How did you stop swaddling?

Hennessy · February 2013

We never swaddled DS when he was very little but after we moved him to his crib at around the 3 month mark, we started using swaddle sleep sacks to help get him to sleep longer stretches in his crib.. which worked very well and eventually he started STTN. He's now 5 1/2 months and has started rolling over so we need to stop swaddling.. which so far has been a nightmare (I'm also wishing we never started it). We've continued using the swaddle sacks so his body is still swaddled but with his arms out, he wakes up all night long. He pulls at his face, smacks himself in the head etc.. his constant moving of his arms wakes him up at least every hour!

How did you successfully transition to not swaddling?

colemangal85 · February 2013

Good question. We use to swaddle and now we don't. I'm not exactly sure how we got here. I know that our LO use to scratch his face a lot so swaddle was a must but now he doesn't scratch his face anymore and he loves to suck on his hands so not swaddling - now helps!

I know that I started unswaddling just one arm and then went to both hands out and now our LO sleeps in a halo sack without the swaddle at all - it just zips up. So that's what we did and I'm not sure how it worked but it did.

TeachR24 · February 2013

We swaddled our DD when she was little (she's now 3) and we are currently swaddling our almost 4 month old. Here's how we broke DD of the swaddle and it worked PERFECTLY. For about 3 nights we just left one arm out and swaddled the other. We made sure to put a sock on her hand of the arm that was left out so that she didn't scratch herself or so that her hand didn't get too cold. After 2-3 nights of success at that we left both arms out and put socks on her hands but we still swaddled her around her stomach for the extra tightness and comfort of the swaddle. Once she was used to that we did away with the swaddle sleepsack and just moved to a regular sleepsack and she continued to use a regular sleepsack until she was 2 years old. It was a process that took about a week and a half but because we did it gradually she took great to just using a sleepsack and not being swaddled. Good luck!

dmhrn13 · February 2013

DD was swaddled tightly until 3 1/2 months. Initially I started doing it looser & looser, but then I switched her to Merlins Magic Sleep Suit. She looks like the kid brother from A Christmas Story, but its worked so far & its been about 2 weeks.

greeneyedjess · February 2013

Cold turkey.

danabsd · February 2013

You can try the Magic Sleep Suit?

MaybeBabyTime · February 2013

I could have written this post. We tried cold turkey the same night we started sleep training. It went horribly. We swaddled one arm in and one arm out in the halo sleepsack. She barely slept that night. The next night was perfect! She had no one crazy arm...it just suddenly went away. We kept her like for 13 nights (one arm in) and last night I decided she just looked uncomfortable and I put both arms out and swaddled just her belly. She did great! She's now swaddle free.

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