Swaddle vs Sleeping Bag 💤 Pros and Cons

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Are you undecided on to wether to use a swaddle or a baby sleeping bag with your newborn? Well here are some pros and cons that you may find helpful:

A swaddle is a thin blanket which is meant to entirely wrap your baby limiting the movement of their arms and legs. this simulates the womb experience and helps keep your baby snug. If you do choose to swaddle it's really important that you only use a thin blanket or muslin like this one here and that you check on your baby regularly to monitor their temperature, so as to avoid overheating. A big positive of using a swaddle is that it helps to suppress the startle reflex. Also they can be used from newborn, or with tiny babies, because the size can be adapted with baby as they grow. It's really important that you DO NOT use a swaddle when your baby starts to roll, because it restricts the movement of their arms and they would unlikely be able to roll back.

Now swaddles are generally cheaper to buy, but there is a bit of a knack to swaddling and if you don't get it right it can unravel.

Now let's take a look at the sleeping bags. These are a wearable blanket, and most allow the babies arms to move freely, whilst keeping the lower body snug. Generally sleeping bags are easier to use than a swaddle. In particular for night time nappy changes where you can use a handy zip to access the nappy area rather than unraveling the whole swaddle. Sleeping bags are really helpful for keeping your baby warm during the night, and different togs are available for different seasons. They can also be used right up until toddler age or even later.

However most sleeping bags aren't suitable for newborns because they have a minimum height and weight requirement, so you need to check the packaging before you buy. Now you're not going to encounter that sort of thing with a swaddle because you can use those straight away from newborn.

Now there are some other hybrid options available on the market too, such as this velcro swaddle which is slightly easier to use although the velcro can be a bit noisy. Or these newborn type sleeping bags which have poppers over the arms to help suppress the startle reflex.