| How to choose
Choosing a babycarrier can be overwhelming with all the choices out there, but I hope to brake it down with some pros and cons of each type based on my personal experience. There are tons of reviews and articles on the subject as well at www.thebabywearer.com
The Basic Types of Carriers
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Wraps and Shawls Sonny and Katie wrap
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Ring Slings Kelly and Katie in a Ring Sling
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Pouches Katie and her lovey baby in a pouch
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ABCs Angie and Ruby in a Mei Tai
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Structured Carriers Sonny and Arcie in a Beco
Wraps and Shawls
Wraps are rectangle pieces of fabric that are tied to hold baby to you. Shawls are simple squares of fabric. Wraps come in a variety of lengths and fabrics. You can make your own wrap simply and easily without even sewing if you want to, there are simple directions for that at www.wearyourbaby.com along with many great videos and tutorials for wrapping. The great things about wraps are they are by far the most versatile carrier. Off the top of my head I can think of over a dozen methods of tying your baby- or what we call a "carry" . Wraps spread wide to distribute the weight of baby across your frame and muscles. Wraps can be of a variety of fabrics, woven, like the Strochenweige and Hoppediz on my site, or stretchy jersey, or simple gauze to suggest a few. With so many options though comes the question, do I really need all that? Do you think you want dozens of options for how to carry your child? I like wraps because they are kind of the final frontier in babywearing for me, there are tricks and tips I am still learning, and like I said, so versatile! Wraps do have the longest learning curve of all the types of carriers. With a wrap your possibilities are really endless. When you are picking a wrap you need to look at how long it is, certain carries require certain length of wrap, and obviously the size of the body you are wrapping around comes into play as well, the size of the baby does not matter. You will need to consider the fabric used to make the wrap, how it will support your baby's weight, but seriously make sure it is a fabric you will wear 4 and a half yards of(for example). Wrapping is fun, and very secure for baby.
Ring Slings
A ring sling is a piece of fabric that has two rings sewn into one end of the material to adjust. Ring slings are versatile and can be used in over seven positions. Ring slings are worn over one shoulder, and come in a variety of shoulder styles. Ring slings come in a variety of fabric choices as well to consider. When shopping for a ring sling you will see some are padded in the shoulder or in the rails(top and bottom edge of the sling) , for the padded ring slings it is important to make sure you find the correct fit as the padding in the rails will affect how far you can adjust your sling. Slings are in open or closed tails, a closed tail is simply the fabric sewn up together after it comes out the rings. Open tail/unpadded slings will be more versatile, slings with padding or closed tails some find simpler. You can make your own sling, there are wonderful pattern links right from a safe and reliable source for rings, www.slingrings.com . Learning how to use a ring sling does take practice, but as you can see in pictures throughout the web page, my three year old has it mastered. Another question you can ask yourself when trying to deside what carrier type you would use is to think how you most often carry your child, then see my pictures of what positions you can use each carrier with. I use the "hip carry" with my ring slings regularly as carrying my kids on my hip is natural and comfortable as well as practical for me.
Pouches
Pouches are simply a tube of fabric that can not be adjusted. The carrier is used over one shoulder, and the baby sits in the pocket. Pouches are simple in design and can be used in many of the same position that a sling ring can be- without the excess fabric of the tail. The one downfall of a pouch is that it needs to fit the user properly to work well. It can not be too big or too small, often times a pouch that fits dad will not fit mom. The toughest part of learning to use a pouch is figuring out what size will fit you best. There are tons of do it yourself patterns out there to make this simple, and fun carrier, check out www.thebabywearer.com for these. We like pouches for the easy in, easy out no fuss carrier they are.
ABCs or Asian Inspired Baby Carriers
There are several types of traditionally inspired ABCs from different regions of the East. The ones that I am going to briefly talk about are the mei tai, onbuhimo, and podegi. The Mei Tai is the most popular and many find that it is quite simple to use. It is a panel of fabric with four straps coming off of it. Two that tie around your waist and two that tie over your shoulders and across your body. The onbuhimo is a panel with two straps on the top, but instead of waist straps it has two rings that you thread the top straps through. The podagi is panel ( the size of the panel will vary from quite small to rather large) with either two straps coming off the top sides or one long strap running across the top. All three of these carriers will put your baby on your front or on your back and have variation for being used on the hip as well. These carriers have a very basic learning curve and come in a variety of fabrics on the panels. These no fuss, no frills carriers are a favorite for many. The draw back is that compared to some of the other carriers here, they are limited in how many positions you can comfortably and safely use.
Structured Carriers
These carriers are very similar to the mei tais, but instead of tying you use buckles. These carriers are very limited in what positions you can use in them, and what size child you can carry in them. There are relatively few adjustments you can do if you need to alter things with these types of carriers. Again, they mainstream and simple function is winning these carriers popularity. Easy to learn and practice.
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