Hi! I’m Dana Obleman, creator of The Sleep Sense Program. If you’d rather read than watch, I’ve transcribed the text of this video below.
Want your own copy of “The Sleep Sense Program?” You can order yours here, or click here for more information!
This week’s question comes from Victoria and she writes:
“At what age should I stopped swaddling. It is the only way she will fall asleep and stay asleep.”
That is a great question Victoria and it can be a tricky one because I recommend that people swaddle newborns. I think it’s a great tool. Newborns tend to like to be confined fairly tightly as they fall a sleep. It is very reminiscent of being in the womb. With newborns it is a great strategy but if you don’t ease your way out of swaddling, you can find four, five or even eight months down the road you’re still trying to swaddle a fairly big active baby. It just would not work.
They will kick free and probably start crying because they are not swaddled anymore. You will have to go in and re-swaddle. I have even had clients who are sewing together four of their feeding blankets so it is big enough to swaddle their babies. What has happened then is that swaddling becomes the sleep crutch. It is the only way the baby feels confident that he can get himself to a sleep and so anywhere between eight and 12 weeks, it is a good idea to start steering away from swaddling.
Even if you just do not swaddle for naps or at bedtime you stop swaddling gradually. It does not have to be all or nothing. It can be a fairly gradual extinction. Start by just leaving one arm out for a couple of weeks and then leave both arms out for a couple. Gradually just move the swaddle all the way down. If you have got a baby who is more into the four or five months old range who you are still swaddling, then it really is best to just drop the swaddle cold turkey. They are so used to be in the swaddle now that if you leave one arm out they are going to protest even that change and you might as well just drop it altogether. Teach them a new way to fall asleep that does not involve being tightly wound. You can get started on the path of breaking the connection with swaddling and helping your child learn a new strategy that is independent of the swaddle.
I hope that answers your question Victoria. Thanks a lot and sleep well!
To learn more about The Sleep Sense Program, click here — or you can click here to order now!
To ask a question about your child’s sleep, use the form below. I’ll answer selected questions here on my blog!
I finally got my baby out of her swaddle! She is 7 months old. She would never fall asleep without being swaddled (miracle blanket with another blanket on top to keep it tight)…she became increasingly able to get out of it in the night, but still she would never go back to sleep unless we put her back in it. This past week, she started rolling onto her stomach while swaddled–which caused the swaddle to come off and be loose in the crib or just made her upset because she couldn’t roll back onto her back. Everything came to a head basically, but it honestly felt like there was absolutely no way she was going to sleep without that thing. We went “cold turkey” (one arm out did just make her angry)…and this means that we had to let her try to soothe herself (cry hard for an hour a couple of times which really broke my heart). Specifically, I put her down in the crib with a sleep sack on, and she rolled back and forth, rubbed her eyes, cried, etc. I didn’t go in and console her because that NEVER works for her anyway. I just watched her on the video monitor and let her try to soothe herself. At one point, I went in once just for myself to pat her back because I was so upset–but it didn’t help. And finally she did it! She rolled on her stomach and went to sleep. An hour later, she woke up and took an hour to put herself to sleep again. Since then, it takes 5-20 minutes for her to put herself to sleep for the night and for naps.
Anyway, I had a hard time finding “success stories” on strategies for getting a 7 month old baby out of the swaddle, so I just wanted to share that Dana’s advice did work for us!
Ues, but not everthing black and white, something is gray :)
Miranda
Hi dana, my son is 8 months and still .wants to be swaddled, what do I do? He wakes crying if he isn’t tightly wrapped n its driving me nutS! Please help!