Baby Sleep Help - Natalie's Response

Mum Zone's resident Sleep Expert Natalie of Sleep and Settle is available to answer some of your questions about settling your baby and more.

Topics include: Sleeping and settling, moving from bassinette to cot, cot to bed, breastfeeding/formula, solids, floorplay for babies and play for toddlers/children, wrapping/sleeping bags/dressing baby, behaviour/tantrums, what's normal? bedroom environments, music, lights, entertainment, mattresses, mattress protectors, sheets, unsettled babies and the 0-12 week afternoon arsenic hours, reflux/colic, teething, worms, toilet training, night terrors/nightmares, the older child issues 5-10 years and single parenting/separation/divorce.

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Reader's Question

I have been swaddling my 4 month old son since birth, both at night and his day naps. He sleeps great at night and only naps during the day for 30-45 minutes at a time. I have made quite a few attempts to let him sleep with his hands free (unswaddled) and just under his blankets, but he just ends up getting upset and is very difficult to put to sleep. I then return and swaddle him up and he just drifts off peacefully. I am just concerned that constantly wrapping him is not going to allow his little body to have the freedom that it needs and I have read that it is not good for the development of their hips. Are there any suggestions for how to help with this transition. I just don't want to disturb his good sleeping...

Natalie's Response

Hi,

Great question.

Consider:

• Babies enjoy being wrapped at least until the age when they lose their startle reflex which is around 4.5 months.
  
  
• Many babies continue to enjoy being wrapped past this age and drop it when they are too mobile in the cot to remain wrapped.
  
  
• Even though a baby may be crawling around on the floor, if they are wrapped well and tucked in tightly they can be wrapped for much longer.
  
  
• If your baby is happy being wrapped and sleeps well I would enjoy this great sleeping until he lets you know he is too mobile.
  
  
• I haven't read anything about wrapping affecting development or a baby's hips. However I do encourage active play in baby's uptime and plenty of floor play. Sleeping time is for resting and growing (and time out for mum) and if the wrapping gives you this and your baby's development is normal I would continue with it.
  
  
• When he is so mobile that he could escape my Sleep and Settle® wrapping technique and my Sleep and Settle® tucking in I would then go straight to a sleeping bag and use some gentle hands on settling for a few days while he adjusts to the free hands. See my 0-6 months Sleep Package.
  
  
• There are many reasons for your baby sleeping for 30-45 minutes not related to the wrapping. Consider: the amount of uptime, how efficiently he is feeding and playing, his bedroom environment and his ability to self settle.
  

Happy sleeping.

Natalie

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The opinions expressed on these pages are of a general nature and are by no means a substitute for professional advice. Therefore neither Mum Zone or Natalie Ebrill of Sleep and Settle are liable for any actions pertaining to the use of the supplied information.