Swaddling an Older Baby

I haven't used the Woombie, but did swaddle, and I would let him wean himself rather than you doing it. There will be a few wakeups as they transition, but when they are ready to not be swaddled, you will know.

If you go out on BabyCenter this question is addressed by tons of Moms who have gone through the same thing. I think your best bet is leaving one arm out at a time, start loosening the swaddle, then going cold turkey for naps.

Personally, I think they served a purpose and then you simply have to bite the bullet and teach them to sleep without it. I wouldn't waste the money on ANOTHER swaddler.

It's just a phase. He'll learn to sleep with his arm out.

NOTE: we just went through this with our 6 mo old. We bought the "bigger swaddlers" from Summer Infant at BBRU but then he started rolling over and we decided it was a hazard since he couldn't roll back while swaddled.

Hi, just wanted to comment that I DO have the Woombie and LOVE it!! My dd is 4.5 mo and we were still swaddling her but then I read it could affect gross motor development etc. So I tried just swaddling one arm which worked ok for a bit but when I tried a week later to not swaddle at all she had the worst 3-4 nights sleep - took almost 2 hrs to get her to sleep and then awake for 3 hrs in the middle of the night one night. I tried the Woombie that I had bought a month before (it had been too big at the time - she's a peanut) and she's been sleeping GREAT!!!! I also like the fact that her hands stay warm bc they were cold without it. I would HIGHLY recommend it!!

If you want to swaddle bigger and older babies, solana babywear (www.solanababywear.com) has large thin swaddle blankets. I swaddled my youngest until she was 10 months old no problem - and they were good for the warmer temps (I'm from AZ). They make a good blanket after you're done swaddling since they're a square size.

I have swaddled daycare kids till they are as old as 11 mos old. If it helps them sleep and be happy why would you want to stop??

Start giving him a different bigger blankie as lovie! My daughter is now 8 months and still likes to be swaddled to fall asleep, but once she is asleep she kind of gets herself out of it but still holds onto it as her lovie. This prevents her from scratching (she has eczema too...try aveeno baby with the blue cap/ check for food allergies) because she is holding on to her lovie. Being swaddled is a security thing (think about how nice and cozy he was in your belly), so transitioning to a lovie will keep that security!

Good luck!

We used the Kiddopotomous swaddle until our son was 4 months old. He was getting out of it a lot at that point too and finally we just decided that he needed to learn not to wake himself up with his hands (which is why we continued swaddling him for so long). It took a few nights but he finally got the hang of it. We were all much happier after we stopped using it. Don't get me wrong I loved the swaddle blanket but I figured he needed to learn at some point not to scratch any more so we might as well teach him sooner than later. If you are really concerned about him scratching himself I would just get gloves or put socks on his hands while he sleeps that way he won't scratch and he can still learn to sleep without waking himself up. The first few days are hard but if you can get through it, it really is worth it. Good luck.

Hi KL
I have just recently stopped swaddling my 8 month old son. We had him in the Miracle Blanket (he houdini'd out of everything else), and he was breaking out of it at night. I tried the one-arm transition but it didn't seem to be very effective, so we just decided to go cold-turkey with a sleep sack. We did it at night first because he had the rest of his bed-time routine to help him understand it was time to sleep. It took a couple of tries and we went back to the swaddle once or twice, but within a few days he had the hang of it. There were a couple of nights where he didn't sleep as long, but then it evened out again.
I kept him in the swaddle for naps during the day, and just a few days ago went cold turkey with the sleep sack for daytime. He's just too big and strong and would wriggle out of it and chat to himself rather than sleep :). Now he's learnt to sleep both at night and during the day without needing the swaddle.
I wanted to transition him when he was about 4 months old, but then between travel and other things the time never seemed right. I looked at the Woombie at that time, but felt hesitant spending the money when I thought we might only use it for a few weeks.
Wrt to the exzema, are you worried about him scratching his body or face? Hopefully long sleeves and pj pants will stop him from accessing his body but I don't know about the face - I'm sorry I don't have any personal experience to speak to that. Hopefully my transition story helps though!
Best of luck to you!

Updated

Hi KL
I have just recently stopped swaddling my 8 month old son. We had him in the Miracle Blanket (he houdini'd out of everything else), and he was breaking out of it at night. I tried the one-arm transition but it didn't seem to be very effective, so we just decided to go cold-turkey with a sleep sack. We did it at night first because he had the rest of his bed-time routine to help him understand it was time to sleep. It took a couple of tries and we went back to the swaddle once or twice, but within a few days he had the hang of it. There were a couple of nights where he didn't sleep as long, but then it evened out again.
I kept him in the swaddle for naps during the day, and just a few days ago went cold turkey with the sleep sack for daytime. He's just too big and strong and would wriggle out of it and chat to himself rather than sleep :). Now he's learnt to sleep both at night and during the day without needing the swaddle.
I wanted to transition him when he was about 4 months old, but then between travel and other things the time never seemed right. I looked at the Woombie at that time, but felt hesitant spending the money when I thought we might only use it for a few weeks.
Wrt to the exzema, are you worried about him scratching his body or face? Hopefully long sleeves and pj pants will stop him from accessing his body but I don't know about the face - I'm sorry I don't have any personal experience to speak to that. Hopefully my transition story helps though!
Best of luck to you!

I would not invest in an expensive swaddle, since your baby is already 5 months and will not be using it for long. It's not recommended anyway to swaddle after 5 months. It is very important for babies to feel free to move at night in their crib, which helps tremendously with their gross motor development. We stopped swaddling both our babies when they were 4 months old, we used a sleep positioner as a transition and a small blanky to keep their hands off from their faces! I know it seems hard to do, but believe me it will take no more than 3 nights max. Good luck!

Can't share info on the Woombie. My 4 month old just started busting out of our swaddles, so we weaned him. If we were still swaddling, we would still be using our blankets which we LOVE. They are large and muslin. They are 44x44 squares and you can get different weights, i.e. a summer weight or winter weight.
http://www.adenandanais.com/shop/classic.aspx

I never used a woombie, but I went to a local fabric store and made my own (much larger than what you can buy in the store).

I wouldn't recommend trying to transition. He will eventually not want to be in it within the next 6-9 months.

If you need a very good product to get rid of exzema please email me at ____@____.com and I will tell you what we use for our kids. Since your 5 month-old scratches his face try putting socks on his hands.

I don't know anything about the special swaddlers, but I used double layer flannel to swaddle our son until he was 7 months old. It finally became a natural transition to where he could control his arms more and was more comfortable sleeping with them free than with them at his sides. Don't worry about making him transition out of it, he will do it when he is ready. There is no harm in swaddling an older baby. If you have large double layer flannel blankets you can just try tightly wrapping him and see if that works. My son was strong, but liked to be wrapped tighter than what some people might think. Good luck :)

I used the Woombie with my daughter and it was absolutely fabulous. We started with the Miracle Blanket and then moved to the Woombie when she was 16 weeks. It was a perfect transition to a regular sleep sack at 5.5 months. Now she is 7 months and doesn't use anything because it is too warm for a sleep sack. I do believe in this transition! Buy a very large sized woombie so he can still move freely about but not hit himself in the face. This will work! Good luck : )

Hi. We transitioned out of the swaddle at about 5 months, because our son just got too strong to stay in the swaddle. Part of our concern was him scratching his face also. I looked into pj's with the flaps that fold over. The Gap and Old Navy have the one-pieces with the flaps, and they aren't too expensive (bought ours on sale). They also came in 6-12m size. That helped a lot. After about 6 weeks he settled in and grew out of scratching. Now he just sleeps through the night:)

Do you know anybody who can sew? We had the same issue with wanting to keep swaddling our baby when he was younger and outgrew his swaddle blanket. A friend who can sew traced the pattern and made a larger one with material we bought from the fabric store. With the bigger one, he didn't wriggle out of it. It's a pretty easy process for anybody who can sew (I can't sew, unfortunately). If you need the name of a seamstress, let me know and I have a great person to refer you to. I found her by asking on this site. She's very reasonable and does an excellent job.