Baby Carriers Make Summer Fun a Breeze!
For many of us, summer is a time of hectic activity – travel, BBQs, outdoor concerts, hiking, beach days, family reunions and more. For moms (and dads) of young children, it can be a challenge to get everything done while still being the parents we want to be. If this describes you, then consider adding a baby carrier or two to your summer toolkit. You will find them invaluable.
Using a soft carrier to keep your child close has many benefits for both you and baby, including increasing bonding, making baby happier and making you feel more in tune with your child. During the summer (and anytime) a good baby carrier is a great way to care for your child while keeping your hands free for other activities.
Baby Carriers Simplify Summer Outings
While strollers can be handy in some situations, on crowded boardwalks and uneven surfaces, they can feel like a safety hazard. Wearing your
child in a carrier instead of using a stroller means that you won’t
have people tripping over your stroller or giving you dirty looks for
(in their eyes) taking up too much room on the sidewalk or in the aisle. A good baby carrier also gives you freedom to roam where strollers can't go: beaches, cobblestone streets, grassy knolls and the pool, just to name a few.
Babies much prefer to be carried close to mom or dad, so chances
are, they will be less fussy and more tolerant of your activities than they
would be in stroller. You can easily entertain them in a carrier, and see the sights too!
Our favorite baby carriers for summer activities are:
Swimming/Beach: Wrapsody Water Wrap(best for younger babies), or the ERGO Sport and ERGO Performance (for hot, humid weather, but not so much for going in the water).
Hiking/Sightseeing: ERGO Baby Carrier, Beco Carrier or the Pikkolo carrier.
Shorter trips: Maya Wrap Ring sling or any of our baby pouches.
Also, the Wrapsody Breeze wraps are the coolest wraps on the market!
Baby Carriers Allow You to Keep Your Child’s Feeding/Sleeping Schedule
We all know that babies and young children benefit from routines. Allowing your child to nap and eat at the same times every day saves your sanity and theirs. Despite your best intentions, summer festivities often disrupt these schedules, adding stress to your life. A baby carrier can help!
If you are nursing, baby carriers allow you to nurse discreetly at a BBQ or even, believe it or not, standing in line at Disney or strolling on the beach. My favorite carriers for discreet nursing are a baby wrap or the Maya Wrap ring sling.
Little ones can also be easily rocked to sleep while you chat with your boss's second cousin over a glass of lemonade. A carrier that gives your child some protection from sun and people will help soothe baby and avoid over-stimulation. Great carriers for napping in are a wrap,(the Water Wrap and some of the Moby Wraps have UV protection, too!) and the Maya Wrap Ring Sling. If you’d like baby to nap on your back while you prepare the potato salad, a Kozy Carrier mei tai can be used to safely carry even an infant on your back.
Baby Carriers can Keep Your Baby Healthier
All of us are trying to keep our babies (and ourselves) healthy and free from summer colds. Airplane and other kinds of travel can increase risk of illness. While exercising universal precautions (hand-washing, covering coughs and staying home when you are sick) is the best way to prevent the spread of germs, we know that not everyone is following them. Some people seem to like nothing better than to touch the baby, even though they just sneezed into their hand.
Many moms are surprised to discover that babies are much less likely to get unwanted touches, pats and requests to hold them if they are tucked away in a carrier. This is because while babies are not allotted much personal space in American culture, holding baby in a carrier means that your personal space envelopes baby too. People are much less likely to touch a baby who is snuggled into a pouch on your chest because it means that touch enters your personal space as well. Our favorite carriers for tucking baby in: a wrap, a pouch or a ring sling (you can even use the tail to cover baby’s head).
Baby Carriers Simplify Summer Travel
Travel can be extraordinarily stressful sometimes – grumpy crowds, harried airline staff, long lines at security, delayed flights and bad airplane food can turn even the most Zen moms into stress cases. While a baby carrier can’t solve all your travel woes, it can make baby much happier while you navigate the rest of it. It is also much easier to handle luggage without having to push a stroller as well. Our favorite carriers for carrying baby while dealing with a huge load of luggage are buckle carriers. If you have an infant, a wrap or a Kozy Carrier mei tai may also be a good choice.
It can’t be repeated often enough that babies love to be close to you. If you can carry baby while going through airport security, they will be much less likely to fret. If you choose a carrier that doesn’t have metal on it (such as a pouch or a wrap), they may even let you go through without taking baby out!
Baby Carriers are not just for babies
Even though we call them baby carriers, most of the best slings and carrier can be used for children up to 3 and 4 years of age. Obviously, older kids will be involved in activities for most of the time, and we're not suggesting that you need to carry them everywhere. Every mom of an older toddler has, however, had to deal with a tired whiny kid sometimes, and a good carrier can be a lifesaver. Toss Junior into a quick back carry when he’s threatening to throw a tantrum while you’re trying to check out at Coscto just hours before your summer picnic or comfort and cuddle your 3 year old who has bravely walked through the post-fireworks crowd halfway back to the car but is getting tired and cranky and you still have a long ways to go.
Our favorite toddler and older child carriers are the ERGO baby carrier the Maya Wrap Ring Sling.
Stay happy, healthy and close to your babies this summer!
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