When should you stop swaddling your baby? Do you wean off slowly or is there a time you just suddenly stop swaddling?

Most babies will tell you when they don’t want to be swaddled anymore. When they are older, stronger, or feel more comfortable outside of the swaddle, they will likely put up a terrible fuss or simply fight their way out of the swaddle and be content to sleep unbundled. Most of my friends stopped when their babies knew how to flip over on their own. So around 4-6 months. That said there are many cultures around the world who regularly swaddle babies past one year. In fact, Greek philosopher Plato recommended swaddling babies until they turned two. God knows how that would have ever worked!!

For me personally, I stopped waddling my son at about 2 weeks becos he slept better when his arms and legs are free. His startled reflexes doesn't seem to wake him up so I guess it was okay. Waddling supposingly helps with the baby the sleep better because it helps reduces the startled reflexes. But somehow my son manages to "escape" less than 10 minutes after waddling so we figured that he might as well do away with it.

I stopped swaddling my kids when they turned 2-3 months old, as they can sleep better around this period. Also, it will be danger if you swaddle your baby when they can flip over and unable to flip back (which is around 4months). You can do it in phases, i.e. swaddle one arm only for a couple of days and slowly let the both arms out. Please refer to the picture attached.

Actually it depends on your baby. For mine, he doesn't like to be swaddle. We tried swaddling him 2-3days after discharge from hospital, he will start to cry and move his hands and legs, wanting them to be set free. So we stop swaddling him around 1 week of his birth. And he seems to be able to sleep well with his hands and legs free.

I think there is no hard and fast rule on when to stop, some of my friends just let their babies take the lead. A few stopped when their babies are around 3-4 months. One of my friends was saying her daughter waves and kicks around in her sleep and so she gave up swaddling her at 3 weeks old.

My baby is 5.5 months and still goes to bed swaddled. :)