When to stop swaddling?

MrsIH · December 2010

I've asked a couple of you about this already so it may be a bit of a repeat Q

We still swaddle LO and he'll be 4 months old soon. I believe they say 3-4 months is the cut off? He is a total flat on his back sleeper and doesn't roll from side to side while swaddled. He sleeps GREAT swaddled; last night he slept 9:30 - 7:00 am. He fell asleep in my arms at about 7:30 am so I placed him in his crib unswaddled and he woke up within minutes and was squirming all around. I know the squirming is good for their development and all though. Any tips from you Mamas? I guess I'm worried that we're still swaddling him and we shouldn't be. It is working for us now and he sleeps well that way but I will watch for any signs that we should stop swaddling him. I guess my Q is when did you know when to stop swaddling? I have to admit I'm a bit worried about the transition

And Mama's to be; with our LO we were convinced he didn't like to be swaddled so for the first month we swaddled with his arms out. He was up a lot throughout the night, like most newborns. When we started swaddling with his arms in he started sleeping 4-5 hours. It was our ah-ha moment. Just putting it out there in case it helps any of you.

KShiz · December 2010

We swaddled her until she unswaddled herself on a regular basis. Not sure what the "date" was. But if he likes it and you do too, I don't think you have to have a cut off date.

MrsIH · December 2010

KShiz:
But if he likes it and you do too, I don't think you have to have a cut off date.

This is my thinking, too I think my Mom is more on my case than anything else. Back then swaddling wasn't what it is for us Mom's today, I think.

Married2MrWright · December 2010

We pretty much swaddled Libby until she was about 7 months old...she beagn to break out of it on her own around 4 months but we still did it to get her to stay asleep at the beginning of the nap or bedtime.

She outgrew her swaddle blankets about that time so we used a larger woven cotton blanket...even now, at almost 11 months old DH will swaddle her arms on nights when she's just fighting sleep...which is usually when she's teething or having a developmental milestone, like walking. Again, at this point, it's simply to get her to sleep, once she is, she naturally breaks out of it and then just kinda hugs the blanket.

I wouldn't worry too much about swaddling him for "too long"...if he sleeps better swaddled, then keep it up...perhaps not too tight, so he can break out of it in his sleep, but if it helps him (and you!) sleep longer...go for it!

MrsNicole&Brian808 · December 2010

I was wondering the same thing! Glad you asked, Tara. Smile

inamra · December 2010

I agree with KShiz--there's no specified cutoff date. I had planned to swaddle LO until at least 3 months but by week 6, he would have none of it. He would cry bloody murder until we unswaddled him, then proceed to sleep 5 hrs straight. So that's when we stopped swaddling. Every baby is different so I'd do whatever works for you! Generally though, for safety reasons, I had thought that maybe you're supposed to stop swaddling if they're rolling over so that if they roll over on their face, they have their arms free to lift up and breathe or re-position themselves to breathe more easily? But I'm not entirely sure cuz we never made it that far with the swaddling.

lola808 · December 2010

We went cold turkey with the swaddle around 2.5 months. There was a lot of thrashing for a few days, but soon he learned to reposition to soothe himself. A side effect was also that he quickly learned to roll both ways, around 3 months. We decided to remove the swaddle because he was already starting to fight it and we'd find it semi-undone in the morning.

I wish I could try swaddling him again because he's a very active sleeper and sometimes stirs and needs a cuddle to go back to sleep. But with his energy levels, I think it'd be unsafe and he'd just end up rolling around in it.

redshoegirl · December 2010

Our boys weren't fully unswaddled until they were 6 months old. Going cold turkey just did NOT work for us, so at about 3.5 months we started them sleeping with one arm out, and eventually with two arms out. Once they were used to that (which took a while), we switched to sleep sacks.

They still didn't roll onto their stomachs in their sleep until they were about 7 months old (even though they were rolling well before then), so that's not a "time to unswaddle" cue for all babies - we just decided it was time. Smile

lelekay · December 2010

We started swaddling with one arm out at about 3 months, and that lasted for over a month. Every time we tried taking both arms out it didn't end well. Until he then started to get the other arm out on his own a few days in a row. Then we immediately switched to sleepsacks and that's going really well for a few weeks now.

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