Everyone else is doing it, so why can’t we? Yep, it’s a year in review for the Baby Carriers Downunder blog.

My fave photo from 2009 - yes, I do have the most gorgeous wearee ever

January 2009 kicked off with a couple of sling meets, in Melbourne and Sydney. Sling meets are a great way to keep the kids busy during school holidays, especially as they usually happen in parks rather than busy indoor play centres.

February was when we got stuck into more regular writing. There was the very entertaining It’s Time to Get Serious: Zombies; a run-down on babywearing retail with If these slings are so cool, why can’t I buy them at KMart?; and Babywearing and Post Natal Depression.

By March, the weather was starting to cool down in the southern parts of the country, but Australia being such a big place it was still nice and warm up north. We had a mix of the serious - How do I start - with TWO babies? - and the not-so-serious - Could Angelina Jolie be a tandem babywearer? Yep, we had a bit of a tandem babywearing theme for March. Whether it’s twins, or a toddler and newborn, lots of parents carry more than one kid at once out of practicality.

In April, we discovered why wrappers are really cool froods, how to breastfeed hands-free, and spent the whole month sharing the love - with a series of posts talking about babywearing when the wearer isn’t the child’s parent.

May was Newborn Babywearing Month on the blog. One of my favourites was Can we please go home now? A personal story about leaving NICU with a premmie (or two). I also loved the glimpse into another culture in Kandy, about babywearing in Sri Lanka.

June saw a week in the life of a wrapper. My fave was a great example of Extreme Wrapping - Day 4, wrapping on a moving bus. Coming up to the end of financial year, there were also some great babywearing economy posts like Babywearing Affluenza and How to buy: pre-loved slings and carriers.

There were more great personal stories in July, like the famous Paulus’ Babywearing Birth Story, and Steph’s plan to support her high needs baby with lots of babywearing.

Australian weather (and climate has a big impact on what slings we wear) is quite varied in August: cold and rainy (even snowing) down south, warm and dry up north. We covered advice on how to wash your stash, and a WOE (wrap once every day) challenge - my fave is the ruck.

September, the start of Spring, was huge! We had International Babywearing Week from 21-28 September 2009. There was also the mother all sling-meets at the huge Homebirth Rally in Canberra on Monday 7 September 2009. But among the advocacy and community spirit, there was still time to blog the personal - like Steph’s posts on babywearing in hospital.

I think we were all a little exhausted in October and November, or perhaps just getting out in the nicer weather, because the blog was much quieter. But there was a cute post with photos of mei tai used as a swing harness. And WOE challenge became WOEvember.

We got back on track a little more in December, with a beginner’s guide to using pouches, and a series on travel and babywearing.

Got any ideas on what you’d like us to cover in 2010? Do you have New Year’s babywearing resolutions? Or perhaps you’re doing an end-of-year destash and declutter? Did you have a personal babywearing hightlight in 2009? Post your comments below!

Did you go to a Walk Against Warming 2009 event on Saturday 12 December? ABC News says there were more than 90,000 people at rallies around Australia, including over 2,000 at the Parliament House rally in Canberra. I spotted ring slings (hemp and cotton), soft structured carriers (SSCs), and stretchy wraps at the Canberra rally. Check out what the tweeps thought with tags #waw09 or #walkagainstwarming. So what does this have to do with babywearing?

Babywearing is, without a doubt, more environmentally friendly than using a stroller or pram. A good quality baby sling or baby carrier is made from biodegradable, natural materials: cotton, hemp, silk, and wool are the most popular fabrics. Some carriers use padding made from bamboo, cotton, or recycled PET. Other carriers include metal or plastic rings, or hard plastic clips. While PET padding, aluminium rings, and hard plastic clips are not biodegradable at end-of-life, they will take up far less landfill space than the amount of plastic or metal in a stroller.

Traditional-style baby carriers can also support economic development programs in developing countries. Hand-woven cloth, such as the slings made in Guatemala or Timor Leste, or traditional printing techniques such as those used in India and Indonesia, preserve traditional craft skills and usually make use of renewable materials in the artisan’s local area. Making carriers from this cloth also enables artisans to earn a real wage from their work. This means they have an alternative to forms of work that may be less environmentally sustainable.

But the best thing about babywearing is how easy it is to get into nature with the kids. I can’t take a stroller up Mount Taylor, but I can carry a three year old on my back in an SSC when her legs get tired. I can’t push a pram around the cracked footpaths and dirt tracks through the reserve in my suburb, but I can put the newborn in a ring sling and walk him to sleep in the evening. You don’t need the knowledge of a park ranger or make the effort to plan guided activities on bushwalks. Simply being in a place with real trees and grass, checking out birds and lizards and bugs, will pique most children’s curiosity about the world they live in. By showing them there’s a world of living creatures and growing plants, children can begin to understand that their actions have an impact beyond the four walls of their house.

A long-haul flight with a toddler is the fear of many a parent. In my experience, preparation is key to survival! Here are some suggestions:

• Request the bulkhead row. It’s only a few extra centimeters of leg room, but can be enough for a toddler to get down from his/her seat and just be a kid
• Pack a big bag of distractions (suggestions below)
• Pack lots of snacks!

Distracting the Easily Distractible

Here are some suggestions for entertaining your child on a flight:

• Pipe cleaners
• Play dough
• Modelling clay
• Post it notes
• Stickers
• Crayons and paper (triangular crayons that won’t roll off the tray table are a great investment!)
• Books
• A (small) favourite toy
• Small toy animals or dolls
• Imagination games
• Puzzles
• Felt story board
• Scissors and paper
• Glue, to add to the cut-up paper
• For the older child, paper crafts like origami
• Beads and string, for the traveller who won’t eat them
• Dyed pasta with holes and string for beading if your young traveller will take a bite out of everything (dye them first with food dye if you want to get creative). These probably won’t survive until you come home again, but at least one leg of the journey will be entertaining (and fashionable!). Encourage your child to make LOTS of necklaces for all the child-loving people on the flight
• Snacks, snacks, snacks!

Eventually, your child will wish to leave his or her seat. Most people understand that and lots of walking up and down the aisle will almost certainly result in many a kid-friendly traveller saying Hi to your little one. I am yet to meet a hostie who didn’t love kids I’m sure that decorating the entire cabin crew with pasta necklaces will entertain a whole plane full of people!

Encouraging Sleep

The easiest way to survive a long-haul flight is for your child to sleep through it. Walking them up and down the aisles in a front carry is one way to send them off to sleep. Breastfeeding your child to sleep in your seat is another way that’s very useful. I’ll confess freely that I’ve never gotten either of my children to sleep any other way under the age of two, but I’ve heard that some kids find the motion in the plane soothing like the car and will just nod off. My hopes are with you on that one!

What entertained your child on a long-haul flight or car trip? How did you get them to sleep? Leave a comment and let us know!

Part Two in our series on travelling with kids, we’re going to take a separate look at these two (related) issues.

Travelling with Special Dietary Requirements

Whether you’re gluten free, dairy free, vegan, avoiding additives, or on any other diet; travelling with dietary restrictions can be tricky, but not impossible. You can order a special meal for your plane trip, but please be aware that these are not always foolproof. Contamination is possible. If you are very sensitive, you may wish to consider bringing your own food.

The plane trip aside, finding safe food in airports or at your destination can be difficult. Since it’s a very specific issue to each diet, I’ll concentrate only on generalities.

Take snacks. For the first day or so of your journey, you can pack alot of your own (perishable) food. A cooler bag that folds down and a number of small plastic (leak proof) containers are a good way of transporting it. Yoghurt frozen in its tub, frozen peas, frozen corn and frozen berries are all icepack-and-snacks, keeping your other food cold while they defrost. Some of the following are big hits with our kids when out and about:

• Fruit
• Chopped cucumber sticks, carrot sticks
• Dips like hummus and guacamole
• Yoghurt
• Cheese and crackers

After the first day or so of your journey, you will need to buy perishable food in your location. However, it’s a good idea to have some non-perishable food on hand that you can use when you’re either not sure you have something safe available or are pressed for time. Things we like are:

• Muesli bars
• Cans of tuna
• Crackers
• Rice cakes
• UHT milk in single-serve containers
• Shelf-stable cheese (this is loaded with sodium, so I use it as an occasional treat only)
• Cans of corn
• Dried fruit
• Nuts (diet permitting)
• Honey/Jam/Vegemite/Peanut butter (as above)
• Pre-cooked rice packets
• Just-add-water macaroni and cheese (again with the sodium)

Most diets accommodate fruit, and this is easy to buy in most places. However, it’s not easy to wash if the water isn’t fit for drinking. Fruit that is peeled before eating (mangoes, banannas, oranges etc.) is safest.

How to Carry All That STUFF?

If you’re travelling with kids, then you have three main categories of stuff to accommodate: bottoms, outsides and tummies. As above, the little tummies can be kept safely full if you can carry enough of your own food. Plastic containers and a cooler bag are one way of carrying food. Depending on your location and your family preferences, buying a small bag of frozen peas every morning before leaving for the day might be one way of feeding and cooling!

Bottoms can require special care and the items involved with it can be quite bulky- wipes, nappies etc. My suggestion is to pack minimally. Even in third world countries, you can buy disposables if you need to. Don’t bother with a changemat- use your carrier instead!

Outsides- the wee folk have a habit of creating loads of laundry when you’re out and about. My best advice here is to lower your standards. Take as little in the way of spare changes of clothing as necessary and if there are stains or the children spill something, don’t worry unless they’re cold! You’re on holiday, give yourself a break too

Once you’ve decided which items are absolutely necessary to carry, you need to decide how to carry them. One of my favourite methods over the years have been large (home made) messenger bags slung over the shoulder and around the wearee. A one-strap back-pack is a recent acquisition and that can be worn threaded through the carrier you’re wearing in most cases.

Lastly, consider weights training before you go

Where have you been? What did you eat? What did you take?

Part One in our series on travelling with kids, this post looks at babywearing in the air and at the airport.

Why Babywear? Why not use a Stroller (as well or instead)?

I am one of those parents who will do almost anything to avoid taking a stroller out in public. I’ve gotten over my (ill-judged) shame of using one, but I really prefer not to. Strollers are big, they don’t maneuver through doorways, corridors, crowds or stairs very well. If you have to take one through security, you may have to pull everything out of it, fold it, send it all through the xray machine (hopefully sans child) and put it all back together again at the end.

If you feel more comfortable with a stroller, then by all means use one! You can check it at the gate, although be aware that the carrier will not warant that your stroller will make it to the other side free of damage. Personally, the only use I see a stroller as having in this circumstance is (a) it’s ability to carry loads of stuff and (b) its ability to put a baby to sleep. Since you’re limited by the airline as to how much you can take part (a) is largely irrelevant. A good carrier will take care of part (b) for hours. I don’t find a stroller worth the trouble when travelling.

On the plane, your stroller is useless! Backwrapping with a long wrap on a plane is really difficult in my experience, so I’d recommend a mei tai instead. Front-wrapping with a pre-tied carry is fine, but not as quick as a mei tai. Sitting with a sleeping child on your lap with a mei tai is a great way to manage a long-haul flight. Put the baby to sleep with long walks up and down the aisle (and avoid deep vein thrombosis at the same time), then sit! Alternatively, breastfeed your child to sleep in the carrier and watch a movie ; Ring slings and pouches are also great for quick ins-and-outs, especially on the plane, but I like to have a carrier on hand that can handle long-term airport napping.

In light of recent events, if you are travelling with a very small baby, please be aware that the need for safe cosleeping applies on a plane as well as on land. Sleeping while you are babywearing is not safe with small babies. I believe that with a toddler it is unlikely to present a danger if you are seated on the plane, however. If you are travelling with an infant, ask for the baby bassinette when you book your ticket so that you will have somewhere safe to place the baby when you need to sleep. Travelling is exhausting for parents too!

Security: Yours, Babies and Theirs

Babywearing in the airport (or any other crowded public venue) gives your child security when dealing with the unfamiliar. Whether you’re in an unfamiliar country, timezone or routine, this security can be important to help your child adjust. Knowing that you have a sure-fire sleep maker on hand can help your child adjust to time zones and save your sanity as well. You also have the security of knowing your toddler (or preschooler) can’t get lost in a crowd when they’re tied on!

Unfortunately, there is no coherent policy on babywearing at security checkpoints. Some airports will require you to remove the child(ren) while others won’t. If you are asked to remove the child from your back or front, it will be because the security personnel are checking for weapons/explosive devices. There are several suggestions you can use to help negotiate the situation if it’s going to make life very difficult for you to remove your wearee:

• Explain that your carrier is only made of cloth (where applicable)
• Suggest that the security person, in addition to waving the metal wand over the carrier, touch the carrier
• They may be satisfied with placing a hand between you and the baby to make sure your child isn’t packing heat in there

Sometimes, they won’t be satisfied with these suggestions. You will have to remove the child in these circumstances. Try to time the security run for when the child is neither sleep or in a run-away mood. Easier said than done. I recommend bribing with interesting snacks

Managing Luggage: Some Combinations

One of the harder things about travelling with children is managing luggage. I have travelled solo with both one and two wearees and here were some combinations that worked well for me:

• Baby on back, messenger style nappy bag containing grown-up items as well, rolling suitcase
• Toddler on back, baby on front, messenger nappy bag, rolling suitcase
• Large backpack on back, baby on front, rolling suitcase

Whichever carriers you use, make sure you’re comfortable with using them in confined spaces and remember that if you don’t do back carries, learning to do them BEFORE travelling is a great idea!

Our next installment in this topic is on travelling with special dietary requirements and How Do I Carry All That Stuff?

Have you worn a child in an airport? What was your experience with security? What was your experience with carriers?

We travel alot with our two kids. They like it, we like it, but we’ve learnt some lessons along the way. This post starts a series on travelling with kids and will cover the following topics in the coming weeks:

• Babywearing in the airport
• Entertaining kids and babies in a confined space for an extended period (and encouraging them to sleep)
• Travelling with special dietary needs and how can I carry all that stuff without a pram?
• Babywearing while overseas

Oh, the places you’ll go! Where have you been?