to leaver her arms free as I was worried that she would struggle so much that she would strangle herself.
I now have a double bonus ... a) a baby who can settle well and b) a baby who at 6 months doesn't move around her cot ...

What I don't understand about the comment 'Swaddling is outdated' is: for thousands of years, in hundreds of cultures all over the world swaddling has been a successful way of making a newborn feel secure ... all of a sudden in one generation in Western society swaddling doesn't work????? Tosh!!!!

Re. over heating ... you have to be sensible ... use one thin blanket to swaddle but don't then pile lots of other blankets on top of your baby!