Credit:
Reviewed / Lisa Lawrence
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Credit:
Reviewed / Lisa Lawrence
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There’s a saying when it comes to parenthood: The days are long and the years are short. However, there’s no mention of the nights. The nights can feel eternal. In those early months with baby, just when you think you have sleep all figured out…everything changes. And so, you must often change your approach.
Your baby is also physically growing so rapidly that a sleep sack can be the perfect size for your little one for a good stretch, but then a growth spurt happens and poof!—suddenly that cozy wearable blanket looks more like a straight jacket.
Our new baby boy was a better sleeper than our first child, so testing the various sleep sacks was working out nicely. However, in the beginning, when we were testing swaddles and landed on the Happiest Baby Sleepea Swaddle, we had a tough time testing the rest of them because of how well it worked.
We tested the most popular sleep sacks, and found that the Baby Merlin Magic Sleep Suit (available at Amazon) is aptly named. It worked so well that it took us some time to move on to our next sleep sack…a couple of months actually.
The one drawback to the magic suit is that you can’t keep a baby in it forever, so if you’re looking for longevity in a sleep sack, the Halo SleepSack (available at Amazon) is our Best Value pick.
The Baby Merlin Magic Suit took our top spot.
The Halo is effective and affordable.
Ability to transition from the newborn stage to 9-12 months
Super cute patterns
Two-way zipper
Fabric is too bulky when they’re tiny
Area where their arms come through is on the smaller side
Material doesn't feel particularly soft
Quilted material is really nice
Bridges the gap nicely from swaddle to sleep sack
Plenty of room for babies to freely move their legs
Odd cut leaves their arms exposed and cold at night
Not a ton of options for colors and patterns
Expensive
Material feels high quality
Sizes last for 6 months
Two-way zipper makes diaper changing easy
May be too warm for most babies
Minimal styles and patterns to choose from
Expensive
Material is soft
Affordable cold weather option
Too bulky and not the right fit to use as a sleep sack
Velcro clasp is extremely loud when pulling apart
Tends to attach itself to other laundry in the washing machine
Well priced
Material has nice feel
Velcro is very quiet
Sleeves seem to be too short
Overall length seems to be too short as well
Material, while soft, doesn’t seem to be as breathable
Hi there! My name is Ilana Cohn and I am a writer and performer living in Los Angeles. I love reading about the latest baby gear and sharing my opinion, so I was excited to have the opportunity to review more products that have been helping me get baby number two into good sleep habits.
While every baby is different, sleep is universally necessary and important, not only for physical growth and brain development, but also for our sanity as parents. So anything that aides the process of sleep is golden in my book.
At around 3 months it was time to say goodbye to the swaddles that we had become pretty dependent on for getting our son to sleep. My little guy either outgrew, would break out of the bigger ones, or be so frustrated over being stuck in them, that we knew it was time to move to the sleep sack.
I tested the sleep sacks in the same manor that the swaddles were tested. Each sleep sack was tested through at least two sleeps and revisited a month later. Although we did have an almost two-month stretch when I would only sleep our baby in the Magic Merlin’s Sleep Suit—it was the only thing that was working, which is the main reason why it’s in our number one spot.
With all of the sleep sacks we looked at fabric properties and quality, ease of use, any special features, storage, fit, comfort, adjustability, ability to change a diaper, and overall experience.
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, you should not put an actual blanket in your baby’s crib until after 12 months to help reduce the risk of SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome).
Luckily, there are plenty of wearable blanket options to keep our babies safe and cozy while they sleep. The main things to consider when selecting one of the many options available are: durability, comfort, warmth, and cost. If organic cotton is important to you, you could be looking at spending close to $100.
If you’re looking to have one sleep sack to get you from infancy all the way to toddlerhood, they do exist. But you may have to deal with resizing it. Your baby may not find the early stages of the swaddle/sleep sack combo as comfortable, since the fabric will need to be bunched.
Wearable blankets come in many different materials making it easy to select the appropriate sleep option for your baby or toddler in any climate.
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics' Safe Sleep Recommendations, updated in June 2022, weighted swaddles and sleep sacks may be unsafe for newborns and infants, and can theoretically increase the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), although there are, to date, no federal regulations or requirements on infant sleep sacks.
The report states, "There is no evidence to recommend swaddling as a strategy to reduce the risk of SIDS. If infants are swaddled, always place them on the back. Weighted swaddles, weighted clothing or weighted objects on or near the baby are not safe and not recommended."
Ilana Cohn created the show Overdue for AwesomnessTV, where she worked as the showrunner and directed an episode of the series. Ilana also created the series 4th Period Lunch for Mondo Media, Jingle Hit Factory for Nickelodeon, Embarrassing Mom for Disney and the Delores DiGagorio Series for Fremantle Media, for which she won a Webbie Award. Acting wise, Ilana was recently on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, she's in the cult film Detention, and has done voices on Comedy Central's South Park. She is a mother of two and works in Los Angeles as a writer, director and stand-up comedian.
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