Weaning from a swaddle?

TM&AB · May 2009

Does anyone have any experience with breaking the habit of needing to be swaddled? Charlie LOVES to be swaddled and sleeps really well throught the night etc. We have tried to lay him down without it at nap times and he will just lay there and play with his feet and then start crying and refuse to go to sleep, even if we let him CIO for a while. If we swaddle him he goes down with no issue. The Dr said there is no issue continuing to swaddle but Charlie is rolling onto his belly while swaddled and it freaks me out. I want him to have his arms free if he wants to sleep on his belly. Any thoughts?

hannah&ben · May 2009

Just do it part at a time... only swaddle his arms for a few nights - let the legs be out. Then only swaddle one arm - leaving the legs and other arm free... etc.

He'll get used to it.

You could also switch to a sleep sack to keep his legs & feet contained - that might keep him off of them.

Klmorgan83 · May 2009

We weaned Noah around 5 months because he learned to roll from back to belly. We had been working on it for a week or so before he rolled, but the day he rolled we went cold turkey. Since then he's been great!

We started out with just naps, we would just leave one arm unswaddled, and we would switch arms as well. Then after a few days we did that at night as well. Then we started having no swaddle at naps. Sometimes we would have to rock until he was drowsy enough to put down in his crib without getting too upset. We still do that now. Then the day that he rolled I did our normal bedtime routine, then held him until he was sleepy and put him down and he went right to sleep. Since then he's always been a side/belly sleeper. He never sleeps on his back anymore.

Good luck...he'll get used to not having the swaddle eventually!

dec05gurl · May 2009

we nweaned Charlotte from her swaddle only like a week and a half ago and she adjusted amazing - MUCH better than I thought she would. We did it for the exact same reason, 2 nights in a row, we woke up & she was on her belly with no hands and we got freaked out. We just have to put her down when she's just about asleep. We also have the fisher price aquarium that she's obsessed with, so I think that helps her fall asleep. The seahourse works pretty well too (and it's only like $10). Do you have a white noise machine? I think the homedics one is only like $20 & people swear by that. We just bit the bullet and did it cold-turkey - but she takes naps at dc without it so that prob helped. good luck!!

Jscaggs · May 2009

What about just lightly wrapping in a blanket? We haven't used the swaddler in a while, but sometimes I just wrap Olivia loosely in her blanket. ?When she starts to move around it comes loose and she doesn't really notice.If he is moving around enough to roll over then he would probably get his arms free.

bgsugrad · May 2009

We didn't start weaning until about 8-9 months b/c although DD could roll over much earlier, she never did it in her swaddled until about 8-9 months! ...and the process went pretty smoothly....we only had 1-2 bad sleeping nights before she was completely transitioned. She too LOVED being swaddled and I feel like we did it longer than most people. I tried once when she was about 6-7 months and the same happened to us...she cried, woke herself up mutiple times in the night, etc. So we thought, well, maybe she's not ready, so went back to the swaddle...but then once she was rolling in it, we knew it was time. We started with wrapping the swaddle up under her armpits (with both arms out) for naps about 2-3 weeks and then moved to doing it at night time...(I have also heard of leaving just 1 arm unwrapped before going to both)...then after 3 weeks we tried her without but I always put her in long sleeve sleepers w/ feet, so she felt well covered. I also added a lightweight blanket and on occasion, I would try a small stuffed animal too. Good luck!

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