still swaddling at 8 months old - when should I stop

[Jamies mom]

Hello ladies, this is my first time posting on this board but I was wondering if anyone could help/give advice.

We have always swaddled my son since birth, and swaddling has been a miracle for us with regard to helping him sleep. He suffers from Reflux, and until we got his medication sorted out he had a lot of pain to deal with in the early weeks. He’s never been a baby that happily drops off to sleep just anywhere when he’s tired. But once we’d got his sleep sorted and were on a pretty good  EASY routine things fell into place nicely. However, my query is that at eight and a half months old he’s still in his swaddle and can’t sleep without it.

My worry is that by restricting his movement during the night I’m holding back his development. I’ve heard that babies practice a lot of their movements during the night. He is a little behind many of the babies I know of his age. He has always been a big baby, he is stocky, but not especially fat. He is quite strong in himself and can sit unaided very well, but he doesn’t roll over, is nowhere near crawling and will not really take his weight if you hold him standing up. So I’m worried that he’s not getting mobile in any way.

We’ve tried occasionally putting him to sleep without his swaddle, or with one arm out, with disastrous results.  The main thing he does is rub his eyes really badly and just cries and cries.

So I guess my main query is for people who have swaddled their babies in the past, do you have to go ‘cold turkey’ and train them over a period of days to get used to sleeping without a swaddle, or do you just reach a time when they no longer need one?

Is anyone else still swaddling at nearly nine months old? And do you think the swaddle is holding him back developmentally?

I feel a bit guilty worrying/complaining because with the swaddle Jamie sleeps brilliantly, he sleeps twelve hours straight at night (unless he escapes his swaddle, in which case we re-swaddle and he’s back to sleep in seconds) and he has two good naps during the day, and he’s such a happy baby when he gets the sleep he needs, it makes all the difference.

Here in the UK swaddling seems pretty rare, people don’t seem to give it a fair try, but we’ve had real success with it.

Anyway, sorry this post is so long and many thanks for reading. Would love to hear what you think?

[tylersmommy]

Well, we swaddled Tyler for a long time, by most people's standards. We did the Aussie swaddle in a bedsheet until he was about 8.5 mo (it's a tight, restricting swaddle...directions are at the top of this forum). When he got to that age, we decided to wean him from it...he seemed ready because he wasn't waking when he broke out of it anymore. We went very slowly, starting with 1 arm and enduring his frantic arm flapping during wind down. Once the novelty of flapping his arm wore off (took a week or 2) we let the other arm out. When he got over flapping that arm, we just started wrapping his legs in a normal thin blanket. That's how Tyler naps to this day, and he just turned 2! We decided to continue wrapping his legs because the act of swaddling was a huge sleep cue for him, and the blanket is now his lovey. As soon as he gets into the crib he wiggles out of it and snuggles it. That's how we handled it.

As for developmental issues, I'd heard that too. IMHO, swaddling doesn't negatively impact motor development, and even if it does, it will all even out in the end. Yes, Tyler crawled and walked a bit later than all the babies in our playgroup (9 mo and 15 mo), but who knows if that had anything to do with swaddling or not. I don't think so. Once he did start walking his motor development caught up to his peers pretty quickly, so I never really worried about it too much.

Bottom line...I think as long as you and your baby are happy, there's no reason to change anything!

[woopster]

Yes, Tyler crawled and walked a bit later than all the babies in our playgroup (9 mo and 15 mo), but who knows if that had anything to do with swaddling or not.

We never swaddled our 1st son, and he didn't crawl til he was 10 months and walked when he was 16 months.

[HCH]

Geez we're almost at 12mo and we still sometimes swaddle.

Our boy was sitting later than some of the other kids, as presented by their ultra-competitive parents, but he is very coordinated. Many of those things he started early. He also just had a huge dev. burst and blew by crawling and is now almost walking.

I have the same fears about the swaddle, but as devotees, we haven't seen our son have any probs.

He is also very long, and not very chubby. Long and lean like dad I think. I think the proportions of babies often has a lot to do with how fast they do things.

[Jamies mom]

hello again, just a quick note to say thank you to everyone who replied, it was really helpful hearing your opinions, and am just going to carry on swaddling, it just works so well. Thanks again and best wishes.