After having my second child and more than 3 years of baby-wearing experience, I can finally make a bit more sense of how to share my experience in wearing a newborn. And although I didn’t have much information when my son was born, I thought that the experience I gained wearing him plus the training as a consultant was enough for me to understand how to wear a newborn. Well, my daughter, Kaya aka my prop or guinea pig for testing my premises taught me how wrong I was.
The idea started from all the repeated questions on baby-wearing groups and my partner's idea in only wearing only SSC: how early can a newborn be worn in a carrier and which one is the best? You can guess the surprise on my face when I heard him saying: I will not wear her in the Ergobaby adapt as she doesn’t seem to fit just right in it yet. And if you are a parent you know how different it feels to carry your newborn with bare hands or in a carrier. So let’s investigate I thought and do this comparison in the geeky way:
Mei tai from storchenwiege. A half buckle, fully adjustable (thus in height and weight of the panel) system that makes quite a small size panel. I believed to be the best suited for a newborn due to how little it became on the smallest setting...
However, the experience I had was different in the first 2 weeks when my full term (actually 3 days over due date) newborn was still a squish with very little muscle tone. That is because she would sog into it, no matter how good I would tighten it. So, although the legs were not far spread, the problem was her back arching too much, and she was simply soging into it to the point that the panel would go too much over her head and I didn’t feel comfortable holding her like that.
My second try with it was at 7 weeks and this time I found another issue: I found the straps quite narrow and missed adjusting the wideness as with normal straps or a wrap so it would take more of the weight.
I still had the tension issue but I solved it partially by adding a twist and a knot in front before tying the shoulder straps at the back.
So all in all not a favorite, I had my hopes up due to the adjustments possible in height and width. I would maybe rate it as â…—.
Width: 12.5cm
Height: 23cm
2. Mei tai (the wrap tai version) from Kokadi. This is a normal mei tai (so not a HB), but with the seat adjustable by velcro. The height (of the panel) cannot be adjusted for this reason I would say it should be ok from around 60cm. Although it is not adjustable, it is a sturdy carrier that can be made to fit your body and support even heavier or bigger babies as the straps are wide and give extra support. For a really newborn I think it is not the best choice. I would try and see at which age the head is properly supported and not sinking too much inside.
Width: 18cm
Height: 30cm
3. Soul aseema. It remains a favorite carrier for me, unfortunately they stopped selling them outside of India, so I am guessing it will not be easy to get one soon. I liked the fact that it is made out of wrap, it definitely moulds better on a small squishy body than canvas. The seat is not as deep as in Ergo and it folds somehow on itself on the first adjustment. The fact that the panel can be dropped (so smaller in height) makes it wearable from pretty early. I would say again around 2 weeks on a full term baby, but again everyone needs to check on their own baby. It’s long life, going long into the toddler years makes me give it a 4 and ½ stars out of 5. The reason why I don’t give it 5 it’s the straps - for some reason I think there is a place for improvement as I’ve seen very few almost none where they don’t seem too bulky or inconvenient around the arms.
Width: 15cm
Height: 30cm (yet it is hard to measure when put on smallest setting)
4. Emei baby - this one was a surprise. Although at first I thought the system was very basic with the 2 strings to make it smaller or wider, but it turns out it works. Maybe the ring tightening is not optimal, but I think it can be tight enough around a 2 weeks old baby born at term. I cannot stress enough that each parent should look at their child and check for a good fit. The surprise came to me from the back strap. As it was too close to the shoulder strap, I couldn’t close the buckle myself. So for standalone parents it could be an issue, it was also for me to have to ask for help everytime I wanted to close it. I would still give it a solid 4 and ½ .
Width: 14,5cm
Height: 33cm
5. Ergobaby adapt - unfortunately I didn’t give it a try anymore as it was my partner’s carrier choice so I didn’t want to ruin his adjustments. However, as said before, I realised with my daughter that canvas really fits a small body differently. Also, the sit is very big, so as long as the chubby asschicks don’t kick in, this is not to be used, as it will not fit a baby right. That is because it will not give good support for the back and sitting bone. However, being adjustable just in width and not in height too, I don’t find it a good solution for really small babies. Again, depending on how the baby looks, I would say somewhere
Width: 15cm
Height:
6. Bondolino- this is not suited for small babies but depending on how fast your baby is growing I would say should be ok around 56cm, or around 6-8 weeks. The panel is unfortunately quite wide so I would wait a bit, this is why I said 6 and not 4 weeks. It is a sturdy carrier, and it can be used on the back too. I dislike the choice of velcro for the waistband making it hard to get the baby out without waking it up.
Width: 23cm
Height:28cm
What I tested with my son or niece but not with my daughter:
Hop tye from Hoppediz - another version of mei tai. Mine was not having any buckles, but I was able to buy one from Hoppediz afterwards. So you can add the buckle afterwards, which I didn’t know was possible. I did this because my partner was disliking the knot and it was uncomfortable for his body type.
As far as I know there were 2 types produced: one that was not adjustable in height and width and the other one that can be. I made sure to buy the adjustable one. I think it could be a good solution, however for me being quite small, the straps turned out to be very long. I would need to strap twice around my body. What I also didn’t like was the thinness of the material, which makes it hard to carry heavier babies. With a good wrapping technique that could be prolonged a bit though.
Width:15cm
Height:26cm
The one from Isara
Big nono:
Using the baby insert from Ergo-baby with a SSC that fits a 6 months old
Manduca with baby insert
