Swaddling babies from birth creates ideal conditions for their sleep. When his movements are limited, he sleeps more calmly, is not intimidated by the strokes of the handles and does not hurt himself. As he grows, the need to part with the diapers becomes obvious, but the baby quickly gets used to changing the diaper. Its absence can negatively affect the quality of sleep, but there is no way without it, because sooner or later, you will have to completely abandon the wrapping.
Kinds
Swaddling today is carried out in two ways: traditional tight and free. The first type is nothing more than immobilization of the upper and lower extremities. Depending on the size of the diaper, one or two may be needed. When a baby is wrapped in two diapers, his neck is closed, arms and legs are extended. Therefore, with all the desire, during sleep, fright from the movement and wave of the baby's hands is excluded.
With free swaddling, the situation depends on how tightly the baby is wrapped. Unlike the tight method of wrapping, the child's legs are not stretched out. They are found in a weak, folded diaper bag. This method of swaddling has been increasingly used lately, proving its superiority over the tight method.
However, in this case, not everything is so simple. Despite the fact that in this case the baby can breathe more comfortably, is not so limited in movements, he often quickly copes with such wrapping. Therefore, his arms often peek out of the diaper, and the legs crumple the sleeping bag folded from it. Each mother herself chooses the way to wrap the baby. It will determine how quickly the child adapts to sleep without diapers.
Relevance
Today, swaddling is often condemned, it is considered one of the bad habits that mothers deliberately instill in their babies, and then reintroduce them into a stressful state, accustoming them to new conditions of sleep. Young mothers are often confused, because the opinions of doctors today are contradictory. However, if we consider the issue from the perspective of the baby, the situation will talk about the benefits of swaddling. To understand this, it is worth paying attention to several nuances.
While in the womb, the baby is limited in movement. The diaper creates a similar environment and gives a feeling of security. His arms and legs will not cause fear, he will not wake up from the fact that he sharply touches himself. In addition, the diaper additionally warms the baby, which relaxes before bed. This relieves stress so the baby can fall asleep faster.
One cannot but take into account the fact that a child in a diaper will not turn over in a dream and cannot suffocate, accidentally burying his nose in the surface on which he sleeps. The swaddled baby sleeps soundly, while maintaining a normal temperature regime.
Swaddling is necessary especially in cases where babies have congenital dysplasia or incomplete development of the articular elements of the lower extremities.
Optimal age for rejection
There are no clear recommendations indicating the specific age of the baby, at which it is necessary to gradually abandon the wrapping. This is due to the peculiarities of adaptation of a particular infant to the world around him, growth and development. You cannot do without swaddling at all, because, in addition to the fact that he will not be able to fall asleep, his peace will be disturbed. Irritability may become constant and the child will be under stress.
It is rare that a doctor will advise you to give up diapers within 1.5-2 months after the birth of a baby. It is especially necessary for hyperactive babies who haunt themselves. However, if initially the mother swaddled the baby tightly, over time you have to change the approach to swaddling and weaken it, because every day the baby needs to move more. Stiffness of movement can lead to impaired development of the skeletal system and joints.
Usually, children stop flinching in a dream by the end of the fourth month of their lives. Therefore, some experts believe that this period is considered the most favorable for weaning babies from swaddling. However, there is another opinion, which says: you need to gradually wean your baby from diapers from five months. At the same time, it is necessary to look at how calmly the baby sleeps in a wrapped form, what is his condition during the day, when he is dressed in loose clothes and does without diapers.
It is necessary to remove diapers from everyday life as the baby more or less learns to control his hands and feet. You cannot keep him in diapers all the time, because this will hinder his development, in which the baby looks at his hands for a long time, and then legs. You need to swaddle your baby at this age periodically so that he can rest and sleep. For this reason, some mothers try to swaddle their babies not completely, but only covering their legs.
How to wean from a diaper?
It is impossible to abruptly stop wrapping the baby, as this will become new stress for him. You cannot count on the fact that without swaddling, he will scream and stop falling asleep on his own. From such weaning, the nervous system will suffer, and in addition, an umbilical hernia may appear. The child's brain is doing quite hard work, processing the information received during sleep.
It is important that the organization and tuning of neural networks and all brain systems are not accompanied by stress. If you suddenly stop wrapping the baby in diapers, this can negatively affect mental, motor and speech development. The age of weaning is chosen when the baby fully adapts to the new conditions of life after being in the mother's belly.
As soon as the inhibitory mechanisms of the nervous system are formed, it is necessary to reduce the frequency of wrapping the child. To teach the baby to sleep without diapers, without disturbing his sleep, it is worth taking note of a few simple recommendations.
If the mother initially wrapped the child tightly so that he gets used to sleeping in a swaddled cloth, you need to gradually loosen the fabric. Relaxation will allow you to move to free swaddling, in which the baby will be in diapers, but not so limited in movement.
When nothing comes out, and the baby does not want to fall asleep without tight swaddling, it is worth resorting to a trick. He is wrapped in a diaper, and after he falls asleep, it is weakened. This should be done carefully so as not to wake the child up. You can begin to weaken the wrapping from 4 or 5 months, so that by 6 he is already used to freedom of movement. At the same time, more attention should be paid to the so-called charging.
It is important to help your baby learn to control their limbs, which will reduce accidental flinching during sleep. In no case should the child be kept swaddled all the time, as this harms the functioning of his body systems. He needs not only diapers, but also massages, exercises, moving arms, legs, turning his head. Today it will not be difficult to find a few exercises that will help in the development of the baby. You can consult a pediatrician who will tell you exactly what and how to do it.
Such exercises and massages are necessary for every child, as well as walking in the fresh air. Over time, the baby will sleep less, no need to wrap it up unnecessarily. For daytime sleep in the fourth or fifth month of life, ordinary sliders, T-shirts and undershirts are enough.
If the child is accustomed to sleeping in diapers during the day, it is necessary to gradually replace daytime sleep in diapers for sleeping in clothes.
In the future, it will not be difficult to teach the baby to sleep without swaddling. After the stage of transition from tight swaddling to free swaddling is over, you can only wrap up the legs for the night, and rather weakly. You can wear so-called scratches or fabric mittens on your hands to prevent accidental scratching of your face. If at this stage it is difficult for the child to fall asleep, it would be good to use a blanket or light blanket. While falling asleep, you can slightly wrap the baby, and when sleep enters a strong phase, unfold the blanket (blanket) and simply cover your child.
Other techniques include falling asleep on your hands. It is believed that this will make it easier and easier for the child to get used to sleeping in clothes. However, this method also has its drawbacks: the baby will very quickly get used to falling asleep in his arms. This will entail a new problem, since you will have to wean him to sleep not only without diapers, but also independently, without requiring motion sickness in his arms.
For weaning babies from diapers, you can purchase a special sleeping bag. He can replace free swaddling for some time. Someone is helped by special devices or so-called cradles-cocoons of an unusual shape, but their purchase will not be cheap. Their use is still considered controversial, although the demand for such products is high.
Some mothers indulge in various tricks to wean their children from swaddling. For example, they relax babies before going to bed by bathing. As a rule, babies calm down and relax after such procedures with soothing herbs recommended by a pediatrician. After bathing, it is enough to feed them and put them to bed. When mom is near, the child falls asleep calmly.
What else to consider?
Initially, before weaning a baby out of diapers, it is worth normalizing his sleep. It is important to walk with him every day, except in bad weather. From lack of oxygen and sun, he can become restless and whiny. In addition, you need to deal with the baby - despite the fact that he was recently born, he needs not only dressing and sleep.
Motherhood is a huge work, the physical and mental state of the baby depends on parental attention.
If the mother is there, the child will feel protected, and therefore calm. This will make it easier to adapt to sleep without diapers. There can be no raising of the voice, let alone a shout. Despite the fact that the child is small, he intuitively perceives the "abnormal" intonation.
Tips from experienced moms and psychologists
The recommendations of experienced mothers and professional psychologists will be useful in the issue of weaning crumbs from swaddling. For example, experts recommend relieving stress through massage before bed. It can be either light stroking or relaxing massage movements. As a rule, this method is effective and can reduce the number of tremors of the limbs during sleep.
It is important to monitor positive dynamics and to protect the child from daily stressful situations on a daily basis. This does not mean at all that you need to pick up the child with every manifestation of his voice. However, it is worth distinguishing when he is just getting to know his voice, and when he is crying, say, due to bloating or colic. If the baby is calm, his sleep will also be calm. And this already suggests that the mother will have more chances to relax the diapers or remove them altogether in the near future.
It is important to constantly ventilate the nursery. It is better to do this while the mother is walking with the baby or when he is not in the room. Stale air negatively affects the quality of sleep, as well as the wrong temperature regime, as well as humidity. Do not overheat the room: 22 degrees are enough for normal sleep.
There should be no drying diapers, undershirts and other clothes in the nursery. It is also necessary to monitor the noise level. However, this does not mean at all that there should be perfect silence in the room, because over time it will be difficult for the child to fall asleep in other conditions. In other words, weaning a toddler from diapers is much more involved than diapers alone. In order for this process to proceed with the least stress for the crumbs, all aspects must be taken into account.
Do not replace the diapers by rocking the crib, as this can also become a habit. If the baby does not fall asleep well without changing, you need to think about the reason. Often it is the negative factors of the day that can lead to this.
When he is full, calm and loved, adaptation goes quickly. You can turn on quiet relaxing music, buy special nightlights with different effects so that they distract the baby's attention and relax him. Others get by with special glowing stickers.
Doctor Komarovsky will tell you about swaddling a baby in the next video.
