Episode 93: The Reasons Why I Love the Merlin Magic Sleep Suit

Disclaimer: Transcripts were generated automatically and may contain inaccuracies and errors.

Welcome to the kids sleep show, where we help tired parents from around the world to get their children to fall asleep independently, sleep through the night and build healthy sleep habits for life. I’m your host, Courtney Zentz. Now let’s sleep together.

Hello, and thank you very much for tuning in to the kids sleep show. I am excited to be chatting with you today. My name is Courtney Zentz. If this is your first time joining us, and I am a child sleep coach based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and my team works all over the United States and all over the world to help bring healthy sleep hygiene into the home and I’m so happy that you’re joining me because that means you’re probably struggling with a little one who’s not sleeping well is taking short naps isn’t sleeping through the night, or is really having a really hard time at bedtime. So the good news is that I can help and today we are going to chat about a couple things. First, it’s Child Health Day so one of those many national holidays that have popped up all over social media. And it is also SIDS Awareness Month and child safe sleep month. So we are talking about probably my favorite product that is around not only helping a child to sleep well but also do so safely and is developmentally appropriate for some things that are biologically going on. So we’re gonna chat today all about the magic Merlin sleepsuit It is one of the products that I almost always recommend for a family who starts with me in that infancy age, right, so the baby Merlin magic sleepsuit has been around for a very long time now. And the founder is actually pretty local to where I live in Westchester, Pennsylvania. She lives in downingtown, Pennsylvania, which is only a couple miles away small enough world. But the reason that I fell in love with this product over seven years ago was because of what it offered to parents when you have this child so the Merlin magic sleepsuit if you’re not familiar with baby Merlin, is a product that is what is known as a swaddled transition product. So that means that you have a baby, they are typically swaddled as a newborn, their arms are in there either up or down, depending on what their comfort level is, they’re on their back. There’s nothing else in the sleep space, right? Except this baby and potentially some sort of a swaddle because they startle and jerk a lot, which is called their Moro reflex when they are babies. And so this product comes into play as the baby’s growing a little bit stronger, a little bit bigger, around three months of age give or take roughly about 12 pounds is when a baby has the right size length, you know, recommended usage for safe sleep, to use this as a nice swaddled transition product. So your baby’s getting stronger, they’re starting to break out of that swaddle all the time. And depending on the type of swaddle that you’re using, especially if it’s a blanket that can be dangerous because we don’t want anything loose in a child’s sleep space, whether it’s a crib or bassinet or a pack and play. We want to make sure that the baby themselves is protected, they are on their back. They are alone, and that they are in a safe sleep environment like that crib or pack and play. So the Marylyn why I love it and why I use it with so many of my private sleep clients is because it really offers five key things that I think are so important that build a healthy sleep or a lot of say, Oh, you know, is it magic? Does it make my baby sleep through the night? Well, there’s a lot of things that help your baby to sleep through the night first is going to be intake, right? are they eating enough during the day a child needs 24 to 32 ounces of milk to sleep through the night without eating right, that’s a given sort of recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics. They also then need the right amount of sleep. So you have to balance your daytime sleep with your overnight sleep and make sure that they’re getting the right amount at the right time to ensure they’re not overtired or overstimulated even as a new baby. And so when you start to look at the whole picture around sleep, you also have to take into account how a baby settles are they requiring something from you to go to sleep like you putting a pacifier in six times or rocking them to sleep or nursing them to sleep or bouncing them to sleep or feeding them to sleep? All of these different things are creating what is called a prop right? So when somebody comes to me and they say hey, what do we do we have a baby who is four months old or just hit the four months the progression or the three months the progression or the five months the progression and they are now struggling. They’re breaking out of the swaddle things are all over the place help. What do we do? This is where I come in and work with families to say Alright, first and foremost, we’ve got to figure out what they’re using right and then look at the different products that are on the market. For right now. Babies at this age, we typically want them still on their back, they’re yet too young to run. to their belly on their own, and sleep on their belly safely. So that’s a developmental thing that will happen, every baby’s going to have it happen at a different time. But it’s once a baby can get there on their own without anything on that they’re safely allowed to sleep on their belly, otherwise they have to sleep on their back. That is what’s safe. That’s what the recommendations are. And the Merlin helps a child to do that. And to do so comfortably. So the baby Merlin is great from first standpoint, because it keeps baby on their back in that empty crib, or pack and play or bassinet, there should be nothing else in there, just a baby in this beautiful, soft and amazing product on their back, right. So we like that first and foremost, because it also becomes a very positive sleep cue or a sleep trigger. So oftentimes babies will associate them seeing the Merlin with getting ready to take a nap or to go to bed for bedtime. So it becomes a very obvious cue to even a small child that sleep and rest is coming and then their body can start to prepare to settle and fall asleep. So we love that about the baby Merlin. The next thing I really love is actually a child’s ability to get to their fingers, right. So sometimes babies want a pacifier, but they can’t keep it in and you don’t want to go in there 75 times a night to put it in. So that’s where the nice thing about this swaddled transition product is, their fingers are accessible. So despite its bulky appearance, I can assure you my children were both wearers of the magic sleepsuit in addition to almost every one of my clients between three and six months of age, and their fingers can become that thing they use to self settle. So sometimes children are going to settle by sucking their finger sucking a thumb. Sometimes they’re going to have a rhythmic rocking motion that you may not even notice they’re doing. But there’s a slight and consistent movement in the crib while they’re in the Merlin or sometimes it’s a vocal noise. Something you might hear your child doing sounds like this.
That is rhythmic self settling. So they are settling themselves to sleep with that rhythmic noise, right as a form of, of falling asleep. But a lot of the swaddle transition products have their hands still inside of something. So now your kid is sucking on a weird piece of fabric, right doesn’t get the soothing comfort and they’re chewing and get soggy wet this little, you know different transition product they’re using, and then you have to change it and it becomes this whole gross thing. That’s why I like the Merlin for that reason as well because they have access to their fingers, they can bend their little arms and put their fingers in their mouth if they want. But on the flip side, it also protects from the startle reflex so it’s called the Moro reflex. And it’s something that your baby has as a jerking and it’s uncontrolled at the point in which they’re using the Merlyn because their body is still trying to figure out these sudden triggers that cause them to jerk. They do not yet developmentally have the ability to control their limbs, if you will. So they’re going to tweak and jerk around and that wakes them and startles them back awake, causing multiple night wakings right, with the Merlin it’s thick enough that it affords them the freedom to suck their fingers but thin enough that it affords them the ability to not jerk themselves awake. So it’s called the startle reflex and it protects the child startle, so that they’re not waking themselves up, which is another great reason that we love it. So it’s really cool to see, you know, one that it protects the startle to that it is keeping baby alone and safe in their crib, three, that they have 10 fingers to sock for that association that they’re using. And five, the fact that they still have the ability to get themselves sort of uncomfortable in that space, right. So as a parent, we always want to make sure that our children are on our back and that they’re comfortable in some position where they find it best, you know, in the crib or the pack and play. And that’s the nice part about this product is that keeps children you know, again safe and independently settling inside of their space now the daycare transition, right so there’s a lot of people that go to daycare and then a daycare. They are like oh what do we do? Right? Most daycares actually allow the Merlin which is also great because you can have a swaddled transition product use it at daycare use it at home use it at night use it on the weekends and make sure that you know it’s that creating of a positive situation it looks a little bulky you know some people look at it and go oh my gosh is my baby going to be hot in this? The answer is no and I actually have a beautiful baby dressing guide that I can happily share with you all in the notes because it is something where you have to figure out like what is the temperature where I’m located right is it summer is it winter? Is it hot? Is it cold? Do we like AC do we not have AC you know what does that look like just to make sure baby is dressed appropriately. babies do love chill. They like a little bit of chill. And so you know there’s definitely going to be parents that say all their little feet were cold in it. So put some socks on them, you know worried about that, but it is common that have those limbs to be a little bit cooler. So those are my main reasons for loving this particular product. Again, it keeps baby safe there alone in that crib, there’s nothing like bulky or loose, it’s comfortable and soft, it allows people to stay on their back babies from kind of three to nine months, I would say depending on how big your kid is, and when they flip in it, that’s when they have to transition out of it. And they actually have the next level transition as well. The baby Merlin wearable blanket so there’s a nice kind of growth over that first year into different products. And I love those types of products because as baby starts to get older, they’re gonna do what try to climb the crib, right. And so this product as a wearable blanket, when you get to that stage also helps kids not be able to climb up and slide back down that crib. So they’re not launching themselves out of there at 16 months old. And then you’re going well how do I deal with this, right? So it really does balance all of those different things and again, creates a positive sleep Association helps protect that startle, so they’re not waking. And then as a result, with following the right awake windows, with the right intake during the day, with the right balance in the naps and schedule which you can get on my website. If you don’t have a schedule, go to tiny transitions calm, and you can generate a schedule there for baby for your toddler, just so you know, even for your newborn, what a rough day should look like based on their ideal awake window for your baby. Okay, so you can go out there and generate the schedule, get your child on a good schedule, get them settling independently get them using the Merlin, and put all of this together. And you’ll have a beautifully rested child who uses an amazing product and is safe in the meantime. And as a parent, you can get some rest without the anxiety knowing that they’re going to be safe, they’re going to be sleeping, and they’re going to be in you know something that protects them and really affords them the ability to get that restorative, independent, consolidated sleep that they need as growing little ones. So thank you so much for tuning in this week. I wanted to take a few minutes and chat all about the baby Merlin magic sleepsuit I just wrote a blog for them about something very similar, so definitely check out baby Merlyn, if you’re not familiar with them, they’re one of my favorite companies. And it’s certainly a product that both my kids use so many my clients use and so many of my clients love. Again, my name is Courtney Zentz. I’m a pediatric sleep coach, the founder of tiny transitions and also have an amazing sleep community called slumber Made Simple which you can access right out in Facebook. If you search for it, you can come in and get all the great training and resources I do for free out there every single week because my job is to serve you as tired parents and to help your child sleep well and to be the best version of themselves. So you can be the best version of yourself. Thanks so much for tuning in. Until next time, have a beautiful day.

Hold on one more thing before you go. As the value listener of the kids sleep show, I want to help you build a great sleep or not just in the times you’re listening to the show. But all day every day. Every week of the year. I have a new Facebook group called slumber Made Simple. It’s a place to gather with other parents looking for sleep support, laughs and the latest in sleep research to build a family that is rested and at their best day in and day out. If you want to be part of the community where you can get free sleep support, weekly training sessions, unbelievable content and so much more. Head on over to tiny transitions.com forward slash community. That’s tiny transition stuff comm forward slash community or head over to Facebook and search slumber Made Simple. drop me a note and let me know when you join. I can’t wait to see you there