If you’re a parent of a child under five, a great baby carrier is (or should be) an essential part of your summer vacation toolkit.  Better yet, we recommend two carriers for summer travel perfection: one for quick cuddles and short trips and one for all-day wear.

 Baby Carriers Simplify Summer Outings

While strollers can be handy in some situations,they can feel like a safety hazard on crowded boardwalks and uneven surfaces  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 vacation activities are:

Swimming/Beach: Wrapsody Water Wrap(best for younger babies), or the  ERGO Performance (for hot, humid weather, but not so much for going in the water).  The Boba Carrier is also a nice, lightweight choice.

Hiking/Sightseeing: the Boba Carrier,  ERGO Baby Carrier, Beco Baby Carriers (Beco Gemini for the little ones or Beco Soleil for older toddlers) and Tula Carriers (both standard and Toddler)

Shorter trips: Ring sling

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. Summer travel inevitably disrupts  these schedules, adding stress to an already stressful time. A baby carrier can help!

If you are nursing, baby carriers allow you to nurse discreetly at the airport or even, believe it or not, standing in line at Disney or strolling on the beach. My favorite carriers for discreet nursing are a stretchy baby wrap or one of our ring slings.

Little ones can also be easily rocked to sleep while you are waiting to board your flight or even on the airplane. A carrier that gives your child some protection from light and people will help soothe baby and avoid over-stimulation. Great carriers for napping in are a stretchy wrap,(the Water Wrap and some of the Moby Wraps have UV protection for your outdoor activities, too!) and any Ring Sling.

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 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 mei tai 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 just about to reach the check-in desk or comfort and cuddle your 3 year old who has bravely walked through the security all by herself.

Our favorite toddler and older child carriers are the Tula Toddler Carrier  Boba Carrier, the Beco Soleil and Sakura Bloom double-layer Ring Slings (Silk or Linen).