Advice for Getting My 6 Mo Old to Sleep Without Being Swaddled

I understand that there are children who need MORE. They have sensory issues that cause them to react differently to stimulus then other children. My son didn't need to be swadled, but he did want to wear "soft clothes" as a toddler. It just about drove me nuts. He is also more sensitive to pain and taste then his brother. You might consult with your doctor about where to learn more about sensory sensitive children. I read a book called the "The Out of Sync Child". It did a great job of describing children who have sensory issues and helped me be more accepting of my sensitive son. Good Luck and know your tiny one appreciates your effort on his behalf.

My little boy is 8 months and we just broke him of needing to be swaddled to sleep. (Because of the warming weather, like you.) We put it off for so long because he had such a strong desire to be swaddled, to the point of waking up if his arm got out (which meant I had to get up a lot at night). However when we'd let him settle down on his own to sleep, he'd loosen his swaddling and then he wouldn't calm down until he was wrapped again, etc, and we were having such a hard time getting him to learn to fall asleep on his own. (plus he would get hot so easily, even with the lightest of blanket) Finally we just had to make a game plan (helps to know exactly what you plan to do so that you will STICK TO IT) and we did his bed time routine and put him in his crib on his side. Then we would go in every 5 minutes (we had set a timer) to pat his back or hand him his binky, or just to make sure he was alright. He rolled to his tummy, which he doesn't like, but we let him stay like that, and after an hour and 15 minutes he fell asleep. Since he was on his tummy his arms wouldn't flail in his sleep and wake him up (same effect as swaddling) and he slept soundly until 5 when I woke him up to nurse him, then he slept til 8. (he can roll back and forth easily or else I wouldn't let him sleep on his tummy) The same thing has happened all the nights since, I end up waking him up to eat around 5 (though I'm trying to get to a point where I don't have to) and he sleeps soundly (as opposed to getting up 2-4 times a night like he had been doing). Hope this helps you!

This almost sounds like a self soothing issue. Its normal for babies to be very active while sleeping to the point of waking themselves up. Both my daughters use to stand up while asleep and then be upset about it. What happens after he has woken himself up, give him sometime and see if he can get back to sleep on his own.

At a mom's group i go to, it was suggested to take a one piece sleeper and sew the arms shut (use a size a little bigger than normal). then just put him in it and snap it up like normal. his arms' range of motion will be limited in the chest compartment. The lightweight cotton ones by Carters with no blanket worked well for my son. We just had a fan on and he seemed pretty comfortable. Hope this helps, good luck-

My son swaddled until he was 8 months so don't worry about that part of it. This weekend was brutal with the temps, and I don't think you will have much more of that kind of weather in the pnw. anyway. a lightweight blanket and a onesie might do it. The fan is a good idea too. I can't tell from your post if he woke up because he was too hot, or you were freaked out because he was so hot. with that said, if he doesn;t wake up, let him be. Make sure he is well hydrated during the day...extra water, nursing or whatever. good luck.

Some babies have a strong need for sensory stimulation (e.g., being swaddled and held tight) and have a very difficult time blocking out all that's around them. We had the same problem with out son, but the swaddling quit working for us at about 1 month because he could got hot so easily and was an extremely active baby. We ended up resorting to putting him to bed in a swing after he was nursed to sleep because he needed that enclosed feeling to stay asleep. But at 5 months he was already sitting up on his how so we had to force him to sleep in his crib and we had no ability to use swaddling any more. His naps were worse since the only way he would sleep longer than 20 minutes was to be in the baby bjorn with me walking aroudn the whole time. We were instructed by our occupational therapist to either try using a weighted blanket or to make his crib smaller because he finds comfort in small spaces. Neither work for us at the time, but it might work for you. She suggested putting large boxes in the crib to make it half the size. Our son always managed to make the crib as small as possible by himself once we started using the crying out method with him. After he'd fall asleep (after LOTS of crying) we'd go and check on him and he'd be curled up as tight as he could with his face against the soft bumper. Use to scare me to death but the occupational therapist said that he needed to sleep like that and that he was strong enough to roll over so not to worry. In regards to the weighted blanket, we didn't try it since he always got so hot, but we did find at about 18 months that the weights of blankets did work. We had one cold night where he wanted lots of blankets on and it was our first night that he slept through the night. When he was 5 months we exhausted every sleep advice out there and ended up having to use the "crying out" method to get him to learn to sleep on his own. I should warn you though that when children have a hard time sleeping like because of sensory issues where they need to be swaddled, the crying out will take much longer than a few days to work like the books say. It took us weeks and then after he was falling asleep on his own for several weeks something would happen like teething or illness and we were back to do the "sleep training" again. However, some kids are just less comfortable in their own skins and all the usual sleep tricks just won't work. We struggled with sleep for two years. On the bright side, he can now put himself to sleep at 2.5 years old and stays asleep. Thus, things honestly will get better. I NEVER believed that when people told me the sleep would get better. Everyone else seemed to be able to have babies that "slept like a baby" and we never were so fortunate. You may need to try every trick in the book that you are comfortable doing and then, in the long run, you may have to accept that something as drastic as crying it out is the only solution. Luckily, you will find that they will eventually get it without any trauma done to them. I won't say "without any trauma done to you" though. :)

Try just leaving one arm out in the beginning - and don't swaddle his legs when it gets hot out. You can do a half swaddle of just his arm(s) at first so he doesn't get so hot, and then try leaving one arm out for a while, and then the second arm out. It may be difficult for the first couple of naps/overnights, but they get used to it pretty quickly. Good luck!

A.