Swaddling Guide


One of the fist things you should be doing with your baby (outside of feeding and holding your little cutie) is swaddling.

The moro or startle reflex is present at birth and often occurs right before baby is about to fall asleep or wake up. It causes baby to suddenly startle which can wake him up or make it hard for him to fall asleep. This is where swaddling comes in handy. Not only does it help prevent the moro reflex from disturbing baby (he doesn't even realize those limbs are his!), but it helps keep baby nice, tight and snug like he used to be in the womb which is comforting rather than confining or claustrophobic like some people think. It may also reduce the risk of SIDS.



How to Swaddle
However you swaddle, do it tight! Remember how tight those nurses in the hospital swaddled baby? Do it that tight! Once again, people will probably have their own thoughts on the matter ("but baby can't breathe or move! Oh my!"), but generally, the tighter the better. Obviously you do need to make sure you aren't doing it so tight that baby can't breath, but that this is pretty hard to do.

If you ask 5 different people to swaddle your baby they'll probably do it all a little differently. While some ways are better than others (mainly because they stay in place and allow free movement for baby's legs and hips) the best way to figure out what works is to try it and see if it lives up to its name. Here are some different swaddling options :
  • Halo Swaddle/SleepSack - I love these, and they provide a nice transition to a sleep sack after you are done swaddling. 
  • Swaddleme - Simple, quick to use and relatively inexpensive.
  • The Miracle Blanket is a special blanket that helps keep arms of little houdini's from sneaking out. I used this with three of my babies and loved it. It worked past the newborn period too, which is a concern of many parents.
  • The woombie or swaddlepod are some swaddling alternatives that give baby a womb-like feel. I've tried the woombie and liked it but never got much use out of it since my son was already used to a different swaddle and preferred it over this.
  • Some babies do better with their arms at their sides when swaddled while others like to have their arms across their chest. Keep in mind that arms at the chest are more likely to get out of the swaddle. When swaddling with arms at the side, allow a little room for elbow movement.
  • Many people like to use muslin blankets to swaddle. There are lots of cute ones available. They are a little stretchy, super soft and breathable. Here is a youtube tutorial on how to swaddle with a blanket (be sure to give the hips and legs enough room!)
Here's one swaddling technique:
  • The Baby Whisperer - "Lay flat a receiving blanket like a diamond. Fold one corner of the diamond down to make a nice straight edge. Lay your baby on the blanket, so that his neck is even with the fold and his head is out of the blanket. Place his left arm at a forty-five -degree angle across his chest and bring the right corner of the blanket across your baby's chest and tuck it under the left side of his body. Bring the bottom of the blanket up to cover his outstretched legs. Finally, bring the left corner of the swaddle across his chest and tuck it under his right side."
What if Baby Doesn't Like To Be Swaddled?
First off. Are you sure? If he is kicking or crying most likely he is flailing his limbs because he is overtired, and overstimulated. He may also be trying to settle himself for sleep or simply needs a moment to readjust to a new situation. If he's a newborn, he probably likes to be swaddled, he just may not like it when he is getting swaddled.

What if baby keeps 'trying to get out' of the swaddle? 
This doesn't mean he doesn't like the swaddle or that he is too old for it. Most likely he simply needs to be swaddled a bit better or needs a better swaddle blanket (like the miracle blanket).  If you feel he's old enough to be unswaddled, you can try weaning. If he's getting out of the swaddle and seems to be doing fine comforting himself (many children will find their fingers and be quite content), then you're probably good to wean.

What if it is too hot to swaddle?
Before throwing out the swaddle, try some other alternatives (unless, of course, it's time to get rid of it anyway).
  • Keep your house at a cooler temperature.
  • Strip your baby down either to a onsie or even just a diaper. When we visit family in Arizona, my babies pretty much only sleep in a diaper--and they're still hot!
  • Only swaddle the body and not the feet. You can also use something that holds just the arms like the Swaddle Strap. This is also really handy for changing baby's poopie diaper (you know what I mean if you've got one of those babies who likes to, well, get his hands messy).
  • Use a light weight blanket (those adorable muslin ones) or a light weight swaddle. I've always been fine with just a cotton swaddle, but I keep my house pretty cool. There are also some products that are made to be cooler, like this and this.  I haven't personally tried them, but they have great reviews.
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23 comments:

  1. Thank you for this post! We are still swaddling our 8 month old little boy. He cannot seem to get to sleep without it - especially since he can now roll over and crawl in his cot and pull himself to standing. We have no idea how we are going to help him drop it. He gets out of it by the morning so he literally just needs it to get to sleep and then he is fine. We were told swaddling would hinder his physical development but when we took him for his 8 month check on Monday the Health Visitor said that he was at the top end of his age for his development - no sign of hindered development here!!

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  2. Anonymous,
    That is great news. I know several people that have swaddled their children at that age and they have all done fine developmentally too.

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  3. hi rachel!

    the day has come...my 7.5 month old daughter recently started rolling from back to front (she skipped front to back altogether) so i knew it was time to eliminate the swaddle. she has been in a woombie, which has been great. we are on day 3 and it is a bear! she is still in the woombie, but it is a "convertible" so i am able to stick her arms out. out of 3 naps, she takes at least 30min to sleep (usually 5min, now the first thing she does is roll over), has been sleeping at most for 25 min or just crying for 45-1hr. never knew this kid had it in her to cry that long. of course by the end of the day, her face is raw from rubbing on the sheets, she's super cranky and delirious. she has been mostly sleeping at night, although she has been waking up and playing for an hour at some point before going back to sleep. since she is not super proficient at rolling, she can get stuck in a position, not know how to get out of it and just lay there, crying. these last few days have been the worst since her episodes with the witching hour as a newborn!! i would like to think that it's going to get better, but i fear that not sleeping will become a habit or that i did all of this too abruptly or, well, that it won't get better. is there some way i can help her? does it get better?

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    1. The Roache hotel,
      I'd consider helping her out of tough positions with the rolling. At least until she gets a little better at rolling since she is having such a tough time at it. Make sure to practice rolling during the day. I'd try to introduce a lovey of some sort and give it to her for sleep and during comforting times like feeds. Things will get better, but it will take some time (some babies have a much harder time at it than others) and maybe some extra support is needed. I doubt she will get into a habit of not sleeping. Babies very often don't sleep well during developmental times and almost all of them go back to sleeping normal again once things pass, although some do need a little sleep training to get back there, especially if you've done someting extremely different for sleep during these times.

      I hope that helped some!
      Rachel

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    2. Rachel, thanks for the advice! After about day 5 she seemed to start adjusting. The other day she fell asleep in 5min, but yesterday back to 30min. So I feel encouraged! She is practicing rocking back and forth on hands and knees, which I think is adding to the time, like you said.. And I have been going in to help her get out of an awkward position once I feel sure that she's just trying to get comfortable as opposed to fighting sleep.

      As great as the swaddle has been, breaking it (esp at her age), has been tough. If my husband and I have another, I would probably go through this a lot earlier as their will isn't as strong and voices as loud!

      For others whose kiddos are struggling to drop the swaddle, hang in there, it really does get better..thanks again Rachel!

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    3. PS my daughter is now in a sleep sack called the gro-bag, and its really great - very cute, functional, made well and comes in different fabric weights! Highly recommend..

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    4. The roache hotel,
      I'm so glad things are improving. My son Jacob dropped it around this age too and didn't have much of an adjustment period but that is just him. My oldest had a harder time. Different temperments and possibly the issue of the different timing with their own developmental timetables.

      I'm never heard of the gro-bag. Sounds cool. Thanks for letting me know about it. I'll look into it.

      Rachel

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  4. i posted but i am not sure what happened to it. My DD is 29 weeks tomorrow and my plan was to start to wean slowly one nap at a time/focus on day and leave night uninterrupted. Well on Monday she started to roll fully swaddled to it had to stop for safety reasons, including night. Well it's been horrible!!! She used to sleep 4ish during the day and at least 12 at night. With superbad naps I'd put her to bed ultraearly ala Dr Weissbluth and she'd sleep 13 hrs,etc (with a rewrap of the swaddle in the 5ish AM hour). Anyways her daytime total sleep is 3 hours (and can be very framgmented), she is not sleeping that well at night as she is having trouble learning to sleep without her swaddle. Fast forward and she is very sleep deficient for the entire week. When will it change?? I am surprised this is so rough as she's so old. I guess i was hoping it'd be easier at this age??? DD2 we stopped at 3-4 months and it was rough and CIO for a while til she adjusted. THis DD is also "touchy" so that's hard. But I can't seem to break OT cycle. I try to keep naps somewhat in sync but she can shortnap and doesn't really get caught up. I keep hoping her 3rd will be a catchup for the day but it's not working. It is just getting worse and worse despite trying everything to combat OT. What do you suggest??? Anything?? I am getting to my wit end as I thought it should be getting better by now!

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    1. I apologize for the late reply michael and yvonne,
      How are things going now. Have you tried wrapping the swaddle around her from the armpits down to help simulate the swaddle feed? Maybe even try holding some pressure on her tummy or hold her arms for a while as she tries to go to sleep and as she transitions through sleep. I hope things are doing better right now! Changes sure can be tough for touchy babies!

      Rachel

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  5. Rachel,
    We've been swaddling our son since birth (he's now 3 months old) and just recently he's been getting out of the swaddle and I wonder if that's causing him to wake himself up. He's incredibly jumpy and I've not had any luck getting him to nap without a swaddle unless he's in the swing. He's recently gone from sleeping from 8pm to 2am (feeding) and then up again at 5am (feeding) and then at 7am (awake for the day) to getting up every 2 hours at night. This is our 3rd child, and I feel more clueless than with the other two. To top it off, he is the worlds lightest sleeper! Do you have any suggestions? Should I stop swaddling? Would Wake to Sleep work? I'm lost, frustrated and very sleepy! Thanks

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    1. Shelby Graber,
      Some people suggest stopping the swaddle around the age to let baby find his hands etc to comfort him. I often have better luck stopping a bit later. So I'd see if you can't get that swaddle to stay on better. It coming off is likely the issue. You can see some of the swaddles I recommend here, the miracle blanket might be your best bet right now.
      http://www.mybabysleepguide.com/2009/01/swaddling.html

      You could also drop the swaddle cold turkey and sleep will be tough for a few to several days, but he should get used to it. Some babies will have a lot of issues for many days and if that is the case, I'd go back to the swaddle for a bit longer.

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  6. Hi Rachel,

    My baby is 5 months old and loves the swaddle. The only problem is that we live in 100+ weather and lately, though I have the air on and a ceiling fan on in her room, she's waking up very warm (but not sweaty) and has heat rash all over her body. I decided to drop the swaddle cold turkey to help her stay cooler and so far it's been a nightmare. It used to take her 5 min to get to sleep, now it takes 30. She used to sleep for 1.5-2.5 hours, now she's waking up at about 40 min (during her sleep transition) and not going back to sleep. Any suggestions? Do I just need to wait it out or is there anything I can do to help it get better? Thanks!

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    1. Megan,
      Waiting it out will likely solve the issue, but you could 1) try swaddling with one then two arms out and/or 2) swaddle from the armpits down for a bit before dropping it completely. I know, not a fun change. Just try to focus on the fact that you are giving her an opportunity to find other ways to soothe herself--with her fabulous hands.

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  7. Rachel,
    Thanks for your advice. I tried swaddling her with one arm out and things improved dramatically. She is back to sleeping normally and falling asleep quickly, thank goodness I think I'll gradually transition to no swaddle. We put an extra fan in her room which has helped with her heat rash, too.

    I do have another question. I am generally pretty consistent with wake time, but her naps are all over the place. Sometimes her first nap is 2.5 hours, sometimes it's only 1.5. Her other naps vary a lot, too. They are all usually pretty good naps, and she always takes one long nap, but I never know which nap is going to be the long one by this age, both of my two older children were like clockwork. Is there anything I can do to get her nap lengths more consistent? She is still waking up 2 times a night to eat, I'm working on weaning from the first feed, then I'll work on the second. I'm kind of hoping that once we get night worked out, the days will become more consistent, too?

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    1. Megan,
      Make sure she is waking at the same time each day. Get her up if she isn't up by that time. That'll help out some. You could try limiting naps so they aren't so long that they take away from other naps. For example, limit the am one to 1.5-2 hours. Or you could move more towards set nap times (varying a bit) while limiting naps times. Likely she'll improve as she gets a bit older, but some children are really inconsistent and need some extra guidance to ever get consistent.

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  8. Can I swaddle my newborn during naps too?

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  10. My baby is 9 weeks old. He screeches every night for hours and refuses to go to sleep. You know what doesn't work worth a hill of beans? Swaddling, shushing, side, or any of this malarkey. I am so tired of "Happiest Baby on the Block" and the people that swear it works for every baby. It doesn't. No matter what I do, that baby screeches and screeches and cries. So it would be nice if one of these days I could find someone that gives advice beyond the 4 or 5 "S's"

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    1. Malcolm L,
      Sorry things are really crummy for you right now. A screaming baby for hours on end every day is enough to drive anyone up the wall--and people that say that you just need to do this or that just make it more frustrating. My first was colicky, and I was able to get him to stop screaming sometimes, but sometimes, he simply kept screaming. I seriously think the only way I survived was by turning on funniest home videos as loud as I could and watching it every night and trying to laugh if I could! If you haven't already, see if putting him to bed by 6:30 for the night helps and keep his waketime to no more than around an hour throughout the day. Besides that, try to get a break if you can. Plop your son swaddled in a swing on high speed and go take a break somewhere for a short time where you can't hear him if you need to. Maybe there is someone that can watch him for a few hours to give you a break?

      Rachel

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  11. Hi rachel,
    My daughter will be 7 months next week and we still swaddle her. She hasn't been a good sleeper since she was born. She is a very active baby who is hard to sooth. We cannot rock her to sleep as she is so active and then doesn't know how to calm her body. We do our bedtime routine and then wrap her. The problem is that she rolls over (we put a pillow on the side she rolls to to prevent that), and she constantly get her one arm out (we've have tried many different ways of swaddling). As soon as she gets her arm out she wakes herself up and screams....it is very hard to calm her back down unless we feed her which if she is not hungry she refuses it as well. We have tried dropping the swaddle numerous times (one arm out, cold turkey, etc) and have had no success. She constantly touches her face, pulls her soother out, and rolls to belly resulting in screaming. Sometimes she will sleep 8 hours at night if she doesn't get her arm out but other times it will be every 4 hours she is up screaming. Should i drop the swaddle completely, naps and bedtime? Keep swaddling her? Any advice would be great!!! I want her to sooth herself and get herself comfortable....she fights the swaddle, but wakes up if she gets out and can't go to sleep without being swaddled. It's a constant battle we face.

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  12. My son is 3 months and I swaddle him every night for bed. He sleeps through the night with one or two feedings most of the time. If he is not swaddled he startles himself awake. I would like to eventually introduce a lovey but if he is swaddled he won't be able to hold on to his lovey. When can I stop swaddling baby without worrying about the Moro reflex?

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    1. feuxrouge,
      The moro reflex can last until 4/5 months in some babies. Many babies are fine when you stop swaddling at this age, it just takes them a few days to get used to the change. If things are going well with the swaddle, no big rush to get rid of it unless baby is rolling. The lovey is nice, but it won't necessarily be any more helpful than a swaddle. You could always put the lovey inside the swaddle so he can touch it with his hands though, or start having it near him when you feed him or cuddle him to get him used to it.

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