You might have heard that the US CPSC (Consumer Product Safety Commission) published a warning this week about the safety of infant slings. In particular, there have been a number of deaths reported when babies have been carried in bag-style slings where the baby’s face was not visible, or where the baby was able to get into a chin-on-chest position that blocked their airway. The CPSC warning included this useful example of right and wrong ways to position baby in a soft sling:

If you’ve been wondering whether it’s safe to use a baby sling at all with your newborn, don’t panic! Baby slings have been successfully used for thousands of years, in cultures all over the world. Babywearing can help newborn babies (especially premmies) regulate their temperature and breathing, increase milk supply for breastfeeding mothers with low supply, help parents or carers bond with their baby, and help settle babies (especially those with colic or reflux).

What we haven’t had in modern Western society is the knowledge passed on from our mothers and grandmothers about how to use a piece of cloth to carry our babies safely. It’s not enough just to rely on manufacturers to make a sling that is safe to use without instruction.

If you’re looking at getting a sling for your newborn, check out these newborn babywearing videos and instructions to start with; go along to a babywearing meet in your local area; get active on forums like Baby Carriers Downunder, The Babywearer, Intuitive Parenting, or Natural Parenting where there are experienced babywearers to answer your questions; or visit a shop where the staff have been trained in how to position newborns safely in soft slings.

I’ve had the most fantastic weekend at the Corinbank Festival! I was there to teach babywearing in the Green Kulture village, but I also spent lots of time spotting slings while sipping chai, playing Scrabble, learning about clay-balling, watching circus acts, avoiding infringement notices from the Fashion Police, eating vegetarian feasts, asking chicks in the line for Tableaux Vivants (live nude show - and I spotted a baby in ring sling being breastfed in the audience) if her dreads require much maintenance, listening to Ash Grunwald and heaps of other great bands… well, you get the picture. It was a general festival of family-friendly fun with as little environmental impact as possible. I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story:

Left: Dominique is wearing an Australian brand pouch sling - and her baby is probably keen to grab that coffee because it might have chilli in it from the Mayan Coffee stall!

Centre: Katoomba mum with her big girl chilling out in a blue SSC (soft structured carrier). See, babywearing isn’t just for babies!

Right: I recognised this as an organic Eyes Of The World print fabric (I used to have a woven wrap in this fabric). Turns out this pouch sling was made in Canberra!

Circus Playground looked like a lot of fun - and if you look closely, you might spot a dad with a baby in a camel-coloured SSC on his back!

I had lots of fun demonstrating Ninja Babywearing to save your baby from the invading zombie hoard who want to eat your brain… or just get your baby on your back so you can get on with washing, cooking, chasing other kids, or generally looking good. Even wore my ninja babywearing t-shirt while I did the job I also showed people how to carry a baby with a tablecloth, shawl, or bedsheet so you can rock on at the main stage without losing your toddler, or settle a cranky baby to sleep even when you’re camping in the Brindabella mountains outside Canberra. I had great help from Morgyn (who works at the coolest baby shop in Canberra), plus Moira and Kate from the Canberra Babywearers, who gave me lunch break time. Thanks ladies!

So what did I miss with my camera? A very cool mei tai with feature panel in a brown print, ring slings (only spotted black and blue, where were all the stripes and prints?), and several stretchy wraps and SSC’s. Oh, but I did catch the Fashion Police from Ruby Bloomers Women’s Circus:

In between issuing infringement notices for fashion crimes, these rocking chicks also issued encouragement notices for babywearing and public breastfeeding. And looked damn fine in their leather corsets and stripey tights
I’m already thinking about a bigger and better Corinbank 2011 - what would you want to see in a babywearing demo at a music/arts festival?

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?