when does the startle reflex go away?

[greats]

Rylee is 4 months this upcoming Sunday, and she's a bigger baby, very long, etc. Her SwaddleMe velcro swaddle no longer fits anymore (it's the size large), it says up to 22lbs but she's around 17lbs and she breaks out of it no problem now.

My issue is I try putting her down for a nap and she keeps randomly moving her arms around every few minutes & she's waking herself up as a result. It's like she still has the startle reflex though not as bad as when she was a newborn.

When does this officially go away? Tonight's going to be the first night without a swaddle & I'm terrified it's going to be a horrible night for the both of us.

 

[Noodlebear]

I don't know when it 'officially' stops but LO hasn't really done it for a month or so, maybe a bit longer and he's 6 months now. It'll still happen every now and again but no where near as much and it's no longer a problem xx

 

[missk1989]

My lo is the same age and it has almost gone, only rarely does he startle when I put him down.

 

[kissesandhugs]

My LO JUST recently has been able to sleep on his back in the past few weeks or so, he would only sleep on his side/tummy before that bc his startle reflex was just terrible and he hated being swaddled.

 

[DaisyBee]

I stopped swaddling megan sometime during 4 months (maybe 4 1/2?) out of feeling pressure from others that she was too old for it... She then slept horrible for another month or so before her reflex was better. It was better at 4 months vs newborn, but still very obvious.

Jordans reflex was never as bad as megans, and was not needing to be swaddled by 3 -1 31/2 months.

 

[ElmaWG]

My 4mo still startles occasionally, but not often. It's almost always the result of a sudden noise.

We tried to drop the swaddle about a month ago cause he was breaking out all the damn time. After a week or so of poor sleep, we gave in and started swaddling again...but very loosely, just so his arms wouldn't feel so unconfined. This was followed by two amazing nights of 6 hours stretches of sleep. But then every night that sleep got shorter and shorter. Then 2 weeks ago he started rolling from back to tummy, so we decided (again) that the swaddle had to go. But it at this point he was sleeping not more than 3 hours at a time even swaddled, so we figured even if loosing the swaddle made him sleep bad, it couldn't be much worse. So it was a good time to do it, iykwim.

Well I think that was 5 nights ago. First 2 nights were really bad. (We planned it for the weekend so OH could help). Last 2 nights....not so bad at all. So I think for us, 4 months was the right time to do it. Good luck! And let us know how it goes.