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? Buy Cialis For Daily Use
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My little baby is not so little anymore - two years old and walking. But I still carry him near busy roads, or when he’s overtired and needs settling down. Problem is that he’s old enough now to know what he wants, strong enough to make it hard to prevent him doing what he wants, but not yet mature enough to understand that sometimes what he wants is not good for him. So I am learning little tricks to get him into a sling quick, before he can struggle away from me and get into serious trouble. He may complain as I tie him on, but it’s better than letting him run onto the road or cry himself to sleep.

First, I choose carriers that I can use quickly. Some people find wraps quick and easy, others get swamped in long pieces of fabric. Some people find an SSC (soft clip-on carrier) simple, others struggle to find the clips and fasten them behind their back. For me, the quickest carrier is a mei tai. There are times when a ring sling or a wrap might be more comfortable for the purpose I’m carrying him, but it’s no good if I can’t get him into it securely while he’s struggling to get down.

Second, make sure there’s lots of fabric behind his upper back, and that the carrier is tied securely. He struggles for a while before settling down to rest, and I don’t want him falling out before then.

Third, be prepared to pass him toys or drink bottles if he’s on my back to avoid danger (rather than for tiredness). If I remember, I tie toys onto carrier straps so I don’t have to pick them off the ground every two minutes. You could also use a dummy clip to attach toys to carrier straps. Making or buying carrier strap covers with little ribbon tags or embroidery on them is another way to keep kids amused and protect straps from sticky fingers/teeth at the same time. I try to avoid giving drink bottles with anything other than water in them, unless I want to wear food in my hair and fruit juice down my back.

Despite the tricks it takes to get a toddler on my back, it’s worth it. It won’t be long and he’ll be long past being carried, and in the meantime babywearing helps me to keep him safe and soothe frayed nerves (his and mine).

Another in our series on wearing while injured, this time we look at bad backs. Previous posts on the topic include shoulder injuries.

Does superman tossing make you double over in pain? Does a dull ache start up in your lower vertabrae as soon as you pick up a ring sling? Welcome to the world of back injury! In this post we’ll look at prevention and cure.

Prevention

Back injuries come in many shapes and sizes, but some simple rules apply to help avoid those occasional problems caused by babywearing in the first place:

1. Start slow. Don’t start tandem wearing your 20kg preschooler at the same time you start wearing you 10kg toddler. If you’re new to babywearing or have taken an extended break, let your body get used to the weight and start out for short periods at a time.
2. Lift your child carefully. Some of our wearees can be impressively heavy, others are literally light-weights; but lifting your child is something you do repeatedly every day. Keep your child close to you so that your center of gravity isn’t pulled off balance.
3. Bend from the knees, don’t use your lower back as a lever.
4. Avoid doing dumb things. Don’t play twister while babywearing. It will be a disaster. Albeit a hilarious one.

Don’t forget that babywearing is not often a cause of back injury if you use your common sense. Thanks to all that marvellous weight bearing exercise, babywearing strengthens the muscles responsible for your core stability, actually helping to avoid back injury. Carrying a child in a supportive carrier is a lot easier on the back than carrying a child in arms for the same length of time. Of course, back carries are also great for encouraging good posture!

While you’re waiting to be cured

If you have an underlying back injury, then professional help is your best option. However, to support the healing of the affected area, there are a number of things you can do while babywearing.

1. Only wear what feels good. If front carries are painful, then avoid them. If one-shoulder carries leave you limping, then switch to the two-shouldered variety. When wrapping, carries with multiple layers will generally be more supportive than single-layer carries.
2. Don’t be afraid to ask for help to get your child onto your back. For many, lifting the child is too much of a strain, however, wearing the child is OK. If you do ask for help, make sure your helper knows exactly what they should be doing and exactly when to stop “helping” with straps and tails.
3. Wear carriers that are supportive for the weight you’re carrying. Some brands of carriers are known to be more supportive than others. Do your research, ask plenty of questions, borrow some if you can (see our loaner’s database) and find the right one for you.
4. Remember that rest may be the best cure. Less babywearing in the short-term may mean extending your babywearing well into your child’s preschool years.

Have you battled a back injury? Did you babywear while injured? What helped for you? Leave a comment and let us know!

This is the first in a series of posts aimed at helping parents with special needs. Here, we look at babywearing with a shoulder injury.

You’d like to wear your baby or older child, but red-hot pain is holding you back. Depending on the extent of your injury, it may be possible for you to wear your child while supporting the healing of the afflicted area. In this post, I’ll take you through babywearing with an injured shoulder(s). It’s an area of personal experience for me. My right shoulder has had (at various times) bursitis, tendonitis, a thinned distal portion of the rotator cuff, dense calcifcation in the tendons, possible cartilage damage and “changes to the tendonopathy of the region”, whatever that means. I didn’t understand much of the preceding, but my GP summed it up nicely when she looked at the xrays: “this shoulder is stuffed“.

If you have any injury, shoulder or otherwise, it’s important to define exactly what the problem is. I’m going to divide the possible problems into two areas: reduced range of movement and reduced ability to weight-bear. Each of these can occur independently or together, but the consequences for babywearing are quite diffferent.

Reduced Range of Movement

A reduced range of movement can occur for many reasons, but the main consequence for babywearing is difficulty in getting the child into the carrier in the first place. In this case, the simpler the better. In my experience with shoulder injuries, long wraps were disastrous- passing fabric to and fro was very painful and practically impossible. Simpler carries and carriers like short wraps, mei tais or SSCs were easier to get on with less pain. Ring slings and pouches may also be an option if only one shoulder is injured and you can bear weight on the uninjured shoulder.

When wrapping, your strategy depends on what portions of your range of movement are affected. Carries starting with a chestbelt may provide support while you wrap through your available range of movement. Alternatively, back carries tied under the wearees bottom may be impossible.

Lifting a child onto your back may be difficult in itself. It may be worthwhile reviewing other options if your regular method doesn’t work. Superman tossing is my usual method of initiating a back carry, but when lifting my arm above my head was intensely painful, lifting 9kg of baby didn’t seem sensible. The hip scooting method proved to be an acceptable compromise.

Reduced ability to bear weight on the affected shoulder

Let me be very clear: if it’s painful to wear your child, it may be wise not to do so if you want the affected area to heal. However, if wearing is important to you, there may be ways to get around the problem if you are unable to bear weight on the affected area. There are several options:

1. Avoid the area altogether. If you have two injured shoulders, it may be well worth looking into torso carries and carriers, which will eliminate any weight on your shoulder. These include torso carries with long, short wraps and straight-strapped podaegi. If you have a single injured shoulder, you have the additional option of one-shoulder carries in a short wrap, ring sling or pouch and modifying certain wrap carries (such as the BWCC with chestbelt) to avoid the affected shoulder (this was my personal favourite for extended carries. If anyone wants to know how it’s done, hit me up in the comments section!).

2. Reduce the weight on the affected area by distributing it to other parts of your body. Depending on the extent of your injury, you may still choose to bear weight on the affected shoulder(s). Carriers such as SSCs, chunei and mei tais tied tibetan or with straps crossed in front will distribute weight to your hips and across your chest, reducing the weight on your shoulders. Wrap carries with chest belts, tied tibetan or tied at the waist will do the same.

3. Teach your partner to babywear, put your feet up and wait to get better. More seriously, you may need to re-evaluate your babywearing goals. In my case, it became apparent that attempting to tandem wear 20kg+ of children at once was no longer the best option. I bought a better stroller and put babywearing on the needs-only list for awhile. It doesn’t make me a bad person! And, as a result, I’m now able to lift a coffee cup without wincing.  It was one of my better decisions!

Hopefully, this post gave you some ideas for babywearing with a shoulder injury. Look out for our next installment on babywearing with a back injury.

Have you continued to babywear with an injury or disability? What were the challenges you faced and how did you overcome them? Leave a comment and let us know!

At last!  I can start using other carriers!  But we have to catch public transport into town and somehow I find myself reaching for the wrap…. after all, it does work best for the bus.  I start to tie it around me and become aware of a terrible smell.  It’s the wrap - it reeks after a week of heavy use.  Unwinding it reluctantly, I buckle Meena into a structured carrier; it’s fast and easy but feels strangely clunky.  I throw the wrap into the washing machine before we head out of the door and I find myself wondering, just for a moment, how I’ll cope without it for a couple of days.

I can’t do it.  Just when I thought I’d developed a kind of wrapping invincibility, I find myself totally stumped by a simple challenge - breastfeeding in a wrap.  We’re out for a bushwalk and Meena is crouched over like a hunchback trying to reach my nipple; but I can’t get the wrap loose enough without running out of fabric.  I sigh and sit down on a nearby log to feed her. 

I feel like I’m back where I began, in a muddy forest, flummoxed by this stupid piece of cloth.  It’s a rainy day (rare in Adelaide) and I start to realise that wrapping presents a whole new challenge with wet, muddy ground underfoot.  Once Meena is on my back, she’s going to stay there!  Forget about changing carries - no way can I keep her dry and restrained while I redo the wrap.  No unwrapping for every wriggle, just to see if she needs to pee.  Sorry, kid, you’ll have to go in your nappy.  I throw her on my back again and we head off.  She’s as happy as ever, checking out the scenery and eventually tucking in her arms and starting to hum as she drifts off to sleep.  She wakes up as we arrive home.  I let the wrap slither to the ground and put her on the potty where she obligingly does her pee; then she wiggles down and toddles off to find something inappropriate to play with.  Why was I ever worried? 

I’ve just realised it’s the last day of my week as a wrapper and I still haven’t tried a hip carry.  I must have had a mental block caused by my slip-knot phobia.  Time to try it. 

My attempt at a CHCC takes a ludicrously long time to get right.  Matters are not helped by the fact that Emmy wants to be my wrappee so I am trying to wrap around her 17kg lanky body while she plays at being a ‘little baby’ and dangles limply.  I nearly fall about laughing trying to imagine this as a viable alternative to a ring sling.  I pull Emmy out and stuff Meena in… tighten, tighten, tighten… and it looks good!  My knot actually slips!  It’s incredibly comfortable; I saunter around the house admiring my wrapping and daydreaming about how my life will be transformed by the ability to go from back to hip carries with just one carrier.  It looks pretty cool too… well, apart from the long tail.  I really need another, shorter wrap… hey, what am I thinking??!!  This whole experiment was supposed to either prove I could get by comfortably with just one carrier, or convince me to sell the wrap and stick with the carriers I know and love.  I do NOT need more wraps…