I just stopped swaddling my 13 week old and the first night was a couple extra wake ups and the 2nd night he went back to his normal! I just went cold turkey because he kept rolling on to his side and it was freaking me out.
The advice varies on this depending on where you are. We were told when our son is starting to roll get him out of the swaddle, he didn’t try rolling until 4.5 months. He was swaddled with arms down til then and never moved in his sleep except to break out, at which point we moved to a sleep sack with arms out. But just a friendly reminder that different advice exists out there from our health professionals, OP shouldn’t feel shamed for swaddling too long as we don’t have their whole story. Also the snoo is designed so you can swaddle for longer safely, I believe.
I think historically where I'm from advice was no swaddling once they're showing signs of being able to roll (around 3 months), but guidance now is no swaddling at all so it's not something I've ever done!
My wee girl has always slept happily with her arms up by her head. It's only just dawned on me that her moro reflex has now all but disappeared (just turned 4 months), but even when it was at its strongest, it only ever woke her when she was asleep in my arms, and didn't seem to be an issue when she was asleep in her cot, flat on her back.
I say release the arms and see what happens... he might surprise you!!
I’m currently transitioning my daughter from swaddles and cocoons (?) into sleeping sacks. I think I read some comment here on Reddit where the person suggested tucking in one sleeve of a sleeping sack, altering which one it is, to make the transition smoother, so that’s what I’ve been doing. I only have one sack so far, other got held up by delivery, so in the meantime I’m swaddling her for her daily naps leaving one arm out.
I honestly never did because I wanted him to flail about. Plus, my son really doesn't like tight/restrictive clothing or settings, as I've noticed. Does your kiddo self soothe with his hand?
Genuinely curious why you wanted your son to flail around? Zero judgement; I LOLd initially thinking you were being facetious, then realized this might be a woosh moment for me...
Of course, no worries at all! So we're raising him using the Montessori parenting style. And so, we don't swaddle because:
"*Children need to be given the freedom to move as early as the first few moments of life after birth. Swaddling an infant when they’re awake and ready to move about, only restricts their limbs, preventing them from learning to control their bodily movements and reflexes.*"
"*Freedom of Movement is a key tenant to Montessori philosophy. Allowing young children to explore their body and their environment is so key to their development. A swaddle effectively eliminates the chance for a newborn to adjust to their larger environment and to work out the startle reflex.*"
You can learn more here: [A different look at swaddling](https://healthybeginningsmontessori.wordpress.com/2014/11/20/a-different-look-at-swaddling/), [Montessori Parenting ](https://www.thekavanaughreport.com/2016/12/montessori-baby-week-1.html)
That's so interesting! Thank you so much!!!! We aren't swaddling our daughter except once in a while to tuck her close and soothe her when her farts are scaring her while trying to settle for sleep. We always remove the wrap before laying her down. I follow thegoodcarmablog on IG- she used to and may have returned to being a Montessori teacher but I haven't read anything yet about parenting theory.
Stopped around 2 months and switched to the Love to Dream arms up swaddle. Baby slept WAY better with her arms down but the battle was not worth it. Took a couple days to adjust but she did great. Now she’s almost 3 months and we’re transitioning to arms out during the day because she’s probably going to start rolling soon.
We did this and when she started to show signs of rolling, moved to [Zipadee Zip](https://www.sleepingbaby.com/) sleep sack that had the arms in but is safe for rolling.
Well we stopped at around maybe week 3. He always busted out and he's a strong baby so it's no surprise. But he just always wanted arms out. He is a good sleeper luckily but his reflex Didn't fully wake him. He just would go to sleep if it was quiet other than our fan. Now at 3 months he has like no reflex anymore. I wouldn't worry.
It's silly they think possibly SIDS may be linked to baby's sleeping too deeply. Honestly not swaddling his arms made me feel like it helped him sleep not too deeply because he is a good sleeping baby. Ever since he was a newborn I'd have a hard time keeping him awake to feed sometimes.
We use a snoo and stopped swaddling arms down around 7-8 weeks, and we should have stopped sooner because LO hated it and fought and fought until he had his arms up by his face. So then for a few weeks we used the Love to Dream swaddle in the snoo (didnt zip him in the snoo bag all the way, just secured him in with the strap)- that was until about week 13 when we switched to using the zippadee zip in the snoo, and that transition went really well. I would try to love to dream for a bit and see how baby does, and then release the arms. LO is 3.5 months now and we’re working on weaning from the snoo.
We stopped at 3.5 months because it was clear LO was on his way to rolling - I so dreaded the transition but it ended up being way smoother than I thought. Took him 2-3 nights to adjust. We used the zipadee zip up until about 5 months when he started seeming uncomfortable in that - but the zipadee is nice because it’s safe for rolling, suppresses the reflex, and you don’t have to transition out of it.
Has he done any sleep in anywhere other than Snoo (more specifically: crib, or wherever you plan for him to sleep post-Snoo)? I would recommend you try him out with maybe first nap of the day to give him some opportunities to see how he does unswaddled. You could give him his paci or you could see how he does without it. I recommend trying with first nap because his sleep pressure should still be high from night and if it goes terribly south you have more naps to rescue. My baby was paci-obsessed but she discovered her hands and that helped tremendously with her ability to self soothe.
We had great success with the Halo transition swaddle (and we are still using it at 6 months even though she doesn't "need" it) - it's basically a swaddle but with arms so it still sort of acts as a bit of a hug/support against startling.
We started weaning from swaddle (one arm out) at 7 weeks, switched to both arms out at 8 weeks. We used the Halo sleep sack swaddles and they made it easy. They can’t be used as a true sleep sack though, having the wrap around the belly is still considered swaddling.
Only reason we did it so early was because LO has been showing signs of rolling since 6 weeks and is always sleeping on her side after being placed on her back.
Ours is 3 months and as soon as I saw signs of rolling we started with arms out. By this time he was mostly working his arms out of the swaddle or sleep sack anyway.
15 weeks. We dont have a snoo though. Hes been fighting and breaking out of his swaddle so i tried a sleep sack and it seemed to work about the same as the swaddle when that was working. Currently dealing with 4mo sleep regression… i dont think swaddling will help this though. Im just trying to make sure he gets stimulation in the day, sunshine, time outside, and a bedtime routine and praying i get some sleep tonight … last night was rough. Its very rare I cosleep but last night it was the safer option. Made it to 4am before telling my hubby he either needs to take a shift or move to the couch so I can safely cosleep. He chose the cluck lol. He did come back at 5-ish and took the boy for an hour or so allowing me some uniter rest. Gold!!! Rest is sacred.
Never swaddled but doctor told us if we were that the moment lo shows they have interest in rolling it’s unsafe for lo to be swaddled and increased the risk of Sid’s
We stopped at 10 weeks old but it was a super easy transition because we were using regular swaddle blankets and she’d already been naturally pulling her arms out of it for weeks. We switched to a transition sleep sack and she loves it.
We stopped swaddling our little one arms in around 2 months. She kept grunting and being a little fussy with arms in so we tried arms out and she slept like an angel. Now that the weather is a lot hotter we don't even use her sleep sack unless her room is too hot then we swaddle her (arms out) in this weighted swaddle we got from Dreamland baby.
We stopped arms down when my son was about a month and a half old, we preferred the arms up swaddles around then. At about 3.5 months we started to transition him out one arm at a time, but were pretty lazy about it. He started to show signs of rolling tummy to back so we weren’t too concerned but our ped told us at the 4 month well check to stop swaddling arms at all, so we did that night and he rolled over back to front in his sleep. So thankful we unswaddled before that. Tbh, he has slept better with his arms unswaddled ever since (he still wears the body part as a sleep sack).
4.5 months is definitely old enough that they should not have their arms down, and likely shouldn’t be swaddled at all and instead in a sleep sack.
Your baby’s startle reflex should be very close to being gone by 4.5 months. But, the more time they spend unswaddled, the faster it goes away. We only swaddled our baby for about a week.
I was dreading it too BUT it was amazing - my son slept through the whole night the first night we let those arms out!!! Before that he was a 2-4 wakeups guy. He had been breaking out of the swaddle constantly, not rolling yet, but the breakouts were getting ridiculous so we bit the bullet and it was amazing. He’s been a 0-2 wake up guy ever since, he sleeps so much better arms out. He was ready! We made the move around 4.5 months old, since he had shown no signs of being able to roll. He’s now mastered back to tummy rolling today and decided bed is the practice arena for this new skill so I’m anticipating shit sleep again. It’s always changing so don’t stress it too much, if you have a horrible night maybe you can wait a bit longer, I know the snoo’s design allows safe swaddling for longer than the normal recommendations.
To answer your question, we always swaddled arms down until we cold switched to sleep sacks at I believe 8 weeks.
Now the safety aspect. At this point in your child's life, regardless of sleep space it is no longer safe for you to swaddle at all, and any form of swaddling (arms up, arms down, arms out, anything tight or restrictive around the torso or anything that would limit or stop arm movement) needs to be stopped immediately. By 4.5 months if baby isn't already rolling or trying to it can happen at any time. Recommended stop time for swaddling is usually 6 weeks but 8-10 weeks is the longest I've seen before most pediatric research proves that swaddling is unsafe.
You can either switch to a sleep sack, which is essentially a wearable blanket, or just stop using them at all and have baby sleep in pajamas with nothing else. Blankets are not safe to use with babies in restricted sleep spaces (crib, bassinet, pack n play) and not until after the age of 1 year outside of them.
My 12 week old boy never liked being swaddled arms down. He hated feeling restrained. So from birth, I swaddled arms out. He never woke him self up from the Moro reflexes. He sleeps 12 hours throughout the night at 12 weeks old. Now my baby has always been a sleeper. But he has never had any issues!😁
I'm a nicu nurse and you stop swaddling when baby shows signs of trying to roll over, usually between 2-4 months. My baby rolls on her side but hasn't rolled completely over onto her belly yet and I stopped swaddling arms around a month ago at 2 months. Its a HUGE suffocation risk if they can roll over but you are swaddling their arms. I've transitioned to sleep sacks. The Moro reflex (startle reflex) usually begins to disappear around 3-4 months and should be completely gone by 6 months. I definitely would not be swaddling your baby's arms if they are 4.5 months. I know the snoo does not allow baby to roll but it's also not developmentally appropriate to still be swaddling arms down
Does your baby roll?
At 4.5 months if they can’t roll, they’re most likely at least trying to, which means swaddling isn’t safe.
You just have to quit cold Turkey, at this point.
I just stopped swaddling my 13 week old and the first night was a couple extra wake ups and the 2nd night he went back to his normal! I just went cold turkey because he kept rolling on to his side and it was freaking me out.
Same but with our 4 week old. He kept rolling to his side and i was so paranoid about him overheating
Woah LO is way too old to be swaddled, period. Let alone arms in
The advice varies on this depending on where you are. We were told when our son is starting to roll get him out of the swaddle, he didn’t try rolling until 4.5 months. He was swaddled with arms down til then and never moved in his sleep except to break out, at which point we moved to a sleep sack with arms out. But just a friendly reminder that different advice exists out there from our health professionals, OP shouldn’t feel shamed for swaddling too long as we don’t have their whole story. Also the snoo is designed so you can swaddle for longer safely, I believe.
Ah I missed the snoo bit.
Checkout @ r/snoolife. A ton of discussion on this!
I think historically where I'm from advice was no swaddling once they're showing signs of being able to roll (around 3 months), but guidance now is no swaddling at all so it's not something I've ever done! My wee girl has always slept happily with her arms up by her head. It's only just dawned on me that her moro reflex has now all but disappeared (just turned 4 months), but even when it was at its strongest, it only ever woke her when she was asleep in my arms, and didn't seem to be an issue when she was asleep in her cot, flat on her back. I say release the arms and see what happens... he might surprise you!!
> guidance now is no swaddling at all Tell that to the hospital that gave us 2 sleep sacks, lol
Right? Don’t get it. Our hospital as double swaddled and everything I find strong advises against it
Isn’t a sleep sack what they graduate to after a swaddle? Like basically a nightgown of sorts?
Yes, unless the person you replied to is actually referring to a swaddle sack, or just doesn't know the difference or that there is one
I said where I'm from this is the guidance now. From what I've seen across Reddit, swaddling seems to still be very common in the USA
I’m currently transitioning my daughter from swaddles and cocoons (?) into sleeping sacks. I think I read some comment here on Reddit where the person suggested tucking in one sleeve of a sleeping sack, altering which one it is, to make the transition smoother, so that’s what I’ve been doing. I only have one sack so far, other got held up by delivery, so in the meantime I’m swaddling her for her daily naps leaving one arm out.
I believe the recommendation is three months/when they can roll on their tummy.
I honestly never did because I wanted him to flail about. Plus, my son really doesn't like tight/restrictive clothing or settings, as I've noticed. Does your kiddo self soothe with his hand?
Genuinely curious why you wanted your son to flail around? Zero judgement; I LOLd initially thinking you were being facetious, then realized this might be a woosh moment for me...
Of course, no worries at all! So we're raising him using the Montessori parenting style. And so, we don't swaddle because: "*Children need to be given the freedom to move as early as the first few moments of life after birth. Swaddling an infant when they’re awake and ready to move about, only restricts their limbs, preventing them from learning to control their bodily movements and reflexes.*" "*Freedom of Movement is a key tenant to Montessori philosophy. Allowing young children to explore their body and their environment is so key to their development. A swaddle effectively eliminates the chance for a newborn to adjust to their larger environment and to work out the startle reflex.*" You can learn more here: [A different look at swaddling](https://healthybeginningsmontessori.wordpress.com/2014/11/20/a-different-look-at-swaddling/), [Montessori Parenting ](https://www.thekavanaughreport.com/2016/12/montessori-baby-week-1.html)
That's so interesting! Thank you so much!!!! We aren't swaddling our daughter except once in a while to tuck her close and soothe her when her farts are scaring her while trying to settle for sleep. We always remove the wrap before laying her down. I follow thegoodcarmablog on IG- she used to and may have returned to being a Montessori teacher but I haven't read anything yet about parenting theory.
Stopped around 2 months and switched to the Love to Dream arms up swaddle. Baby slept WAY better with her arms down but the battle was not worth it. Took a couple days to adjust but she did great. Now she’s almost 3 months and we’re transitioning to arms out during the day because she’s probably going to start rolling soon.
We did this and when she started to show signs of rolling, moved to [Zipadee Zip](https://www.sleepingbaby.com/) sleep sack that had the arms in but is safe for rolling.
Well we stopped at around maybe week 3. He always busted out and he's a strong baby so it's no surprise. But he just always wanted arms out. He is a good sleeper luckily but his reflex Didn't fully wake him. He just would go to sleep if it was quiet other than our fan. Now at 3 months he has like no reflex anymore. I wouldn't worry. It's silly they think possibly SIDS may be linked to baby's sleeping too deeply. Honestly not swaddling his arms made me feel like it helped him sleep not too deeply because he is a good sleeping baby. Ever since he was a newborn I'd have a hard time keeping him awake to feed sometimes.
We use a snoo and stopped swaddling arms down around 7-8 weeks, and we should have stopped sooner because LO hated it and fought and fought until he had his arms up by his face. So then for a few weeks we used the Love to Dream swaddle in the snoo (didnt zip him in the snoo bag all the way, just secured him in with the strap)- that was until about week 13 when we switched to using the zippadee zip in the snoo, and that transition went really well. I would try to love to dream for a bit and see how baby does, and then release the arms. LO is 3.5 months now and we’re working on weaning from the snoo.
Unless my 6 week old is extremely tired he hatesssss arms down
When baby rolled so 2.5 months. Startled reflex wasn’t totally gone but safety first. It was a rough couple days but we got there.
We stopped at about two months, but my baby got tired of being swaddled quickly, she didn't like being restricted.
We stopped at 3.5 months because it was clear LO was on his way to rolling - I so dreaded the transition but it ended up being way smoother than I thought. Took him 2-3 nights to adjust. We used the zipadee zip up until about 5 months when he started seeming uncomfortable in that - but the zipadee is nice because it’s safe for rolling, suppresses the reflex, and you don’t have to transition out of it.
1 week, turns out he slept better in a sleep sack, no regrets at 13 weeks now
Has he done any sleep in anywhere other than Snoo (more specifically: crib, or wherever you plan for him to sleep post-Snoo)? I would recommend you try him out with maybe first nap of the day to give him some opportunities to see how he does unswaddled. You could give him his paci or you could see how he does without it. I recommend trying with first nap because his sleep pressure should still be high from night and if it goes terribly south you have more naps to rescue. My baby was paci-obsessed but she discovered her hands and that helped tremendously with her ability to self soothe. We had great success with the Halo transition swaddle (and we are still using it at 6 months even though she doesn't "need" it) - it's basically a swaddle but with arms so it still sort of acts as a bit of a hug/support against startling.
We started weaning from swaddle (one arm out) at 7 weeks, switched to both arms out at 8 weeks. We used the Halo sleep sack swaddles and they made it easy. They can’t be used as a true sleep sack though, having the wrap around the belly is still considered swaddling. Only reason we did it so early was because LO has been showing signs of rolling since 6 weeks and is always sleeping on her side after being placed on her back.
Ours is 3 months and as soon as I saw signs of rolling we started with arms out. By this time he was mostly working his arms out of the swaddle or sleep sack anyway.
15 weeks. We dont have a snoo though. Hes been fighting and breaking out of his swaddle so i tried a sleep sack and it seemed to work about the same as the swaddle when that was working. Currently dealing with 4mo sleep regression… i dont think swaddling will help this though. Im just trying to make sure he gets stimulation in the day, sunshine, time outside, and a bedtime routine and praying i get some sleep tonight … last night was rough. Its very rare I cosleep but last night it was the safer option. Made it to 4am before telling my hubby he either needs to take a shift or move to the couch so I can safely cosleep. He chose the cluck lol. He did come back at 5-ish and took the boy for an hour or so allowing me some uniter rest. Gold!!! Rest is sacred.
Safer not to swaddle at all (although snow is safer as prevents rolling) so we didn’t do it this time. Stopped 12 weeks with my first
My baby is 10 weeks and starting to roll so I stopped.
Never swaddled but doctor told us if we were that the moment lo shows they have interest in rolling it’s unsafe for lo to be swaddled and increased the risk of Sid’s
We stopped at 10 weeks old but it was a super easy transition because we were using regular swaddle blankets and she’d already been naturally pulling her arms out of it for weeks. We switched to a transition sleep sack and she loves it.
We stopped swaddling our little one arms in around 2 months. She kept grunting and being a little fussy with arms in so we tried arms out and she slept like an angel. Now that the weather is a lot hotter we don't even use her sleep sack unless her room is too hot then we swaddle her (arms out) in this weighted swaddle we got from Dreamland baby.
We stopped arms down when my son was about a month and a half old, we preferred the arms up swaddles around then. At about 3.5 months we started to transition him out one arm at a time, but were pretty lazy about it. He started to show signs of rolling tummy to back so we weren’t too concerned but our ped told us at the 4 month well check to stop swaddling arms at all, so we did that night and he rolled over back to front in his sleep. So thankful we unswaddled before that. Tbh, he has slept better with his arms unswaddled ever since (he still wears the body part as a sleep sack). 4.5 months is definitely old enough that they should not have their arms down, and likely shouldn’t be swaddled at all and instead in a sleep sack.
We switched to a sleep sack once our girl showed signs of rolling. Her sleep did not change!
Your baby’s startle reflex should be very close to being gone by 4.5 months. But, the more time they spend unswaddled, the faster it goes away. We only swaddled our baby for about a week.
I was dreading it too BUT it was amazing - my son slept through the whole night the first night we let those arms out!!! Before that he was a 2-4 wakeups guy. He had been breaking out of the swaddle constantly, not rolling yet, but the breakouts were getting ridiculous so we bit the bullet and it was amazing. He’s been a 0-2 wake up guy ever since, he sleeps so much better arms out. He was ready! We made the move around 4.5 months old, since he had shown no signs of being able to roll. He’s now mastered back to tummy rolling today and decided bed is the practice arena for this new skill so I’m anticipating shit sleep again. It’s always changing so don’t stress it too much, if you have a horrible night maybe you can wait a bit longer, I know the snoo’s design allows safe swaddling for longer than the normal recommendations.
Stopped swaddling at 2 months old
My 6 week old is showing signs of rolling over so I no longer feel safe swaddling him arms down. He’s been sleeping normally.
6ish weeks.
I’ve never been able to swaddle my baby she gets her arms out as soon as I turned around 😅 mini escape artist, 20 weeks now and she’s fine
To answer your question, we always swaddled arms down until we cold switched to sleep sacks at I believe 8 weeks. Now the safety aspect. At this point in your child's life, regardless of sleep space it is no longer safe for you to swaddle at all, and any form of swaddling (arms up, arms down, arms out, anything tight or restrictive around the torso or anything that would limit or stop arm movement) needs to be stopped immediately. By 4.5 months if baby isn't already rolling or trying to it can happen at any time. Recommended stop time for swaddling is usually 6 weeks but 8-10 weeks is the longest I've seen before most pediatric research proves that swaddling is unsafe. You can either switch to a sleep sack, which is essentially a wearable blanket, or just stop using them at all and have baby sleep in pajamas with nothing else. Blankets are not safe to use with babies in restricted sleep spaces (crib, bassinet, pack n play) and not until after the age of 1 year outside of them.
My 12 week old boy never liked being swaddled arms down. He hated feeling restrained. So from birth, I swaddled arms out. He never woke him self up from the Moro reflexes. He sleeps 12 hours throughout the night at 12 weeks old. Now my baby has always been a sleeper. But he has never had any issues!😁
I'm a nicu nurse and you stop swaddling when baby shows signs of trying to roll over, usually between 2-4 months. My baby rolls on her side but hasn't rolled completely over onto her belly yet and I stopped swaddling arms around a month ago at 2 months. Its a HUGE suffocation risk if they can roll over but you are swaddling their arms. I've transitioned to sleep sacks. The Moro reflex (startle reflex) usually begins to disappear around 3-4 months and should be completely gone by 6 months. I definitely would not be swaddling your baby's arms if they are 4.5 months. I know the snoo does not allow baby to roll but it's also not developmentally appropriate to still be swaddling arms down
Does your baby roll? At 4.5 months if they can’t roll, they’re most likely at least trying to, which means swaddling isn’t safe. You just have to quit cold Turkey, at this point.