noun plural
1.
a. : narrow strips of cloth wrapped around an infant to restrict movement
b. : limitations or restrictions imposed upon the immature or inexperienced
Assyrian sculpture must have freed itself from its Babylonian swaddling clothes — A.L.Frothingham & O.S.Tonks
2. : a period of immaturity
I have never seen him since I was in swaddling clothes — G.P.R.James