Hello there! My name is Erika LaPean and today I’m a guest blog­ger for Colum­bia Cen­ter on baby slings, a.k.a. baby­wear­ing, and all the talk about them. You can find my blog here: Fam­ily Life

I have a daugh­ter, Char­lotte, who is 19-months-old and one due in Feb­ru­ary. It wasn’t until Char­lotte was four weeks old that I bought a Moby Wrap, but I sure could have used it those first four weeks! Thanks to a visit to Colum­bia Center’s Moms’ Group on Wednes­day morn­ings, I met some other moms who had more expe­ri­ence with slings than I did.

I already had a Hot Sling but needed some­thing that would be more ver­sa­tile. One mom had a Moby Wrap and a Maya Wrap. After try­ing out these other slings I bought myself a Moby wrap and put it to use right away. I prob­a­bly would have also bought the Maya Wrap, but see­ing as I already had a Hot Sling, I lim­ited myself to two.

The Moby Wrap imme­di­ately gave me free­dom in my house! I knew it was impor­tant to hold your new­born for the first three months or so, but I also needed to have to free arms for my san­ity. Before, I was always doing house­hold chores and hob­bies with one arm, oth­er­wise Char­lotte would fall out of the Hot Sling when I leaned for­ward. With the Moby wrap, I was able to lean for­ward with­out her falling out! Trust me, baby is so secure in that wrap and it’s really easy to use.

If none of these slings are for you, don’t fret, there are many types on the mar­ket. Colum­bia Cen­ter has an event called Sling Fling where moms are invited to come and test out mul­ti­ple types of slings with their kid­dos. If you can’t make it to an event like this, then call retail stores in the area to see if you can test them out. Stores like P’Sues in Shore­wood and Well-Rounded Mater­nity Cen­ter in Menomonee Falls will both allow you test their slings out. Lastly, the Inter­net is an awe­some resource for moms. Just Google the word “baby sling” and you’ll be amazed at what you can find! YouTube videos are also quite handy if you need to watch other moms demon­strate how to wear the sling you’ve chosen.

Baby slings/carriers don’t lose their use­ful­ness when babies learn to walk. Tod­dlers are heavy and can some­times be clingy. Baby­wear­ing saves par­ents from aching backs and sore arms. Although I don’t use my Moby much with my tod­dler, it does have the option of wear­ing her pig­gy­back which would be help­ful in some situations.

The most impor­tant thing to remem­ber when choos­ing a baby sling is that every­one is dif­fer­ent. Each per­son has unique likes and dis­likes. Don’t give up until you find some­thing that works for you! All babies love to be worn, but it can take some time to find a car­rier that is right for you. If you have ques­tions, please ask! Colum­bia Cen­ter can be a great resource for you.

Since Sep­tem­ber we’ve held two Sling Flings at Colum­bia Cen­ter because it’s an impor­tant topic and many folks don’t real­ize that using a sling, car­rier or wrap can be a great way to care for your baby. At both events we emphasized—just as we would with any other product—safety. In fact, we gave out “safety tip sheets” at the events. We believe that safety and babies is always pri­or­ity one.

I wasn’t sur­prised this week when I saw that the Con­sumer Prod­uct Safety Com­mis­sion (CPSC) will prob­a­bly be issu­ing a warn­ing on slings. After all, they are sup­posed to be the gov­ern­men­tal agency that is look­ing out for the safety of our most pre­cious resources. But since Tues­day, March 2, 2010 their head has been say­ing how dan­ger­ous these prod­ucts are and that their warn­ing would be com­ing out last week. I have seen noth­ing more than a week later from them that is infor­ma­tional, edu­ca­tional or helps par­ents to know what to do. I was taken aback that they didn’t empha­size that this is an issue of edu­cat­ing the pub­lic. To cre­ate this level of worry and then not fol­low through right away is irre­spon­si­ble. (more…)