The Trouble with Swaddling

Swaddling has gone back and forth over the years as a technique commonly practiced. Right now, swaddling seems to be the "in" thing to do with babies. Swaddling a baby helps by restricting their arms and giving them a feeling of being in the womb. It provides deep pressure and stimulates the production of serotonin which is a calming chemical.  This works the same way that us adults have a serotonin release from the deep touch of a hug or a massage. 

Despite what I knew about swaddling, I had not expected my baby to be a swaddle baby because I just didn't think that sleeping all tied up seemed appealing for me, (I personally would be quite claustrophobic) therefore I thought my child would not like it either. But when we were still in the hospital and the baby wouldn't stop crying, the nurses put her in a swaddle sleepsack made by Halo which we then proceeded to borrow until ours showed up in the mail. Swaddling seemed to be the ONLY way we could get our little one to get even a wink of sleep and as desperately tired new parents we took what we could get however we could get it. 

6 months down the road it became obvious that we needed to retire the swaddle. She was starting to move and roll around more in her crib and was getting herself into positions that she was unable to get out of, bringing up a concern with safety. The problem was, after 6 months of being swaddled every time she slept, she had no idea how to fall asleep or stay asleep without it. We attempted to slowly ease her way out of it by loosening it little by little over a few week span but that wasn't working.

Then I came across a product called the Zip-a-dee-doo when I was searching google for suggestions on weaning from the swaddle. This was a blanket that gave her use of her arms but the arms were created to be short so it limited her movement giving a slight feeling of being restricted. I decided to give it a try. I am not sure I can necessarily brag about the effectiveness of this product because she still has not learned how to fall asleep efficiently with it. However, it does help in the sense that she tends to scratch herself when trying to fall asleep and the covered hands prevents her from doing so. So she still wears it every night.

We are now at 8 months old and we are still trying to figure out how to sleep without the swaddle. We have been letting her "cry it out" for naps and overnight for the last 6 weeks because I truly think that's the only way she will learn how to fall asleep on her own. It usually takes her anywhere from 10- 45 minutes of crying to fall asleep and on a typical night, she wakes up and does it every 3 or 4 hours. 

So looking back on our weaning experience from the swaddle, would I do it again? Well if I were to have a similar child that we just couldn't get to sleep without it and we were desperate, I probably would swaddle them as well. I think I would try not to swaddle EVERY time the baby slept. If I had a child that slept ok without the swaddle though, I would definitely try to use it as little as possible to avoid this issue again.