safety

Benefits for getting help when you got a new carrier

When you get a new carrier – or a used one, but new to you carrier – it can take a little while to get comfortable with this carrier. Maybe you haven’t used this style of carrier before or maybe this buckle carrier is different to the one you have used before or maybe you haven’t used any carrier at all before this one. No matter what your situation is, it can often be helpful to get some help. This could be a professional babywearing consultant, volunteers at your local babywearing library meeting or a friend who knows this type of carrier well.

These are some of the benefits for getting help with your new – or not so new – carrier:

Babywearing in hot weather

Summer is not far away in New Zealand and in the last few weeks some days have been very warm already! This means that it is time to start being mindful about what to look out for when babywearing in hot weather.

My daughter was already 5 months old, when she experienced her first Summer. Up until then I used to carry her in a stretchy wrap, which worked really well. But as the weather got warmer (and she got older and heavier) the stretchy wrap wasn’t the best carrier choice anymore. I decided to start using a meh dai, which I found to be a great choice as a Summer carrier as it was light and airy for both of us.

Here are a few points to look out for when babywearing in hot weather:

Babywearing in cold weather

Winter has arrived in New Zealand and I thought it is about time that I should talk about babywearing in cold weather. Luckily, where I live in New Zealand (Nelson) it doesn’t really get that cold. We never have snow – much to the dismay of my daughter – and there is usually only about one or two months when the temperature drops below 0 Degrees Celsius during the night.

My little girl was born in Winter and therefore I started my babywearing journey in Winter. My first carrier was a stretchy wrap which I felt was great for the colder months as it gave us an extra layer of warm fabric.

Here are a few points to look out for when babywearing in cold weather:

Babywearing safety

If you are a mum like I am, I’m sure your baby’s safety is pretty high up on your priority list. It is something that is very hard to imagine, when you are pregnant with your first child: how your whole universe will all of a sudden evolve around this tiny human being and how you would do basically anything to keep it safe from harm.

Most mums (and dads of course) use a carrier to keep their little one close, without needing to use both hands all the time to hold baby. For this, carriers are amazing. Suddenly you can go for a walk, chase after your toddler, play with your older children or even get some of that housework done.

But even the best carrier is only as good as the caregiver who knows how to safely use it. You will find lots of “rules” for safe babywearing in the world of babywearing. However, I prefer to use guidelines as rules can’t cover all possibilities and may not work for some situations.

Because sometimes it is nice to have a visual reminder (hello early foggy babybrain days) I have created a simple PDF, which you can download for FREE at the end of this post.