From shroud to heaviness

An incredible number of children benefit from being swaddled when they are very young. There is no denying that; they are used to being confined in the womb and calm down when their bodies are squeezed together. It also stimulates two important senses that help calm the nervous system, namely the tactile sense (the sense of touch) and the proprioceptive sense (the sense of muscle and joint).

One thing is the ability to calm down.

Another thing is that many people in the first stages of light sleep make little jerks. Or big ones. This triggers the moro reflex in little ones, which is where the child's arms swing out to the side to prevent a possible fall. You are startled by these "falling sensations". The swaddle also helps with this.

For the first 3-4 months, most babies lie relatively still when they first sleep and do not squirm, but after that their sleep often becomes more restless. Adults are paralyzed during dream sleep, so they do not act out their dreams, and sleepwalking does not occur at all in this stage of sleep, as many people believe. But babies' brains are not fully developed, so they can move around during large parts of their sleep. Many babies escape from their swaddles like Houdini during their sleep or begin to struggle against being held.

"Adults are paralyzed during dream sleep, so they don't act out their dreams, and sleepwalking doesn't happen at all during this stage of sleep, as many people believe. But children's brains aren't fully developed, so they can move around during large parts of their sleep."

I also recommend that you stop swaddling when the child can start rolling over. This is to avoid the child ending up in a stomach position, where the child cannot get out again because of the swaddle. But it can be difficult for the child - and not least the child's parents - to find the way to sleep and rest when you were previously able to use the swaddle, but this option is now gone. In this case, it can actually be a good idea to switch to weight. Weight does not hold the child down, but provides certain freedoms, and can be used in all sleeping positions. With a weighted blanket, the two senses will still be stimulated both during swaddling and during sleep and have a calming effect.

"But it can be difficult for the child - and not least the child's parents - to find the way to sleep and rest when you were previously able to use the swaddle, but this option is now gone. In this case, it can actually be a good idea to switch to gravity."

But how do you get from swaddling to heaviness?

Well, first of all, I recommend that you start by swaddling only one arm at a time. You can only do 50% of the work with one arm. Switch between the two arms so that the child doesn't have one Skipper-Scary arm and one limp arm.
Slowly while working on opening the swaddle, the weighted blanket can be placed over the legs. You can also use the swaddle during swaddling to create calm, but loosen the swaddle when the baby is sleeping. This means you slowly phase out the swaddle and introduce weight to more and more of the body.
It is always important to ensure that the baby does not get too hot. The swaddle counts as a piece of clothing, and if the baby gets too hot, sleep cannot occur under any circumstances. It is therefore important to be able to control the temperature. This is also the recommendation from the Danish Health Authority in relation to the prevention of SIDS, that the baby does not get too hot. Feel the nape of the neck. It should be warm and dry. If it is wet, the baby is too hot.

The quilt from Lalatoto is not padded, and this has two nice advantages; namely that it does not heat up too much, and that the natural stones in the quilt can better and more effectively stimulate the sense of touch and thus help the small child find peace in their own body.

By Karen Kildahl, co-founder of " Center for Children and Youth Sleep " as well as sleep specialist, child health counselor and midwife.