Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Ring Slings

If you've known me for a little while, you know that I use "ring slings" to carry my children when they are young. It was recently brought to my attention that there is a big hub-bub about "pouch carriers" (or more accurately "bag carriers") and how dangerous they are. Bag carriers resemble a bag, quite literally and I would NEVER EVER put my child or anyone elses child into one of these carriers. Bag carriers are a commercial attempt by "big name companies" to mimic a carrier called the "ring sling", but there are VERY big differences. To see how different, I encourage you to check out this blog post .

I recommend a ring sling to any parent and will continue to do so, but please educate yourself on what a ring sling really is and don't go buy what you think is a ring sling at Babies R Us or Walmart or the like, because you're not getting a baby sling, you're getting a bag to put your baby in and it's dangerous.

pictures of me using a ring sling with our daughter Lily right after she was born

Photobucket

3 comments:

Jennet said...

Where did you get yours? I am looking at several different kinds, I will probably opt for a carrier that distributes weight more evenly due to my history of back problems... I have until june to figure it out for sure though!

Christina said...

Jennet, my favorite and most reliable place to get ring slings is www.sleepinbaby.net - she does excellent work, uses top notch materials and I've ordered 2 slings from her as well as had one sling "re-done" by her to make it more comfortable. I hope to snag up one more before this baby comes :D but we'll see if that works out.

Cherie said...

Amen! I use a Mayawrap and am constantly getting the comment from older people about the news report they heard. What's funny is that my son's head is always visible so people also add "well, yours looks different" to the end. I've had my 4 kids in this same sling as babies and will continue to use it for as many more as we have! Thanks for trying to educate people, I think it's really important! I always feel bad for moms/babies that miss out on being close like this (although, I'm sure their arms are stronger than mine since those car seats are SO HEAVY!) I hope lots of moms find your post!