At what age did you stop swaddling?

Our little ones will be 5 months on Sunday and we still swaddle using the miracle blankets at night. My dh really wants to stop swaddling, however, I am hesitant. It's not like they are sleeping all the way through the night, I just think it helps with toooo many night wakings. I believe on the package from which the miracle blankets came, it says to stop swaddling at three months of age. Should we stop swaddling? I really would appreciate your input on this. THANKS!!!

 

I think by 4 months or so we stopped but we still wrap our boys from the waist down in blankets. It helps them stay straight in their cribs and keeps them warm at night. Less night wakings with the wrap from the waist down. We do not include their arms however. They are way too old for that.

 

quote:
Originally posted by JDMummy:
I think by 4 months or so we stopped but we still wrap our boys from the waist down in blankets. It helps them stay straight in their cribs and keeps them warm at night. Less night wakings with the wrap from the waist down. We do not include their arms however. They are way too old for that.


Do you use receiving blankets when wrapping waist down? That is a pretty good idea. I'll pass it by my husband. THANKS!

 

Mine were preemies so they were smaller and we stopped swaddling them at 7 months. From 4-7 months when we swaddled them we left their arms out, it was mostly for extra warmth at that point. When we stopped swaddling we started using the sleep sack and still do at night. We never swaddled or used the sleep sack for naps.

 

We stopped at 3 months (we used Swaddle Me) and transitioned to sleep sacks. My twin girl was already in a sleep sack earlier. No difference in sleep for us. Everything stayed the same.

 

My boys didn't like being swaddled. Jamie especially liked to be able to move around. we tried to swaddle them until they were 2 months and then gave up. We have sleep sacks and Jamie rally likes them, Danny doesn't seem to care either way.

 

Mine hated being swaddled. I think we did it a total of 5 times...then, let them be free to whatever the heck they do

 

We swaddled our fat little babies until they were 6 months old! We used miracle blankets, which can fit some big babies! They could get their arms out after 5 months,but we still did it anyway. We weaned them off slowly and switched to sleep sacs.

Kelly

 

So funny, you always seem to post exactly what I'm wondering about too! Our twins must be following similar patterns (or maybe we are).

We've been swaddling since birth, first with the swaddle me and now with the miracle blankets. We attempted to stop swaddling the other night and it didn't work. I don't think it stops night waking completely, but I'm convinced it cuts it down ALOT for us. The boys are extremely physical, and would flail and roll all night if they weren't contained somehow. I actually had to go buy sleep positioners the other day because we kept rescuing them when they'd flipped back to tummy. Every morning we find owen with his arms out of the MB though, so I may try the waist down thing.

I thought the startle reflex was supposed to disappear at 4mo? Doesn't seem to be the case for us yet. Would love to stop swaddling, so let me know if you find something that works!

 

quote:
Originally posted by tracymcg:
So funny, you always seem to post exactly what I'm wondering about too! Our twins must be following similar patterns (or maybe we are).

too funny!

[/QUOTE]I thought the startle reflex was supposed to disappear at 4mo? Doesn't seem to be the case for us yet. Would love to stop swaddling, so let me know if you find something that works![/QUOTE]
Our ds continues to have it to.

 

We stopped at 5 months with Parker and 7 months with Braydon. The startle reflex can hang around until 6 to 7 months.

 

Interesting question.... I was going to ask it too!! My boys will be a year old on the 21st and they still love to be swaddled. So we still swaddle them to sleep!! sometimes, they will go through the night still intact!



Jen FB

 

we stopped at 6 months old....i was really nervous b/c I thought they wouldn't be able to sleep without being swaddled, but, of course, it was like nothing to them...they slept right through!!

 

I was just coming to post this very same question!!! Our babies are 4.5 months old and we still swaddle using the Miracle Blankets (we just leave their feet out of the pockets now). They both flail still during their naps without the MB, so I can imagine how it would be to stop swaddling at night - we'd never get any sleep and neither would they. Our Ped. said to keep swaddling if it seems they like it (they do), and when we did stop, to wean them by leaving one arm out at a time for a few nights, then the other arm, etc. I think Dr. Karp's book advocates this same weaning approach.

 

I still do it and mine are 7 mos. we leave their arms out now, but they like the swaddled up feeling. I think you're supposed to stop swaddling once they can roll over - so they have arms free to push off their face if they roll over and can't breathe. other than that, I don't know why you would have to stop.

Teri D

 

We swaddled until the boys were 8 months.

We actually didn't start swaddling until almost 5 weeks when they started growing through a growth spurt and seemed super cranky. We left the legs out at about 4 months, then around 7 months, left the arms out and just swaddled the torso. At 8 months they seemed ok (no crying when DH put them down) so we stopped swaddling.

My friend that introduced me to the miracle blanket said you'd know when they were ready to stop swaddling. She was right in our case.