HI all

My little one is now 5 months old, and I have

decided to stop the swaddling. I heard that it can stop their development

and learning, suchas with rolling, etc etc. Although he has no problem rolling!

he rolls all over the games room, and NOW I have to keep an eye on him, cos last time he rolled under the chair.

It use to be much simpler before. Put him down on his bunny rug and he would just stay in that one spot.

Anyway, so I tried last night, no swaddling. It went okay (at first) and then one hour into him sleeping, he woke up and screamed. I tried rocking the cot, picking him up, eventually, i just breastfed him again just to comfort him.

That helped, but then when I put him down to sleep again, his hands try to pull out his pacifier (never happened of course with swaddling!) and then he doesn't know how to put it back in and then cries, until mum or dad puts it in for him.

So just not sure what to do. It would bevery easy to just keep swaddling him forever and a day, and allow him this comfort, but I do not want to stop his development by doing this. Apparently, when they go through their light sleep phase, they want to be able to move around, turn whatever, swaddling stops all this which is fine, but this is the age, that swaddling should be stopped.

I ahve also tried just wrapping one arm, but the other arm is still playing with his paci and pulling it out! (sigh)

I also tried tucking in his sheet really tight into the cot,just over his arms, but he manages to pull them out, and then starts rubbing at his face,, which annoys him etc.

Any other ideas please people????

Sounds like you are decribing my DS EXACTLY. DS is almost 6 months old and still swaddled. We are forever trying to get him to sleep without it and we have ALL the same problems you have. He pulls his pacifier out and then rubs his face nonstop. I thought I was the only one with a child like this. I don't think it is stopping his development since he only has it to sleep. But for his first 3 months he wanted it 24-7. What do you swaddle your DS with? We bought the amazing miracle swaddle blanket. It is sort of too small on him but we stretch it out. Does your DS need it for naps too? My DS needs it for naps too but he has learned how to fall asleep in the car with out it but wakes up when we get home. I asked his Dr about it today and he said DS is using it as a security thing. So some day, hopefully, he will out grow it. Does your DS get out of it at some point at night and wake up and you have to rewrap him? I can't believe you just described EVERYTHING we are going through with this swaddle thing. I am holding out on the small chance that when he gets old enough to understand I can tell him to stop rubbing his face and pulling out his pipe, maybe then he can sleep with out it.

From what I have read swaddling them at night is ok for as long as they baby wants to be swaddled. Swaddling during the day when they should be moving around is what can cause development delays.

As long as he's rolling around during the day,and showing signs that he's on track development wise, and only being swaddled to go to sleep I don't see anything wrong with it.

OMIGOD! yes, he gets out of his wrap during the middle of the night, like he is Houdini or something! and then all hells breaks loose, bcause when we go to wrap him agian, he screams blue murder!

And the paci thing is driving me crazy. I actually got him off it for a whole month, but then sometime last week, he just wouldn't sleep without me breastfeeding him to sleep, so I did that, and then when he fell asleep I would CAREFULLY put him back in his cot, well, then he would wake up and scream. So again, I took him back to our bed, breastfed him to sleep, and went through the same thing again, with him waking up right before his head touched the cot.

So I just stuck the paci in instead, and lo and behold! the little angel fell asleep with paci in mouth! Arrrgggghh, and we were doing so welll without it. So now we have our paci dependence back! what can ya do?! lol. Its like for that month of no paci, he had become dependent on us rocking him to sleep in his cot.

So we substitued sticking the paci in (which takes one sec) for rocking the cot for 10-15mins to get him to sleep. I think I know which one I would choose now! lol.

Right now, he has just woken up after not sleeping very long, probably playing with his paci (which wakes him up) as I only wrapped one arm. Now if I had wrapped both arms, he would probably still be sleeping at this time. Arrrrgggghhhh! ;-) Damned if you do, and damned if you dont!

thanks karen

I sure hope that is right, but when i spoke to the child health nurse yesterday, she that he should be sleeping without the wrap, because at night, or during naps when they go into the light phase of sleep, they may want to turn, and be able to move around, and they can't when they are tightly wrapped.

the thing is that if he isn't wrapped, that is what wakes him up even more, because then he is playing with his fingers, his paci etc, so that doesn't make much sense to me, but i dont' want to stop any of his develoment.

and yes, he is only swaddled for sleeping. and at no other time, so I don't know why the child health nurse said that about their learning and development.

Part of their learning and development is playing with their hands, learning to take that paci out and figuring out how to get it back in, etc. It's a pain, but your baby will learn that they don't like the result when that paci comes out and they will learn how to get it back in. I was always amazed watching my 3 month old get that thing back in her mouth and figure out the right direction (she hated to be swaddled)

Plus they'll eventually need to learn to sleep without being swaddled, just like all other aspects of learning how to put themselves to sleep. It's always a battle. Try tucking them in tightly, or maybe try a whole new thing, like sleeping on their side. That's what DD decided she wanted to do around 5 months.

Good luck, I know the frustration of the paci. Some nights I wanted to take a piece of duct take and tape that darn thing in!

Honeychild - when DS breaks out of his swaddle we call him Superman and then he wakes up out we call that his banshee scream. I really believe one day he will outgrow it. If DS is hitting every mile stone at the right time and he is not falling behind. I am not worried about the swaddle thing. I have tired every trick. My DS will not cry himself to sleep and if he breaks out of swaddle and doesn't cry he will lay in bed and play with his hands and paci forever. I let him go 3 hours one night hoping he would go to sleep. The other thing is they will get better hand control and when they are really good at it, I think they won't want the swaddle anymore. I really did believe I was the only person with this problem.

I agree with Kiera. I know it's a tough phase but they will eventually learn to have control over their limbs and they will get used to sleeping without the swaddle. I switched to a sleepsack after we stopped swaddling. It was not confining but seemed to give him the security comfort he needed. We used the sleepsack until he was 22 months and grew out of their biggest one. He's tall for his age so an average baby could wear it until 2 or longer.

There also comes a time where you may want to teach them to fall back to sleep on their own without needing to be rocked and nursed all night long. We stopped nursing at night at 6 months and stopped getting up to rock back to sleep at 8-9 months. I was getting WAY to tired.

I guess I have learned that every change you make will stir things up for a few days. It will get better. :)