Keep Baby Wrapped Close to Your Heart With a Baby Carrier
Babies love to be held. Even better, they love to be held and in motion! Baby carriers do both, allowing your infant to cuddle into you while feeling the rythmic motions of your breathing and your walking. If you're new to baby wearing, or already own a sling or two, you've come to the right place. You can find a wealth of information and resources on babywearing and carriers, from the best child carrier for you to personal reviews from others.
You can use any sort of fabric to wrap yourself and baby in, though today there are many choices avaliable, from fashionable designer slings and wraps to Baby Bjorn front carriers to special hiking backpacks.
Let's get started! Below you will find some great resources:
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A Guide to Baby Carrier Types A Primer on Babywearing How to Survive Your Airline Trip with Your Baby |
Wearing Your Baby is Great For Bonding and Development
Slings are great for discrete nursing, keeps you mobile and, most importantly, baby is aware as a participant, rather than a spectator in a crib or a stroller. Baby sees the world as mom and dad see it, they listen to your conversations, and they recognize the rhythm of your breathing, your walking and your touch. All this makes for increased awareness and stimulates speech and emotional development, and is known to dramatically decrease crying and sooth colic. Not to mention that you will feel much closer to your baby.
I myself own several baby carriers, and I constantly wear my baby and go for walks around the neighbourhood. Everybody does a double-take seeing a dad with a little infant on him grinning out to the world!
Carry Baby in a Safe Environment
For a hike in the woods, a walk around town, traveling or just going to the mall, keep your hands free by wearing a convenient and safe front carrier or a backpack. A well-designed carrier will keep you cool and comfortable while running your errands. By seeing over your shoulder and participating in what you see, your infant will be stimulated enough to avoid fussing. When he's tired, he can simply take a nap in the carrier. For extra comfort and convenience, many backpacks come with a kickstand to easily load your infant, and you can attach a sun visor or rain cover as shelter against the weather.
Didymos: Weird Name, Wonderful Wrap
Why, you may ask, am I writing a review of a wrap I didn’t buy? Here’s my short philosophy on baby gear. Our family either buys one superior product in a category – say strollers, carrier, or breast pumps, or we buy two or three less expensive and more specialized products from that category.
If we’re sold …
Infantino Part II: Fashion Forward Carriers for Baby?
While in Baby Depot, I tried on five baby carriers made by Infantino. Two of the five this company classifies as “Extended Wear” carriers are reviewed here. This review focuses on three of the five carriers Infantino lumps into a category they name “Fashion …
Infantino’s Little Army of Extended Wear Carriers
Maker of toys, games, travel accessories, and at least six baby carriers that I was able to find and try during my research, Infantino Inc. outdistances other baby carriers in two key areas: variety and affordability.
But in trying to be the jack of all trades, this sling-hip-backpack-front-carrier maker borders on being the master of none.
Buying a $30 carrier that you never use is a …
Backpacks for Hiking with Baby
Two types of parents take their kids out to experience nature first-hand:
Dyed in the wool hiking types: These are the REI-member parents, the couples who, before having kids, may have met in an outdoorsy setting.
The newly converted nature buffs: These are the parents who want to show their kid the world, want to impress upon their baby the beauty, fragility, and importance of nature.
Whether you’re a 1 or a 2, you need the same type …
Slings Make for Easy Breastfeeding in Public Places
Most women who have tried to breastfeed and met with any degree of success know that it doesn’t come without difficulties. These difficulties range from trouble latching, mastering the football hold and other tried and true methods, learning the lingo of nurses or lactation consultants, wrestling with the noisy beast, er…I mean… breast pump, and figuring out how to squeeze in a shower and some sleep. And this is all before you leave the house. …
Baby Carriers: The Wearable Cure for Colic?
Trapped gas bubbles after eating, tummy upset, painful bowel movements, and acid reflux are all contributors to the discomfort your inconsolable baby experiences with colic. As the digestive system matures, colic tends to disappear between 3 and 9 months. Of the 25% of babies with colic, 90% are free of it by 9 months. With numerous medicinals, swaddling techniques, and “guaranteed” colic remedies circulating in parent lore, its amazing what a simple baby carrier can …
Kangaroo Care: Baby Carriers for Preemies
The benefits of carrying our babies close are well known. But what about preemies? In the first weeks after a premature birth, parents of preemies are often exhausted from monitoring their baby in the NICU, emotionally spent at the delay in taking their baby home, and scared about the health concerns associated with premature birth. When your premature baby comes home for good, Kangaroo care – with the right carrier for low birthweight babies – can …
When your partner is pregnant, it’s a guy thing to want to do everything you can to lighten the load. So you cook dinner, fold laundry, massage swollen ankles. A friend I have has even said he’d go through the pregnancy for his wife, if this was possible. Comforting and pampering your expectant spouse is something you’re probably pretty good at. If you weren’t, she probably wouldn’t be expecting a foot massage, let alone a …
Baby Carriers Past and Present: Herstory is History
Did you know that they’re older than money? Yes, older than currency. Back to the days of bartering. Something to think about when you’re forking over fifty to one hundred hard-earned dollars for a baby carrier that promises you bonding, soothing, and multitasking all in one. A relatively recent phenomenon in the West, where women’s roles evolved from either rearing children at home or leaving children in the care of another to go to …
Give me the easiest baby carrier, the one that needs no instruction booklet, has no list of warnings, requires no specialized lingo, and I’ll give you a bazillion dollars. That’s the number my three year old says when he tells me, “Mama, I want a bazillion more jelly beans.” Oh yeah? I think to myself, Well, I want a bazillion more hours of sleep.
Three Kinds of Easy
If you’re the kind of parent who cowers at the …
Costumes for Your Baby-in-a-Sling
If you miss the trick-or-treating candy-collecting days of yore, bundle your little one up in a sling or carrier, grab a flashlight and bag, and get read to help baby celebrate her first Halloween. Does it really matter that she doesn’t even have teeth or that she can’t eat chocolate?
Here are some costume ideas for baby only and for baby-parent combos. I’ll also provide a list of sling-friendly costumes and do-it yourself ideas you can …
Finding Your Eco-Friendly Baby Carrier
Thank goodness it’s not as hard to be environmentally conscious as it was, say, for our friends who had kids ten years ago. These friends may now be flaunting the fact that their kids are sleeping through the night. Well, you can just flaunt right back, so to speak, with your eco-friendly, chemical free, sustainably manufactured baby carrier. Yeah, I wouldn’t wait for them to turn green with envy either (pun intended).
What Makes a Carrier …
Favorite Shopping Resources
ChildCarriers.com offers a full range of baby carriers and accessories by the most trusted names in the business - from Baby Bjorn sling carriers to Ergo to rugged baby backpack carriers from Kelty, Deuter and Sherpani. Flat Rate Shipping, Only $7.99!
Babyearth.com, an Austin-based store begun by James and Heather Bendle, a dedicated husband-wife team, is committed to eco-friendly baby products. They have a large selection of baby carriers, from BabyBjorn
