How do you know when it's time to stop swaddling?

LunaBug924

We've swaddled DD since she was born, usually only at night. We started with her arms out as she liked to have her arms up over her head to sleep, but around the 3 week growth spurt she would flail herself awake, so it's been arms in ever since. She's now 8 weeks. 

I love that it keeps her secure while sleeping, but now that she's discovered her arms and legs it's getting harder to get her into the swaddle. She also breaks out of them a lot. I think for this reason the swaddle is even more important right now, until she learns a little more control of those crazy little limbs. Just wondering when other moms stopped/plan to stop swaddling. And how? Did you just decide to stop at a certain age, or were there cues from your LO that it wasn't needed anymore?  

ns1

I've read that when they learn to roll It's a good time to stop. With DD we weaned her off by doing 1 arm out for a few days, then two arms out, then completely out. Happiest Baby on the Block had a section on this .

ksyknelvr73

We stopped with DS1 at around the 4 month mark, he had started rolling by then. He broke out of swaddles a lot, I would recommend using something more like a sleep sack if you can, where the legs are contained and you can choose to have the arms swaddled or not. We have the A+A swaddle sacks for DS2 and they work really well.

Junebug060609

When they can roll over is the latest it should be done.

I will stop either at that point or when it stops being effective in helping her sleep.

spinsoffresonance

With DD1 I stopped when she started rolling over.

Ellastrandlewis

Pediatrician told us 3 mos is the "recommended" time to stop but really once they start breaking out is best.

letal316

My DD is also 8 weeks and she has been breaking out for weeks now. We did what @ns1‌ suggested, swaddled one arm out for a few days and just last night we left both out. She did pretty good, slept 8-1/2 hours, but flailed for the last 5 hours or so but did not wake herself up. We'll keep her chest & legs swaddled until she's totally kicking out of it.

whitehousem

We stopped around 4mo with DD bc she kept breaking free. I strongly suggest the zipadeezip (Google it... You can only get it from the website) for the transition. They are a little pricy, but totally worth it. DD still sleeps in one even though we prob could have stopped a while ago...she's two.

Eta: zipadeezip.com

MrsT2008

For me, I will force it until she can roll. That's when I stopped with Dd1 as well.

danabsd

We did when she could and would try to roll back to front new went cold turkey into a sleep sack with no issue. That doesn't always work for everyone. I've heard great things about the magic sleep suit.

crystalmir91385

DD has been breaking out of them from the beginning. She kicks her feet so much, I eventually started leaving them out altogether. I still swaddle her arms or else she flails so much she'd never get to sleep. She eventually breaks out of that too, though.

I'm planning on stopping when she starts rolling. Hopefully she will have better control of her arms by then.

vszapp

DS was busting out of his swaddleme, so we got a wonnie and love it! He's 8 weeks also. We'll probably stop swaddling between 3 and 4 months like we did with DD