The Best Baby Swaddles | Reviews by Wirecutter

Top pick

The Sleepea is the most effective swaddle we tested. It keeps babies snug and secure with a unique interior Velcro panel and it’s safe, comfortable, and easy to use.

Created by baby sleep expert Dr. Harvey Karp as a standalone version of the sleep sack included with his high-end Snoo bassinet, the all-cotton Sleepea is designed to address common problems with other swaddles, including easy breakout, overheating, too much constriction at the hips, loud Velcro, and loose material near the baby’s face. It relies on a unique interior panel for an extra-secure arm wrap, plus an exterior zippered pouch, creating a cozy, effective swaddle. (For our full review of the Snoo see Is the $1,700 Snoo Smart Sleeper Bassinet Worth It? What to Know Before You Buy.)

The Sleepea’s combination of an interior band and exterior pouch make it harder for babies to escape, and the simple design makes it easy and fast for parents to get a baby swaddled.

Though the design of this swaddle helps keep the baby extra secure, there’s no such thing as a swaddle that’s truly eliminated the possibility of a tiny Houdini breaking free. We can say that the Sleepea is escape-resistant, though, with a lower chance of a baby breaking free mid-wear than many of the other swaddles we tested. The Velcro panel on the inside of the sack creates an additional built-in security feature—and even if a baby breaks free from the panel, their arms are still secure inside the zippered sack. The design also means there’s no loose material, even if a baby has broken out of the panel, and this is an outstanding safety measure.

The interior panel uses a thin strip of “quiet Velcro,” which isn’t silent but is definitely less loud than the traditional Velcro found on some other swaddles we tested. The interior wings also use minimal Velcro compared with other models, which makes the material less stiff and more comfortable.

One mom of a 6-week-old who was part of our test group described the Sleepea Swaddle as very user-friendly, noting, “If the Velcro was pulled tight enough, [my son] calmed instantly, was not able to break the swaddle, and stayed asleep comfortably.” Her son slept for five-hour stretches at night while wearing this swaddle, longer than he had been doing previously, the mom reported.

Made from 95 percent organic cotton, 5 percent spandex, and polyester mesh, the Sleepea is softer and more lightweight than most of the other swaddles we tested. It offers some compression without being too constricting. It’s more compressive than the Halo, our runner-up, but not as much so as the Woombie Air, and has a roomy leg sack designed with safe hip placement in mind. Two panels of polyester mesh (one at the shoulder and another around the knees), offer ventilation to address one of parents’ biggest concerns about swaddling in general: overheating. This was one of only two swaddles we tested that uses mesh paneling for improved ventilation (the other being the Woombie Air), and of the two, it uses more mesh in two strategic locations for better ventilation.

This swaddle has a few features that allow it to grow with the baby. It can be used without the interior panel, or with the interior panel secured around the torso, and still provide comfort. This is great for a baby who likes the secure feeling of being swaddled but wants more range of motion with their hands or arms inside the sack, and makes the Sleepea work more similarly to another of our picks, the Woombie. The shoulders of the medium and large sizes of the Sleepea are lined with snaps, which you can undo to create armholes (similar to those built into the Halo, our runner-up) to let one arm or both out, helping the baby transition out of the swaddle as they grow.

Like our test panel participants, some reviewers found their babies slept better when using this swaddle. One reviewer writes, “This is the most effective swaddle I’ve used so far and has allowed my 8 week old to sleep 7 hour stretches at night.” Another reviewer highlighted the superiority of the Sleepea’s design, noting, “It keeps [my daughter’s] arms neatly by her side and I like the two way zipper for easier diaper changes.” A reviewer for Fathercraft shares a preference for this swaddle’s design as well, saying, “Sleepea’s smart band and zippered enclosure felt ‘snug’ not too loose, not too tight. This was definitely an improvement over some other sacks I’ve tried.”