Combine swaddling with the NUNKI sheet

Parents of a young baby soon notice that their child falls asleep best near mom or dad. Preferably on top of one of the parents, even. If you put your child in bed, there is a good chance that your baby will quickly become restless and start flapping its arms and kicking its legs. To limit this unrest, many parents opt for swaddling. This is an age-old and usually quite successful method, but it only suppresses the symptoms of anxiety. Do you also want to tackle the cause? Then it is smart to combine swaddling with the NUNKI sheet.

Restless babies often kick and hit themselves awake. That no longer happens when your baby is swaddled; the arms are then neatly tucked away, so your baby can no longer mow with the arms. In the past, they used cloths to wrap their baby tightly. Nowadays there are all kinds of useful products available that make swaddling easy. A few well-known examples are the Puckababy, Ergopouch and all kinds of different types of swaddle swaddles and sleeping bags. They all do the same thing: ensure that your baby can no longer move his or her arms uncontrollably.

Swaddling is a great success story, you might think. But actually you are only suppressing the unrest. The unrest is not 'gone', but simply cannot be expressed. So it keeps the symptoms of anxiety under control, but does not change the cause of anxiety.

This is how you tackle the cause of unrest

A young baby's restlessness has many causes. For example, your baby does not yet have control over his or her body and does not yet feel where the body ends. Your baby still has to learn all this and that is quite a challenge in this world where everything is new and unknown. Your baby does not yet feel completely at home and longs for that tight, safe and secure feeling he knows from the womb.

The NUNKI sheet offers exactly the secure feeling your baby needs. While swaddling only indicates the boundaries of the body, the sheet goes a step further. The unique elastic band provides mild pressure on the upper body, creating the pleasant and safe feeling that your baby recognizes from the womb. The bed now feels like a familiar environment, where your baby feels safe and dares to surrender to sleep.

The sheet also has a number of useful features: it works very simply with a zipper and fits around the mattress, so your baby cannot kick it loose during the night. So your baby not only falls asleep faster, but also sleeps longer. In addition, the sheet ensures regularity, because your baby is tucked in the same way every time. After a while, your baby will recognize the ritual and immediately understand that it is time to sleep.

Combining NUNKI with swaddling: a good idea

For some children, the NUNKI sheet is sufficient to sleep a lot more peacefully. Even with your hands up, because the feeling of security lies in the pressure of the elastic band on the upper body. Of course, there are also restless sleepers who flap their hands a lot and eventually wake themselves up. In that case it is advisable to combine NUNKI with swaddling. The sheet can be easily combined with well-known swaddling methods such as the puckababy, ergopouch and all kinds of swaddle swaddle cloths and sleeping bags. You then tackle both the cause and the symptoms of unrest: a golden combination that is more likely to succeed when your baby is very restless. It also makes phasing out swaddling easier, because the sheet tackles the unrest and provides security in the crib.

Prefer a mild alternative to swaddling?

Do you find swaddling intense? Then choose a milder alternative. At Fedde&Kees we have the BUNDI sleeping bag : a sleeping bag with zippers under sleeves. With the zippers closed, your baby has slightly more freedom of movement than with traditional swaddling. For example, a strong baby can simply move his thumb to his mouth. The sleeves do provide some resistance, so uncontrolled movement of the arms is no longer possible. As far as we are concerned, this is the perfect balance between being able to move normally and limiting extreme movements.

The zippers make the BUNDI sleeping bag the ideal all-in-one sleeping bag. Zip closed for mild swaddling, zip open for a 'normal' sleeping bag. This way you can determine how much freedom of movement your baby has per sleep and per moment. This is extremely useful during night feeding and when phasing out swaddling. You can also open or close the zippers a little. This way you can get your child used to more and more freedom of movement in very small steps.

Conclusion: only treat symptoms when necessary

If your baby is restless, it is best to first work on the cause of this restlessness. For some babies, a safe and secure feeling is enough to sleep a lot better. Does that not work (sufficiently) for your baby? Then you can switch to swaddling, or a mild form thereof. Keep in mind that your baby always needs some time to get used to something new. So always try out a new method for a week before deciding whether it will benefit your baby. Good luck!