27 January 2026 · Veronica Chi
Business & Product Director · Mother of two
Baby Keeps Breaking Out of the Swaddle: What to Do
I've wrapped a great many babies badly, including both of mine, and the encouraging thing about this complaint is how consistently it's the technique.
You wrap her at eight. By half past ten one arm is out. By two in the morning the muslin is a heap at her feet and she's awake and furious about it.
This is one of the most common newborn complaints there is, and almost every time it's a fixable problem with the wrap.
Almost. Before you try any of the fixes, rule out the one cause that means stopping altogether.
First. Is she trying to roll?
Leaning hard to one side. Lifting a hip off the mattress. Tipping over during play, even once.
Any of those and the swaddling chapter is closing. Escaping the wrap is very often the first thing a parent notices, before they've consciously registered any rolling at all.
If that's what's happening, stop swaddling tonight and nothing else here applies to you.
Still here? Then she's a strong newborn with unusually good technique.
Check this first
Is the escaping itself dangerous?
The escape isn't the problem. What it leaves behind is.
A half-undone swaddle is loose fabric in a cot, sometimes near her face, the exact thing every safe-sleep guideline asks you to keep out of there.
A baby who reliably escapes gets re-wrapped properly or comes out of swaddling. Leaving it as it is, night after night, is the one option not on the table.
Why she gets out
Almost always the technique, and usually one of these four.
| What you see | Likely cause | The fix |
|---|---|---|
| One arm out within minutes | Arm was bent when wrapped | Straighten the arm before folding the corner over |
| Whole wrap loosens gradually | Not tucked under her body weight | Tuck each corner under her back, not just across |
| Fabric slides open | Slippery or too-small cloth | Larger square, 120cm, with a muslin weave that grips |
| Escapes then screams | Too tight, or too hot | Loosen at the hips; check the back of her neck |
| Escapes only after a feed | Wrapped over a full, unwinded tummy | Wind her first, then wrap |
| Nightly, with force | She has simply outgrown it | Move to a sleep sack |
How to make it hold
Tighter at the arms, looser at the hips. That combination is the whole answer, and most people get it the wrong way round. I suspect I did, for the first fortnight.
- Use a bigger square. Most escapes are a size problem and not a technique problem, 120cm gives you enough cloth to tuck properly, where a 70cm receives blanket doesn't.
- Straighten each arm fully before you fold the corner across. A bent elbow is a lever, and she'll find it.
- Tuck under her body, not around it. Her own weight is what holds the wrap; fabric laid over the top and left there will always come free.
- Start the first fold at the shoulder line, not the neck. Too high and the whole wrap has slack to travel into.
- Keep the hips loose . Counterintuitive, but a baby fighting a restricted hip generates far more force than one whose legs can bend.
- Wrap her drowsy and never furious. A protesting baby is a stiff one, and a wrap applied to a rigid body is loose the moment she softens.
- Check the temperature before blaming the technique. In a warm room, escaping is often the only way she has to cool herself down.
Whether to just buy a velcro wrap
For a determined escape artist, yes. There's no purity test here and nobody is marking your folding.
A shaped wrap with tabs holds where a folded square slips. It survives a 3am resettle by somebody barely awake. It removes technique from the equation entirely, which at that hour is all you want.
Mentioned above
Swaddle Wrap with VelcroS$55.00Shop nowIt also makes the ending easier. One wing left open for a few nights is a far gentler step down than trying to half-fold a muslin around one free arm at midnight.
If you'd rather stay with muslin, buy the bigger size, and buy more than one. Two or three in rotation means the wrap you like is never the one in the wash at bedtime.
When she's simply telling you she's done
A well-made wrap. A properly sized cloth. Every fix here tried. She's still out of it within the hour, night after night. That's a baby who has finished with swaddling, whatever the calendar says, and the kind thing is to believe her. Move to a sleep sack. Keep everything else about bedtime exactly as it was. Expect a scrappy week.
The muslins will have found other work inside a fortnight. They always do.
What comes next
Common questions
Why does my baby keep breaking out of her swaddle?
Usually because an arm was bent when she was wrapped, the cloth is too small to tuck properly, or the corners were laid across her and not tucked under her body weight.
Is it dangerous if my baby gets out of her swaddle at night?
It leaves loose fabric in the cot, which is a suffocation risk. A baby who escapes reliably needs either a wrap that applies or a move to a sleep sack.
What size swaddle stops a baby escaping?
Around 120cm square. Smaller receiving blankets rarely leave enough fabric to tuck securely under a growing baby.
Are velcro swaddles better for escape artists?
Generally yes. A shaped wrap with fastening tabs holds more reliably than a folded square and removes the technique variable at 3am.
Does breaking out mean my baby is ready to stop swaddling?
Sometimes. If a correctly sized, correctly wrapped swaddle fails every night, or she's showing any rolling attempts, stop swaddling and move to arms-free sleep.
Sources
- The Lullaby Trust: Swaddling and slings
- American Academy of Pediatrics: A Parent's Guide to Safe Sleep
This guide is general information, written to help you understand a topic and ask better questions. It is not medical advice and does not replace your own doctor, midwife or paediatrician. Anything that worries you about your baby belongs with them.