Has anyone swaddled past 6 months?

The girls are almost 6 months and we still swaddle them. Is that bad? They can't roll over on their own yet. When should they be doing that?
Anyway, one night, we tried to put them to bed unswaddled and E just cried, and K kept eating her hands and wouldn't sleep. They just sleep better swaddled and I don't know if there is any harm in keeping them swaddled this late in age. I've heard of "weaning" them off the swaddles, but we'd just run into the same problems. They know when they are swaddled, that it is time to sleep. If I just put them in the cribs unswaddled, they are confused! I know I am probably in the minority here, but I figured I'd still ask.

 

We swaddled until about 6 mos. I really thought we would never break it, especially with my daughter (she didn't like being swaddled, but would always wake herself up with her hands in her face if we didn't). I wasn't sure how we would wean them off of it, but they really did do it on their own. My son was turning into a side sleeper in the blanket. But he struggled staying on his side, because he didn't have the leverage he needed with his legs. I got tired of getting up all night to help him, so finally one night I just went cold turkey with the blanket and it worked. We swaddled him off and on anyway when he went through different sleep phases, so I knew he really didn't need it.

My daughter I thought would be swaddled until she was 5, because she'd wake herself up in a half hour without it. Then she started wanting to turn over and sleep on her tummy. She was breaking her arms out of the miracle blanket faster than I could reswaddle her and she'd be on her tummy. And amazingly, she slept fine that way. So I figured it was safer to just put her down without the blanket, rather than having her get stuck face down in it.

I thought there was never any way they would just go to sleep without being swaddled, they would stay up and play all night. But it really only took 20 minutes or so before they rolled over and went to sleep.

The last big step was swaddling for naps. Since we were dealing with such a short time span of when they needed to fall asleep and I wanted to keep them on the same sleep schedule, I continued swaddling them for naps. Within two weeks we got rid of that too, just stopped doing it and like my surprise at night, they did eventually go to sleep on their own and at the right times. I just had to make extra sure I was putting them down at the right time - not too soon or too late.

But if yours aren't showing signs of wanting to be done with it, I don't see any harm in it. I was all about whatever it took for them to sleep best. If they didn't fight me on it and then sleep fine without it, I'd still be swaddling them now!

 

Yes, we still do it at 11 months. Only, its more like sleep sacks at this point because we don't swaddle their arms, we use the swaddle-me's, and just swaddle across their chest. They can get out of them easily, even crawl around in them, but it's still a clear signal to them that it's bedtime. You might try a gradual process, do a test night with one arm free, both arms free, etc. I suppose we could use sleep sacks instead.

 

We swaddled until at least 8 months so you are not alone, they were rolling over by then but the swaddle was really just used to get them to sleep, they alway broke out of it later.

I wouldn't worry about swaddling, they'll let you know when they don't need it anymore.......at least mine did

Erica

 

My bff swaddled her little girl until she was about 10 months old or so then she wanted out.

 

I swaddled my DD #2 till I was using adult sheets and felt like it was my deep dark secret.

If it works for you, DO IT!!!

They all EVENTUALLY grow out of it!

 

If mine would have stayed on their backs past 6 months I would have kept swaddling!

My guys both really loved to be swaddled and slept so well that way. We gave up the swaddle around 4 months when they started rolling like crazy and houdining out. I kept finding one or the other on their tummy still in or partially in the swaddle. I was a little afraid they might suffocate (where's that sense of self preservation?!?! they slept nose down in the mattress, and still do once in a while...) so I decided to cold turkey it one night and miracle of all miracles they kept right on STTN. The fact that by morning they would be totally out of the swaddle might have been a tiny clue for as well that they were ready as well.

 

QUOTE(beemer @ Oct 28 2008, 12:51 AM) [snapback]1044962[/snapback]
The fact that by morning they would be totally out of the swaddle might have been a tiny clue for as well that they were ready as well.


This is what we did. We swaddled until 5.5 months. At 5 months the boys started STTN (12 hours) on their own, but when we would go in in the AM - they would be totally out of their swaddles. I figured if they didn't need them to go back to sleep during the night - they were probibly done with them. We did CIO the first night without the swaddles (they cried about 20 min. going to sleep) -- but never cried again for going to sleep (FWIW - we did switch to sleepsacks when we stoped the swaddling)

Also, we kept swaddling arms for naps until they were 6 months old (they just couldn't seem to fall alseep without them) - and they eventually outgrew it on their own as well.

I say do what works! I was planning to swaddle until we got a "sign" that they were ready to stop.

 

thank you for posting, I thought for sure we were the only ones swaddling past 6 months and I was feeling really guilty about it...

DD1 just started rolling to her stomach in the crib, with her arms still swaddled so we have to stop. We had transitioned her to the sleep sac a few weeks ago but then she was teething so we had to go back to swaddles. Now her first tooth is breaking through but it's too risky to keep her swaddled with her rolling so we've stopped. She's not sleeping well, but I think it's because of the tooth not being un-swaddled.

DD2 is still swaddled. they use binkies so without the swaddle when you put DD2 down she immediately puts her hands to her mouth and knocks the binkie out and wakes up. She's starting to roll to her side in the swaddle though so I know we've only got a few weeks left on her...

I worry a little that it keeps them from practicing their motor skills because they are so restricted but DD1 did learn to roll anyway so I guess as long as during the day they have lots of floor time it's okay.

good luck!

 

We just stopped swaddling at 6 1/2 months and it was because our little ones were breaking out and I was worried about them suffocating in the material. My pedi said to swaddle as long as you could. I don't think swaddling made my little ones develop any slower but we have not swaddled for naps since 3 months. We did the gradual switch where we swaddled looser, then one arm out and then to a sleep sack. Ellie sleeps fine unswaddled but Connor can roll over too much and it has taken him some time to get adjusted. They still STTN but he wakes up tired many mornings.

 

QUOTE(20Fingers20Toes @ Oct 27 2008, 04:08 PM) [snapback]1044319[/snapback]
The girls are almost 6 months and we still swaddle them. Is that bad? They can't roll over on their own yet. When should they be doing that?
Anyway, one night, we tried to put them to bed unswaddled and E just cried, and K kept eating her hands and wouldn't sleep. They just sleep better swaddled and I don't know if there is any harm in keeping them swaddled this late in age. I've heard of "weaning" them off the swaddles, but we'd just run into the same problems. They know when they are swaddled, that it is time to sleep. If I just put them in the cribs unswaddled, they are confused! I know I am probably in the minority here, but I figured I'd still ask.



We also still swaddle. I have the swaddle-me's and at night we do a full swaddle, during daytime naps we do it across their chest, with arms out. I find that they can both get out of it if they wiggle enough, but at night they don't usually do it. When they do, they wake up so I don't think we'll be stopping anytime soon.