soft structured carrier

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:

My 5 top tips for using a soft structured carrier

Soft structured carriers (or buckle carriers) are the most used type of carrier. This is not surprising. Soft structured carriers are easy to use as you only need to close a few clips and tighten a couple of straps and off you go.

What makes things tricky though are all those different options that are out on the market and are growing by the day! When choosing a carrier, it is not just about the print on the fabric, but also about all kinds of different extra features that can make life easier – or not.

Here are my 5 top tips (plus one bonus tip) for using a soft structured carrier:

Can I go hiking with my baby?

My husband and I love to go hiking, or as we say in New Zealand “tramping”! Half a year before I became pregnant, we did one big 3-day hike once each month. We had also booked us into the Great Walk on Stewart Island over Christmas, which is a fairly easy hike. But by that time, I was 8 weeks pregnant, felt total rubbish and only managed to finish the hike because my husband ended up carrying all our gear by himself!

Once our daughter was born, my husband was very keen to go out hiking again – me, not so much, mainly because it felt so complicated most of the time. But together as a family we started going hiking again when our daughter was 7 months old.

From my own personal experience, I have put together a bit of information about babywearing when you go hiking.

When can I start back carrying my baby?

Carrying your baby on your back: for some it is the easiest way to carry their child, for some it is the next step in their babywearing journey and for some it might not be necessary at all.

I personally was more than happy when I mastered the skill of carrying my daughter on my back when she was about 8 months old. This meant that I could cook dinner more easily – with the bonus that she would often fall asleep on my back. Nowadays, my big four-year-old girl only ever gets carried on my back.

My husband however, continued carrying our daughter on his front. He loved the cuddles that he would get this way with her. He only started carrying her on his back when she was about 3 years old and we only had an onbuhimo available during our travels.

Besides personal preference when you would like to start carrying your baby on your back, I often get the question when it is safe to start carrying a baby in a back carry. Let’s have a look at different carriers and safety aspects!

Babywearing with twins

First, I would like to say that I do not have any personal experience with wearing twins in a carrier. However, I did recently complete further babywearing training and one part of the training was about babywearing with twins. We had a mother at the training who shared with us her own journey of wearing her twins and how to successfully carry both of her babies at the same time.

I have found this very inspiring and would like to share my new knowledge in the hopes that there will be parents of twins who would love to carry their babies.

Why is it better to try before buying a Soft Structured Carrier?

One of the reasons, why I am so passionate about volunteering at my local babywearing library (Babywearing Nelson) is that a babywearing library gives everyone the opportunity to try different carriers.

Especially in New Zealand there are not many walk-in stores which sell a wide range of carriers. So even, if you do have a store close by, they may only be able to have a small number of carriers available to try.

I personally started using a soft structured carrier (buckle carrier) quite late, when my daughter was about 8 months old already. Other carriers had worked fine for us so far, but we were about to head to Europe to visit our families in Germany and wanted to take a “easy to use” carrier with us, that even the grandparents could use if they wanted to. I was so glad we were able to try various carriers at the library and hire one of them for our overseas trip (check out this post if you would like to get some tips and tricks for babywearing when on holiday). The Manduca carrier was the one that worked best for us at the time. We even ended up buying one as my husband and I both really liked it.

For us, the Manduca carrier was a great fit, but since then I have helped many parents try out different soft structured carriers at the library and lots of them have preferred other carriers.

Mini-Series: How to get a better fit for your soft structured carrier – Part 2

Last week I started a little mini-series with tips and tricks on how to get a better fit for your soft structured carrier (buckle carrier). You can find the first post here.

In the first part I focused on giving you some tips and tricks on how to get a more comfortable fit for yourself. This second part will be all about making your soft structured carrier more comfortable for your baby.

This little series started with a great question from one of my Facebook group members. If you have not joined my Facebook group yet, please head on over right away! This group is a safe space for everyone, no matter how much babywearing experience you may have! And we have lots of experienced parents in the group. It is a great place to ask questions about carriers or how to get a better fit for your current carrier.

On to some more great tips and tricks now!

Mini-Series: How to get a better fit for your soft structured carrier – Part 1

Last week I received a great question from one of my Facebook group members. She was wondering how to get a better fit for her 8-week-old baby in a soft structured carrier (carrier with buckles). After answering her question, I thought that getting a good fit in a soft structured carrier can often be tricky. But there are a few tips and tricks that can help to find a better fit for you and your baby.

Because this post ended up being quite long, I decided to turn it into a little mini-series. This first part is about how you can get a more comfortable fit for yourself and the second part will be about how to get a better fit for your baby.

If you have not joined my Facebook group yet, please head on over right away! This group is a safe space for everyone, no matter how much babywearing experience you may have! And we have lots of experienced parents in the group. It is a great place to ask questions about carriers or how to get a better fit for your current carrier.

On to some great tips and tricks now!

Carrier overview

When you first start looking at babywearing and the options of carriers you have, it can feel rather overwhelming! I get that. And I’m here to help you narrow down your options and give you confidence in your choice of carrier.

You may have been told about a specific carrier or even been gifted one. This is great! But you may not be quite sure if this is the right type of carrier for you. Only because a family member or friend have found one type of carrier to be great, it doesn’t mean that this will also be the perfect carrier for you and your little family. And that’s ok.

After I’ve been busy the past weeks writing in-depth articles about each type of carrier. I think it is about time I write an overview for those who just want to quickly see the difference between each type of carrier to help decide which carrier might be best for YOU.

4 tips how to best choose a carrier

These last few weeks have been crazy for my little family and me and I’m guessing that it is not much different for you! In the last three weeks we were in Spain (to visit friends), spent our last days in Germany and decided short notice to fly back to New Zealand before borders were being closed. Once back in New Zealand we went straight into self-isolation and watched New Zealand moving swiftly into lockdown within a week.

And here we are now. Lockdown for 4 weeks or possibly longer. And even though this time may seem a little tricky with a three-year-old, I think it is nothing compared to becoming a new parent. Because this is the time when you would need support from family and friends the most. Someone, who just comes around and drops off some pre-cooked dinner or someone, who answers your countless questions.

I have been wondering how I may be able to help those of you out there who are pregnant, have a newborn or a baby. Are you thinking about buying a carrier (once this is possible again), and are simply overwhelmed by the number of different carriers that are on the market? You are not the only one!

Usually, my first reaction would be to advise you to find a local babywearing group or library or a babywearing consultant where you can try different types of carriers, before you buy one. But right now, this isn’t possible. And in fact, for lots of parents who live rurally this will never really be an option. Therefore, I have written down a few tips that may hopefully help you in finding a great carrier.