How to teach a baby to sleep without a swaddle: wean him off sleeping in a swaddle

There are mixed opinions regarding the issue of swaddling a baby. Many experts are inclined to believe that diapers have lost their relevance. Moreover, the modern market offers many special clothes for babies that do not allow the baby to accidentally scratch himself and limit his movements. Despite this point of view, new mothers are still taught the basics of the art of swaddling babies in the maternity hospital. As a result, it is not possible to give clear advice on whether or not to swaddle a baby.

When wrapped up, the child feels as safe as possible.

Why swaddle your baby at night?

Any specialist will say that a child carefully wrapped in a diaper cocoon sleeps more soundly and peacefully. This is due to the fact that the movements of children up to one and a half months are spontaneous. As a result, babies often wake themselves up due to excessive movements of their own arms and legs.

Do not neglect diapers for babies with increased excitability. If your child has trouble falling asleep, has to be rocked to sleep for a long time, or is very fussy in the evening, recording movements may be useful.

You can swaddle your baby a little tighter at night than during the day.

Important! A baby's hyperexcitability can be a symptom of more serious disorders, for example, problems with the central nervous system.
For your own peace of mind, it would be a good idea to discuss the peculiarities of your baby’s falling asleep and sleeping patterns with your pediatrician during a routine visit.

Optimal age for refusal

Most newborns, as noted above, feel remarkably tightly swaddled. Towards the end of pregnancy, the baby’s belly becomes cramped, so when wrapped, the newborn baby experiences the same feelings of security and quickly calms down.

However, as the child grows, he needs to learn control over his own body and coordination of movements. This is not possible if the baby remains tightly wrapped for a long time. When should you stop using diapers?

Of course, here it is necessary to take into account the children's needs, but at 3 - 4 months the baby no longer flinches from unconscious movements of the arms and legs, so many experts recommend using swaddling only in the first 12 - 16 weeks after the baby is born.

If a two-month-old baby breaks out of the “diaper captivity”, trying to free the upper or lower limbs, and swaddling is not an indicated therapeutic procedure, then it is worth switching to rompers and undershirts earlier than the specified period.

If, even after four months of life, the baby feels unsure without diapers when falling asleep, after consulting a doctor, you should leave the wrapping for another month or two. However, during the day there is no need to swaddle; on the contrary, the child must be dressed in looser clothes.

Advantages and disadvantages of swaddling

Like any other method of treating babies, swaddling has both undoubted advantages and some disadvantages.

How to wean your baby off breastfeeding at night

The advantages of using diapers at night include the following:

protecting the child from fright;
preventing the child from causing physical harm to himself;
more restful sleep;
ensuring a comfortable temperature;
lower cost of diapers compared to diapers and vests.

Important! Any experienced specialist will advise swaddling a baby from the first days if he was born premature.

Some mothers note that a one-month or two-week-old baby practically does not lie still, and swaddling him is easier than dressing him in the simplest vest.

Speaking about the disadvantages of restricting a child’s movements, it is worth considering a number of facts:

A number of child psychologists are of the opinion that the restriction of a child’s movements, which is provided by a diaper, may in the future provoke developmental delays due to the reduction of freedom;
If the baby is swaddled in a swaddle that is too warm, he may overheat;
The child gets used to being limited in movement, then he will sleep poorly when the parents decide to start weaning him off diapers;
Diapers, coupled with limited movement, can cause irritation on delicate baby skin.

Interesting. In Soviet times, there was a myth that using diapers straightens the baby's legs and prevents the development of rickets. In fact, these are old wives' tales. To date, no convincing evidence has been provided to support this theory.

The question of “wrap the baby up or not” still remains open for most

The famous doctor Komarovsky is sure that the diaper is largely a tribute to the Soviet past, when parents did not have the opportunity or means to buy children's things and had to use diapers, which were often even passed down by inheritance.

Considering the absence of a shortage of children's things on the modern market and the lack of evidence of the benefits or harm of refusing to swaddle, this issue should be resolved individually in each individual family.

Why doesn't he want to part with the diaper?

It’s easy to wean your baby from wrapping himself up - find out where the roots of his “addiction” come from and neutralize them. More precisely, offer another option. Let's look at the most popular reasons and ways to solve them.

Hands and feet get in the way, the baby gets scared of them. In fact, this myth was created by suspicious parents. The movements of a newborn are chaotic, but this does not mean that he is afraid of his body.

Let him get comfortable, get to know his body. Believe me, the child will not hit himself in the face endlessly. Allow the baby to develop harmoniously physically and emotionally, do not delay this process. If it gets scratched, put special gloves (“scratchers”) on the handles.

The little one sweetly falls asleep in his mother's arms, but immediately wakes up in the crib, tosses and turns, and is capricious.
Swaddling usually saves the parent in this case, especially at night. You can do it differently - feed the baby while lying next to her. Wait until the child wants to sleep and falls into deep sleep. In this case, the eyelids will not twitch, and breathing will become measured. Now you can safely transfer him to his crib.
Tight swaddling prevents colic. In fact, the pain is reduced by heating the tummy, which is carried out thanks to the diaper, and not by squeezing the body. To prevent cramps, the mother must monitor the diet (or formula) and take preventive measures (laying on the stomach, massage).

The main physiological need of a newborn is to be with his mother. The lack of her warmth and closeness gives rise to the need for swaddling, which slightly compensates for the baby’s desire. Don't be afraid of physical contact with your baby!

If gas is bothering him, put him on your stomach and pick him up in your arms. The warmth of your body will reduce the pain in the baby's tummy, and the smell and gentle voice will quickly calm the raging baby.

Put everything aside and spend as much time as possible with your little one. Closeness with your beloved mother contributes to the better development of the little man.

Appetite improves, a healthy psyche is formed, the baby is calm and happy. A little time will pass and you will cease to be a real “universe” for him. Not a single diaper can compare with the warmth of your mother, appreciate this period.

At what age should you stop swaddling?

How to wean a baby from breastfeeding before one year

The first couple of months the child adapts to new living conditions. Tight swaddling helps him a lot with this. Most experts agree that it is necessary to swaddle your baby tightly during the first month of life. At an older age, you need to start thinking about how to wean your child from swaddling.

At three months

Constant swaddling is justified only in the first weeks of a child's life. When he is in his fourth month, there is no such need. You can continue to use swaddles for sound sleep. While awake, the baby can feel great in clothes that do not restrict his movements.

At four months

When the baby is four months old, the use of diapers can be continued. If a child demonstrates a desire to get rid of them (trying to free his hands and is capricious), when this does not work, you should listen to his desires and provide more freedom.

At six months

At the age of six months, the child spends most of his time in clothing that does not restrict movement. Swaddling (especially tight swaddling) at this age can already cause harm to the baby. According to experts, swaddling in relatively late infancy leads to a lag in physical development from peers. We are not talking about serious pathologies, but rather about circulatory disorders.

It will also be comfortable for your child to sleep under a blanket.

Advice. When choosing a tight swaddling technique, you must not forget that the main task in this case is not to tie the baby as securely as possible, but to prevent him from getting out of the swaddle, so you need to tighten it very carefully.

Main types of swaddling and their dangers

There are two types of swaddling - tight and loose. Each of them presupposes certain rules of application, if violated, negative consequences may occur.

Tight swaddling

This swaddling technique allows you to keep your baby's legs and arms straight thanks to the use of a double layer of swaddles. As a result, the child is not afraid of the movements of his own body parts and stops waking himself up. Tight swaddling slows down the development of limb movement control skills, which can lead to developmental delays in the child. Frequently keeping the baby immobile can lead to hip dislocation and osteoarthritis. Today, one in five babies is diagnosed with hip dysplasia. In mild cases, this pathology goes away over time, but using the tight swaddling technique may cause complications.

It is more difficult for a baby to breathe in tight diapers. He experiences limited movements and is forced to remain in a position that is unnatural for him for a long time. This fixed position does not allow him to move, so it is more difficult for the baby to warm up. In connection with such nuances, it is worth remembering that resorting to tightly swaddling a small child, even with good intentions, is possible only for a short time, and as they grow older, resorting to such a technique is not worth resorting to and will need to be abandoned.

Free swaddling

When swaddling freely, the child does not feel constrained in his movements, he can take a position that is comfortable for him, and does not suffer from squirming or difficulty breathing. The baby feels warm because physical activity allows him to warm up. An excellent alternative to loose swaddling is to use a baby sleeping bag. The product allows the baby to sleep peacefully, feel protected and provides natural blood circulation. At the same time, the baby learns to feel tactile contacts.

How to wean your baby off swaddling

How to wean your baby off night feedings

The best option is when the child independently begins to refuse to be wrapped. If the baby is in no hurry to part with the diaper, sooner or later the moment comes when mothers have to start looking for the answer to the question of how to wean their child off swaddling before bed as painlessly as possible.

In such a matter, two points are important: consistency and gradualism, otherwise damage will be caused to the unformed child’s psyche. You can act in different ways.

Weak wrapping

This method encourages parents to continue wrapping their baby, but to do it a little more loosely every day. The final touch is to replace the diaper with a light blanket and begin covering the baby for the night.

Using a blanket

Another method involves wrapping the baby not in a standard diaper, but in a blanket. The corner should not be fixed. At night, the child will begin to move and loosen the blanket to a looser, but still comfortable state for him.

Night diaper release

This interesting technique recommends that when putting the child to bed, wrap him up as before. As soon as the baby falls asleep, remove the diaper. If the described actions wake up the baby and he starts to be capricious, you will need to swaddle him again, not immediately, but after some time. Within a few days, with a high degree of probability, the baby will calm down on his own and be able to fall asleep without being wrapped up.

Motion sickness

Rocking in your arms as a method of calming has been known for centuries. Mom's hugs will provide comfortable tightness for the baby. This method is fraught with one undesirable consequence: if you overdo it, in the foreseeable future you will need to wean the child off your hands too.

Sleeping with parents

In the presence of mom and dad, the child feels more calm. If you periodically put him to sleep uncovered in his parents' bed, discomfort will be minimized. Like the previous one, this method is dangerous because it forms a habit.

Of all the methods described, not one can be called universal. It may be necessary to use all of the methods listed above and invent a few of your own before the baby weans himself from the diaper and can sleep for a long time, soundly and peacefully under a blanket. The most important thing is to be patient and not give up until you get the result.

On the issue of the dangers of swaddling

The diaper has been a staple item of infant clothing for several thousand years. A diaper is an elementary phenomenon; the simplicity of its design does not give designers and stylists any chance to distinguish themselves. A diaper is accessible, convenient, familiar. But is everything so clear?

***

of diapers appears to have been based on Classic human clothing - with sleeves and legs - is strictly adapted to body sizes. Obviously, since the size of this very body changes significantly over the course of two weeks, you won’t be able to stock up on normal clothes. And a diaper - provided that no one skimps on sizes from the beginning - allows you not to think about new clothes for at least six months. The attitude of society and medical science towards swaddling has remained more or less stable for many decades. — Do I need to swaddle ? - Necessary! - How to swaddle ? - Align the arms, align the legs, and twist everything else, wrap it tightly and fix it so that it does not twitch. - Why tighten it? - So that the legs are straight, so that he knows who is the boss in the house... Gradually, the views changed. Numerous studies have revealed an absolutely amazing fact - it turns out that a crooked leg does not become straight, no matter how tightly you wrap it. has nothing to do swaddling technique at all It turns out that a tightly swaddled baby has a harder time breathing. Moreover, wise doctors came to the conclusion that there is no need to rape a baby! For if all children, without exception, strive to take a certain position - tuck their legs, bend their arms - then, apparently, this particular position is the most physiological for the child, that is, comfortable and natural. And on the basis of such a simple and logical conclusion, tight swaddling was subjected to merciless criticism and sank into oblivion under pressure from the progressive medical and parental community. Tight swaddling was replaced by loose swaddling - as a symbol of democracy and respect for human rights. A child, swaddled freely, has the opportunity to move his limbs and take a position that is convenient for him. It would seem that a consensus has been reached. Free swaddling is optimal, convenient, traditional, and satisfies the needs of both children and parents. Yes, some grandmothers are not satisfied with such swaddling , mainly for aesthetic reasons. Well, is it possible to compare the amazingly beautiful, graceful, regular and even cushion obtained by tight swaddling , and the sloppy, jerking, bag-like formation created by loose swaddling ? But you can come to an agreement with grandmothers. There is, after all, no man who cannot be convinced by reasoning about freedom and rights. And everything would be fine, when suddenly... Suddenly, in dozens of countries, in hundreds of media outlets, numerous reports appeared that swaddling turns out to be, in principle, very harmful. And even free swaddling is not freedom at all, but only freedom to move in a confined space (analogy with freedom to move around the prison). Moreover, thousands of special specialists have appeared - child psychologists, who have argued that by swaddling children , we, it turns out, limit the perception of the world from birth, disrupt the formation of the tactile function, hinder the harmonious development of the human personality, inhibit individuality and in general: the education of a person worthy of living in the 21st century, and the use of diapers are incompatible concepts. Millions of parent couples are depressed and confused. Our poor children... According to our criminal parental ignorance, they, having gone through the hellish torment of diapers , will now be backward, inharmonious, underdeveloped, lacking initiative. And these cunning ones, who have been wearing rompers and undershirts since birth, will now command ours and push them around in every possible way. But what to do? How to fix? It is clear that giving birth to the next one and forgetting about diapers is the wisest decision, but it’s a pity for this backward and inharmonious one. To tell the truth, those who really feel sorry for are the poor parents. It seems that parental instinct can have an overwhelming influence on basic common sense. Note:

opponents of swaddling before. A typical and perhaps most famous apologist of anti-diaper propaganda is the great writer Leo Tolstoy. Paradoxically, Lev Nikolayevich himself was swaddled , which, on the one hand, did not prevent him from demonstrating his own genius, but on the other hand, it prevented him from convincingly proving the connection between the infantilism and lethargy of Pierre Bezukhov and tight infant swaddling ;
were swaddled as children ;
everyone who is reading these lines now was swaddled ;
swaddled in childhood . Perhaps a little tighter than required...

The formation of a full-fledged and harmoniously developed human personality is indeed determined by many factors: individual, genetically determined characteristics of temperament, general health in general and treatment of specific diseases in particular, the system of pedagogical and religious education, and country of residence. A special and, perhaps, the most important role is played by the psychological climate in the family, the formed system of values, taking into account the number of children, the presence of both parents and their contacts with each other, with children, with their own parents. All the factors mentioned are very important and their influence on the formation of a child has been proven unconditionally. At the same time, there is not a single full-fledged, truly scientific study proving the connection between swaddling and personality development problems. Thus, there is no scientific and logical motivation for refusing to swaddle, and on this basis the main rule : to swaddle or not to swaddle a child is a personal matter for his parents, determined by their desires, capabilities, and lifestyle. In anti-diaper propaganda, at least, in our country, economic motives are clearly visible. Any domestic factory, any workshop, any housewife can start producing diapers within 24 hours. But beautiful pants, vests, rompers, suits, overalls - multi-colored, with pictures, lace, ribbon ties, buttons and pockets - this is more complicated. This is an expensive and, as a rule, overseas product. And such a vest costs as much as five diapers. Isn’t this the essence of “ diaper hazards ”? Parents, however, should be aware that going diaper- is convenient in many ways. Let's note some of them:

when using baby vests and onesies, men can be involved in dressing the baby, because a father who has mastered the art of swaddling is a unique phenomenon;
diapers are very uncomfortable in the hot season - it is not at all difficult to overheat a baby;
when washing, baby vests and rompers, in comparison with diapers, require less water and detergents, and when drying, they not only take up less space, but also dry faster;
No matter how loosely you swaddle , he may still feel uncomfortable. Again, regardless of the quality of the swaddling , an active child may well be swaddled (and it’s good if the room is warm). It is clear that getting rid of rompers on your own is much more difficult;
vests and rompers really do not limit physical activity in any way...

But!! All of the above is unprincipled. And if two dozen diapers , then it is not at all necessary to spend money on baby undershirts just because in the interval between pregnancies you became acquainted with the achievements of advanced psychological thought. I repeat: it is your personal choice whether to swaddle or not to swaddle . No one - not a girl consultant in a children's clothing store, not a doctor, not a psychologist - will make decisions for you. Just don’t think that this decision can really seriously affect your child’s health. If you want, swaddle , if you don’t want, don’t swaddle . Just don't be nervous.

author Komarovsky E.O. published 18/01/2007 17:37 updated 07/12/2016 — Lifestyle

Bad sleep without a diaper

There are often cases when, in the process of weaning off wrapping, a child begins to have problems sleeping. It's not getting deep enough. Parents must be mentally prepared for the fact that some nights will definitely not be the most peaceful.

If the child is not allergic to essential oils of coniferous trees, for example, spruce or pine, it will be useful to add a couple of drops to the bath during the child's bath. Aromatic bathing has a calming effect.

Important! Situations when a child categorically refuses to fall asleep without a diaper and throws tantrums over a long period of time is a reason to contact a neurologist. The cause may be nervous diseases.

Massage will be no less effective for normalizing sleep. This should be light stroking and relaxing hand actions. After a good massage, the baby not only falls asleep better, but also does not twitch in his sleep.

Sleeping with mom calms baby down

Important nuances and error prevention

Simultaneously with weaning from diapers, measures must be taken to improve the child’s sleep. This will minimize possible stress. Specific recommendations will be as follows:

Be sure to take your baby for a walk in the evening so that his body is saturated with oxygen before bed.
For mandatory evening bathing, you can add a few drops of fir or pine essential oil to the bath (unless, of course, the baby is allergic to it). This will have a beneficial effect on sleep.
You can add relaxing essential oils of pine trees to the bath before bedtime - your baby will sleep more soundly
A relaxing massage in the form of light stroking will help relieve muscle tension before bed. As a result, the frequency of startles at night will decrease.
You can purchase a special night light that distracts the baby’s attention and relaxes him, and turn on quiet and calm music.
In the crib, the baby’s attention can be distracted by a glowing night light, and the child will forget about the diaper

In addition, there is no need to wean your baby off the diaper during illness or simply malaise (for example, when the child is bothered by colic), or during a stressful situation (moving to a new apartment).