Here at
Snuggle Hugs we are passionate about baby wearing (Baby wearing: The act of keeping baby close to your body by means of a carrier tied or fastened to the parent/caregiver’s body.) and love to share our passion with everyone we can. Today we would like to introduce you to the different types of carriers you have to choose from. We are confident that everyone can find a type of carrier that fits their lifestyle and personal fashion sense.
The Ring Sling
Baby slings are probably the most popular baby carrier available. Also called ring slings, the baby sling is simply a length of fabric that has two rings sewn on one end. The fabric is threaded through the rings, first through both and then the rings are separated and the fabric is threaded back through the first ring. When the baby is placed in the ring sling, his weight pulls down on the fabric, which locks it in place. The leftover end of fabric, or the sling's "tail," can be pulled on to tighten the sling, making it adjustable to fit different wearers and different positions. Ring Slings come in a variety of styles from the open-tailed un-padded ring sling like the
Zolowear Ring Sling, to the padded closed-tail ring sling like the
Hava Ring Sling.
The Mei Tai
The Mei Tai is an Americanized version of the baby backpack carriers used in Asia for centuries. The carrier is simply a rectangle of fabric with four straps, two for the waist and two for the shoulders. Because the straps simply tie together in a number of configurations, this baby backpack carrier is very versatile; it can not only be used on your back, but on front and hip as well. The Mei Tai is a one-size-fits-most carrier. You can find these carriers in many colors and combinations of features.
Kozy Carrier is a wide bodied Mei Tai that even has a small pocket at the end of the strap just the right size for your cell phone and keys.
Catbird Baby offers a hood for baby and a cinching strap to adjust fit for smaller babies or for facing out positions. Deciding on which features you want or need will determine which of these two great carriers would work best for you.
The Baby Wrap or Wrap Sling
Baby wraps are the one of the oldest style baby carriers. Wraps are a long continuous cloth that ties around you and baby. With baby tied on to you, you are free to go about your day and do what you need to do all the while being there for baby. You can wear your little one in many different positions including cradle (breastfeeding), facing in (snuggle hold), facing out, on the hip or easily and securely on your back.
There are stretchy wraps like the
Moby Wrap and the
Sleepy Wrap which are great for first time wrappers. For those who plan on doing extended baby wearing, i.e. for long periods during the day or well into toddlerhood, a woven wrap is usually the wrap of choice. The woven wraps like the
Didymos or the
Dolcino offer all the same great tying options of a stretchy wrap without the stretch. For those who love the idea of a wrap but feel that the tying is a bit more than they wish to learn there is always the
Baby K’tan with all the front carry options of a traditional wrap but no wrapping needed.
The Soft Structured Carrier (SSC)
A Soft Structured baby Carrier has a semi-rectangular body with buckles instead of ties and can come with a formed waist strap like the
Scootababy or an unstructured waist strap like the
Pikkolo. The
Scootababy is a hip style carrier where the
Pikkolo is more like a Mei Tai with buckles.
Getting Help
For parents that would like a little bit more help with learning their carrier there is a wonderful DVD,
Tummy2Tummy that covers most styles of carriers. In the
Tummy2Tummy DVD’s you learn everything from the basic carries to the more advanced carries all while in the comfort of your own home and you can always pause and rewind to view something again and again.
We hope this has given you a little taste of the different types of carriers there are for you to choose from. Stay tuned for our next blog post where we will cover the pros and cons of each style carrier from our point of view.
Happy baby wearing, and to help you with that leave us a comment here and follow us on Twitter SnuggleHugs is our Twitter ID, to be entered in the drawing for a free Tummy2Tummy DVD great for beginners and experts alike. DVD will be given away July 24th.
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Good Luck!
Christine of
Snuggle Hugs
Winner of our Free Tummy2Tummy DVD was Kasey Goodnough. Congrats!!!!!
Having never worn a ring sling before I had to do a little research. Time for youtube! Then a trip to the Nappy Shoppe to try it on. It was super easy to put on for the first time with no direction and just the few pointers I had obtained on youtube. Carson loved the kangaroo carry that has him facing out and we walked around the Nappy Shoppe getting use to it. I also turned him around and did the tummy to tummy carry and he quickly fell asleep. Sold!
