Baby Carriers

I'm sure your aware that in some African?? countries women have carried their children on their backs for many generations.
What's the difference?

When we were young the tinker women used to come round the doors selling clothespegs. They would have their babies in a big plaid shawl tied round them. They seemed very cosy.

My Grandma carried all her babies and grandchildren in a shawl wrapped around them and her. Welsh fashion. Lovely and warm for the babies and safe too.

Baby Bjorn carriers and baby slings are very popular and very useful if you are on public transport as modern buggies are so big and cumbersome.
"Baby wearing" is also hugely popular, babies love being snuggled, and I am sure young mums don't fall over nearly as much as their -elderly more senior granny counterparts!!

Not at all. My daughter had her second one in a sling most of the time after she was introduced to slings with her first.

If a parent trips carrying a child in their arms they could just as easily drop the child or lose hold of a push chair which, in the hilly place my daughter lives could be very dangerous.

If you have your arms free with the baby in a sling you are more likely to be able to stop or slow your fall. As for using pushchairs in shops buses etc, it is even more convenient.

My DGS2 will soon be getting too big to do this but DD could even very discretely feed her little ones when she was walking around.

Shanma yes, I do worry, but my DGC were all carried in Baby Bjorn carriers and all are fine.

I do wonder, when babies are carried in cloth slings, whether their heads are forced on to their chests and they can't breathe properly as a result.
A friend was warned about this by a shop assistant when she went to buy a car seat for her DGC - they had heard of a case of a baby who stopped breathing because of the position he was in with head slumped forward.

Prams and buggies are modern inventions. Babies have always been carried in some sort of carrier. There is a danger with one particular type of carrier, a bag sling, which forces the baby's head onto its chest and there has been at least one case of a parent successfully suing the manufacturer for the death of their baby in the US.

There are safety guidelines for using a sling and if parents stick to those, slings/carriers are perfectly safe.

I used to live in N. Nigeria and no one used prams! Babies were always tied on to mum's back with a strip of strong cloth while she got on with housework, looking after the other kids, working in the fields, selling their produce in the market. When the baby got hungry, it was slung round the front and breast fed.

Older babies who were weaned but not yet fully walking were carried in back slings by another female member of the family: granny, aunt, older sister. It was rare to hear a baby cry.

Here, this seems to be getting more common with the concept of attachment parenting. DD1 found it useful with her number 2 baby. He was very edgy and she had to give her first child attention too. It seemed to work well for her.

I "wore" all my babies, the first two with traditional "baby bjorn" type slings. With my youngest I used Kari me's (I think that is how it is written) and I had to have two, my first being purple, I had to buy a second in black as her father also wanted to carry her and felt a bit daft with the purple one.
It is a great way of carrying your young, makes a lot of sense when they are very young, and they enjoy the cuddle, leaving you free to use your arms! On the other hand, as one poster says, if you breastfeed, it is discreet and baby has lunch on tap!

It has been used throughout the world, i believe on all five continents - puschairs and buggies have only been around for the last couple of hundred years, if that.

Ninathenana, of course I am aware that this has been done in some African Countries for a long time, not only in Africa as it seems. What I am not aware of though is how many accidents have happened because of this method of transporting babies. Are you?

It isn't really about what the difference is, that seems a nonsensical remark. I simply asked if anyone else was bothered or worried about it. It seems that no one is. I will just worry by myself then

DD wore both her babies and they were both safe and happy. With both hands free there is plenty of protection if you fall.

Come to think of it, mums have been carrying babies this way since before the invention of the wheel!

I used to have a soft sling from NCT in the late 70s. It meant I was very close to my babies and they dropped fast asleep all cuddled up.I could work with it on. I was very pleased when both my dils carried their babies the same way.

However in Jamaica I got lots of criticism. Some thought it was unwise to carry a boy like that as they are weaker than girls. Never understood that. They were all baby experts out there.

I was one of the first mums round my way to use a baby sling for my baby boy. This was in the late 70s. My mum was appalled by it and thought it was unsafe but it gave me the freedom to walk about and care for my other two children, who were active 6 and seven year olds, without worrying about the baby. We even managed a day trip to London using the sling and my husband wore it and we had quite a few glances, some admiring, some disapproving.

My son in law happily uses a sling for the 17month old and can hold the hand of his big brother when he does a nursery drop off. He has to use a bus on the way to nursery it's so much easier.

Shanma I am more worried by the number of prams/pushchairs I see protruding out into the road while the 'pram pusher' is still safely on the pavement waiting to cross

Yes Swanny. I worry about that too

I used to take my youngest to nursery school on my bike and then cycle to work. The worst that happened was when I stopped and put my foot down and with my officey shoes I skidded and the whole bike, with strapped-in 3-year-old at the back tipped over with me under it.

We righted it and carried on our journey unscathed - or, at least, I haven't yet noticed any damage and now he's 28.

I carried all my babies in a sling, or until I got dressed in the morning, tied tightly into the front of my dressing gown. I'm sure there is no danger for them. Your hands are free and instinct would make you protect them if you did trip.

What I do think looks odd is when people have the sling over their outdoor jackets or coats. I always tied it on first, then put everything over the top. Warmer for baby, easier to get your coat off when you get indoors and the straps don't have to go round those extra inches, so are not so tight.

I did trip with DD in the sling in 1984. However all was well as I instinctively pulled her to one side as I fell and no damage was done. Phew!

I used to worry about my DS in a buggy in the 80's, many more people smoked in public then and he was at a nonchalant cigarette height! I used to worry about (and still do tbh!) things falling on babies unprotected in a buggy, the old cumbersome prams they were pretty well impervious to most things - I wouldn't want to go back to them though, just imagine the impracticality of a Silver Cross in shops today!

When you think about it, a front sling and later on a back pack is far healthier for the 'town baby' as in a buggy they're just at the right height to breathe in traffic fumes.

But they are jolly difficult to get on! I can't manage it when I babysit in spite of DD insisting it's easer. I use the pushchair!

I used a baby carrier in the 70's. I didn't drive and to get on and off public transport was so much easier It was also great at the niggly evening time so you could get on with things .Beginning of attachment parenting probably even though our children think they started it ! . Our second one also spent a great deal of time in our bed ...

Why do women feel the need to strap their child to their chest all the time? How will they learn to settle themselves and stretch out freely as everyone likes to do.
I only ever used a baby carrier once and I thought it was jolly uncomfortable, both for me and for the baby.
Let babies be free to wriggle around and find the position they can be comfy in. If they cry then use the age old rocking or putting in a pram or swing. They don't need to be crushed by Mum's bosom. I think it's the Mums who have separation issues who keep their babies against themselves all the time. Give baby some 'me' time!