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I didn't really swaddle, especially during feedings. It's not that I'm anti swaddling per se, I'd always heard that babies need their hands to soothe, and help them find the boob etc.. Once LO didn't scare himself awake by moving (which for us, with minimal swaddling, took about a week), we stopped altogether.

I was more cautious of having to swaddle wean, than the swaddle itself!

@daniellemybelle: I love Mothering but I do know they are VERY AP and into EBF, cobedding, babywearing, etc. So based on that knowledge - I wonder if their aversion to swaddling is a promotion for cobedding?

FWIW I tried cobedding with my newborn son, he kept waking himself up by smacking himself in the face - even while sleeping nuzzled up to me. After a couple weeks, we started swaddling him and he was finally sleeping for more than 20 minutes at a time. He slept swaddled until 6 months old! I really believe it helped him, it didn't "shut him up" or make him feel helpless. Also even while he was swaddled we continued to cobed, and he was quite the nurser - definitely didn't affect us there!

Also - the swaddling they're referring to (being tightly swaddled, arms and legs) is hardly ever done. No one I know swaddles the legs too because of all the research about there regarding hip dysplasia.

I feel that if you baby doesn't calm without it, and you feel it's not adversely affecting your child - it doesn't matter what the critics say. Just another thing to research and worry about it seems

DD was swaddled pretty frequently in the early days, then gradually less and less in the next 6 wks, and hardly at all by 10wks. She was colicky and screamed all day long. Swaddling was a godsend and we have experienced no physical problems like hip dysplasia. We didn't have to swaddle wean bc she started busting out on her own and it didn't seem to bother her.

I don't know about other people, but swaddling was just one of many tools I used to help calm my babies. Swaddling alone was definitely not the cure all to crying those articles made it out to be. I usually had to swaddle AND hold them AND talk/sing/shush them AND let them suck AND bounce them, etc... So it was never an issue of just swaddling them to "shut them up" but more like using the swaddle in conjuction with the other calming techniques they mentioned ( cosleeping, babywearing, holding, suckling, etc...) to get them calmed down.

@Mrs. Pen: I was about to say the same regarding hip dysplasia. Our Lo does have that and we suspected it from birth so only ever swaddled her arms. When she was fully diagnosed last week the first thing we were asked was do we swaddle and they were so pleased when we said only the arms.

We swaddled and co bedded. Definitely not mutually exclusive!

While I'm fairly hippy parent I can't take mothering articles seriously. Should babies be swaddled all the time? of course not, but I don't know anyone who promotes that. While swaddling allowed my LO to sleep good stretches at night she still woke up to nurse. Every time I read mothering articles I get angry, I feel like they are trying to scare and frazzle mothers into everything they do is wrong.

I'm not against swaddling, but LO hated it and broke free from them constantly, so I just stopped trying after a couple of weeks.

My LO loved swaddling especially in the RNP when he was sick. It got him to sleep better during the coughs. As a newborn, he loved it too. He's almost 5 months old and just stopped swaddling a couple of days ago while in his crib. He's not swaddled at daycare either, so the transition's been better. He likes his sleep sack so far.

@bienlivingdesign: It's tough to transition from one arm to both arms out. I'm impressed that our LO likes his sleep sack so far.