Best baby wraps/swaddles

[Moomintroll]

So my DD is having her first child and I was wondering whether there's a consensus on whether special swaddle products are any good and worth buying? Like Love to dream or any other swaddle product? Or just stick with a large piece of fabric? Baby will be born near the start of northern US winter so will need to be kept warm in the early months too. With my own babies I did swaddle them for a month or two but I never used any special products. 

Also at what age do sleeping bags become a better option than swaddling? Or is that very individual on the baby?

[Jenflea]

My favourite wraps for DD(born in Autumn here) were jersey wraps. Not sure of the brand, but they had stretch, they were opaque so could be used clipped on the pram to cover it when out in the sun if needed, and they were the perfect size. i found muslin ones too big and hard to wrap on her. 

I swaddled her for maybe 7 or so months, then into sleeping bags but it's baby dependant I think, I know of toddlers still loosely swaddled in a sheet till 2 or so!

[Kiwi Bicycle]

Swaddling is only reccommend until 6 months max. As so as they can roll, it becomes dangerous as they can roll themselves out of a normal swaddle cloth.

It was easier to do zipped swaddles. I liked the ones with a double ended zip, so you can nappy change without taking the entire thing off.

 

[little lion]

As my kids are almost all into the double digits I feel I lack recent experience here but I used Love to Dream suits for swaddling, especially as they got around 1 month or so onwards. In the first weeks mainly huge muslins, I remember Aden and Anais as one brand we had. Good size is like 120 x 120 cm. 
 

And congratulations!  

[Paddlepop]

Congratulations! How exciting!

I personally loved muslin swaddles to wrap DD up like a frog legged burrito. She was a summer baby.

I liked sleeping bags once the weather got chilly and she could roll. That way she’d stay nice and warm no matter her position. When they can’t roll they stay nicely tucked under their blankets so I wouldn’t use a sleeping bag until rolling can happen.

[onetrick]

We were given so many wraps and I used one of them (a stretchy, jersy material) and then decided the love to dream were better. For my second, we just used the love to dream. They are so simple, wash well and can be sold second hand for a decent amount- I purchased most second hand.

We mostly used size small but had one medium accidentally and it still worked.

After that, we loved the ergo pouches with arms. For size 6 month to whenever our kids moved into a bed (2ish?).

Sleep was one of the few times that the 'branded' things were what my children preferred.

[Andi]

In the early days I liked to wrap them using a large flannelette wrap (Big W had good ones). For my twins I moved onto Ergopouch Cocoons, they were warm and snug, and easy to zip up. I did try Love to Dreams with all of them I think, but they were too stretchy to work well for us. I remember my eldest would just constantly gnaw on her hand through it as she could move it up too easily. 

Then sleeping bags when they could roll. I used all different brands for that, but when they're a bit bigger I loved the Woolbabes, they have a range of thicknesses but the duvet one was lovely and warm. 

[Princess Peach]

I found the large piece of flanelette were good - but both of mine were reflux babies, on  a bad day i would go through 5/6 wraps so very expensive when you buy the fancy ones.

Also my older child loved being wrapped tight, so hated the stretchy ones. the younger one hated to be wrapped after 3 months.

[Two-bit]

I loved these wraps so much. The double stretch ones:

https://gr8x.com.au/collections/wraps

[VeritasVinumArte]

My last was born as the zippered swaddling came out. DD loved it. She was an absolute houdini with a muslin swaddle but the zippered ones she couldn’t get out of. Slept much better with the zipper swaddling.

[mumofboys]

For my 1st we used Love to Dream swaddles. My 2nd hated being swaddled all together 

[Seayork2002]

We bought a posh fancy one for DS as it was the thing to do 17 years ago, tried it on DS once screamed blue murder so that was it we gave it away eventually