McKinley Kid and Far North Babywearing’s joint statement on the safety of baby slings.

On March 12, the Consumer Product Safety Commission released a warning regarding positioning in baby slings. The warning was in response to 3 deaths that took place in bag style slings in 2009. Or hearts go out to the families of these babies. Sixteen babywearing manufacturers (including CatBird Baby, Sakura Bloom, Scootababy, Together Be, and Moby Wrap) issued a joint statement yesterday regarding sling safety.

We have been educating consumers for the last 4 years on how to safely carry their babies and of the dangers to babies when they are positioned chin to chest in any infant product, including swings and car seats.  Parents and caregivers must educate themselves recognize the difference between the unsafe positioning being warned about and the safe positions included in manufacturer instructions and taught by our shop and the Anchorage babywearing group.

All slings are not created equal. There are some slings that are just not safe, though positional asphyxia is an issue for babies in any type of carrier. To learn more about the dangers of bag-style slings please visit the BabySlingSafety blog, maintained by a registered nurse who has tested babies’ oxygen levels in the SlingRider and similar bag-style baby carriers. Other excellent resources include the Babywearing Safety Facebook group and The Babywearer, an international community of babywearing parents and caregivers with forums and articles to help make informed choices and learn to wear babies safely and easily.

Carrying safely is easy and teachable. We offer many avenues for Alaskan parents to learn to wear their babies, including quarterly meetings, private consults, telephone help and online resources including a blog, Facebook group, and Yahoo message board. We also train health care professionals and those working with new parents on how to use babywearing as an appropriate public health tool.

For more information, please contact

larissa@mckinleykidz.com
907-748-4930
www.mckinleykid.com
http://farnorthbabywearing.wordpress.com/

Our governor, Sarah Palin, is well-known as devoted mom but is now on the national scene as John McCain’s vice-presidential pick.

Of course, she’s also a babywearer. Shown here in Juneau wearing her baby in a pouch, it will be interesting in the months ahead to see if she wears baby Trig on the campaign trail. I do wonder if she has other baby carriers – maybe I should send her something?

Babywearing makes me fall in love with Cormac all over again. When he rides on my back he snuggles his face into my back and just relaxes hi whole body. This sweet, incredibly energetic 3 year-old stops wiggling and just rides. When he was little and rode on my front I could just reach around and hug him while he slept.

There is something magic about babywearing, about the carrier that that just “clicks” for you. You wrap it around your body and your baby just sighs and falls asleep. I watched it happen with K and her sweet little baby L at today’s open house. She tried 2 mei tais that sort of worked and then an Ellaroo wrap that just “clicked” for them both. L looked around for a little bit and then just relaxed and fell asleep.

Ah, I love the convenience and the size of YouTube videos. When i was learning to wrap the videos on Mamatoto were wonderful (despite the sound of the wind blowing) they were teeny tiny and I had to squint to watch them. I love that YouTube videos are big enough to see actual detail!

Anyway, here are a couple of great YouTube channels, collections of videos all on the same theme.

The first is the Zolowear channel, all kinds of great tutorials on how to use Zolowear slings. They have 39 videos posted, as of this writing, and I’m sure Zolo has more in the works. I love how thorough their customer service is. Here’s one on getting the top rail snug that I particularly like

Zolowear – top rail

The second channel is owned by a member of thebabywear.com forums – she has put together a huge collection of babywearing videos from across YouTube. Hers is a great community service and is called the Babywearing Channel and is a fantastic resource of an any sling, pouch, wrap, mei tai, or structured carrier owner.

Look for a Peekaru vest back carry video from us before too long! In the meantime, we have a short list of Beco Butterfly how-to videos on our website. A link can be found from the Beco Butterfly page on McKinley Kidz and in the articles section of the website. Here it is now for your convenience!

Kevin and Cormac hit the trail

We just created a new category for your shopping pleasure! Everything “dad friendly” primarily meaning color and pattern, because style is a matter of personal tast, has been consolidated. In our family, Kevin did about 40% (though he’ll say more) of the babywearing. he wore Cormac in pouches and soft-structured carriers all the time – he still does. So, here’s what we think all of you guys will like best.

Dad Stuff on McKinley Kid

In doing some research for my master’s degree in educational technology, I read an interesting study connecting infants worn as children to later success at finding friends on social networking sites. To summarize, Facebook, LinkedIn, and MySpace all conducted polls of their members born in the 1980’s (beginning of the significant popularity of BabyBjorn, Snuggli, frame packs, etc.) as to whether they were worn by their parents as infants and young children. The social networking sites then correlated the data with poll participant’s numer of “friends” online.

The results were that those with more than 100 friends were 75% more likely to have been worn in a baby carrier than their peers. The data overall showed significant ties between babywearing and success in social networking. A researcher at Harvard (the alma mater of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, worn as a child in Dobbs Ferry, NY, himself) believes that the social interactions to which a worn child is exposed when attached to the parent’s back, hip, or chest make him/her far more adept at relating to others. Research Robert Cynowa stated, “Babies who are worn in carriers learn how to relate better to others. Their relationships then grow even further through social networking sites. It’s really no wonder that we see the popularity of social networking grow as these Gen Y kids who were worn come of age. They are naturals at relating to others. Babywearing really does amazing things and we are going to look at the significant correlation between MENSA admission and babywearing next.”

Pretty fascintating stuff. I’m curious as to whether baby carriers getting better will show further increases in intelligence and social interactions. I know the newer carriers based on ancient designs are more comfortable but I sure hope they help Cormac be more successful later in life.

It’s amazing how much babywearing has “caught on” up here over the last few years. While Christmas shopping I saw lots of pouches, ring slings, sscs, and even some stretchy wraps! It’s so great in the cold weather of Alaska to be able to tuck your little one into a carrier and then under a babywearing coat or vest.
I actually took a stroller with me this year and though our toddler enjoyed the ride (and I enjoyed a basket for shopping bags) I really missed talking to him. Well, we chatted and sang but he was so much further away! It was hard to hear.

So, we have a new shipment of the beco Obi in stock. I love the simplicity of this design and the fabric is gorgeous. It’s wonderful to have carriers that allow for comfortable and safe forward facing-out positions; the pikkolo is also amazingly comfy and new fabrics will be on the way later this winter.

We’re getting into the season for cabin fever and claustrophobia…
A great investment for the next few years is a Peekaru vest or Kindercoat. Both are amazingly warm and versatile enough for Alaskan weather. Easy to wear and relatively stylish, they allow for easy winter babywearing.

I’m in the process of listing organic BabyLegs and a new line of nursing necklaces! I love both of these and they make great baby shower gifts too.

The official version is to put your child in a carrier on your back and then put your head through. Then, tug the vest over the head of your child.

My son has a big head though and even though he is older, he refused to help get the vest over his head using the official method. So, I had to get more inventive. Below are two ways I make the Peekaru work for us in a back carry.

When using it with a mei tai I put it over Cormac’s head first and then swing him up on my back in a superman toss. I then pull the rest of it over me and zip the side.
With an SSC (like a Beco, Pikkolo, or AMC II) I pull it over Cormac’s head first, then I put him on my hip and pull my head through. I hip scoot him to my back and quickly get the straps on. I straighten out the vest and then attach the chest belt on the carrier.

Certainly it takes more practice, just like back carries themselves do, because everything is in back of you.