What age to start back carrying?

[Limabean1975]

I never mastered back carries with DS, but I really hope to with DD...the need for it is certainly stronger now with 2 kids!

What age do people usually start back carries? With head/ neck control I'm guessing?

[almadianna]

Most say that you should wait until the baby has good head control and can possibly even sit up on their own. I started as a very young age because I swaddled my babies and then put them on my back while using the wrap as a cushion for their head... but if you are new to wrapping and back carries I would wait until your baby doesnt need that.

[To-Fu]

For me, I was comfortable doing it when my baby could hold his head up and sit up on his own. It made cooking and cleaning and such so much easier, having him on my back!

[baturay]

With my third baby, I started week one. If you do the back carry correctly, head control is not needed when using a woven wrap. Having my baby on my back, has made parenting my other two small children so much easier! Baby is happy, fed, and sleeping on my back and I can then have my full front to care for other kids. It takes practice, but it can be done. Here he is at one week old.

http://i714.photobucket.com/albums/w...tos/Onback.jpg

[CindyCindy]

I definitely think it depends on your comfort level and your experience. It can be done from one week like Giselle said, but not everyone is comfortable with that. If you are willing to take the time and practice, start when you feel like it! I suggest having someone help you at first, then do it over a bed while someone is watching/spotting. Then step it up a level and do it yourself over a bed, soon enough, with practice you will be an expert!

[Quirky]

I started at about two weeks with my second child, as I was desperate to have my hands free! I did a high back carry with the Kozy (a kind of mei tai) following the instructions on the Kozy site.

With a tall-bodied mei tai or a good woven wrap, and lots of practice over a bed and in front of a mirror, plus an understanding of what safe positioning is, it's fine to start from an extremely young age.

With a soft structured carrier or mei tai when baby is ready for a piggyback position, it depends on the baby but I find that most are ready to start around 5-6 months, when they have good head control plus torso muscles, too. (The more you carry your baby in arms or in a carrier, the sooner they develop this musculature!) The youngest I've done a piggyback style carrier in a soft structured carrier was at 3 months in the Beco Butterfly, which lowers the age of enabling back carries because of the support provided to the baby with the safety harness.

[MoonStarFalling]

I started at 6 weeks using a tall mei tai. It took me a couple months to really feel comfortable with it though.

[Adasmommy]

You can do back carries at any age, so it's up to what you're comfortable with. But in some ways a newborn is easier to wrap than an older, more wiggly kid!

Check on youtube for videos with infants. Here's one of mine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sezEZykNNAk

[RunnerDuck]

Originally Posted by baturay

Here he is at one week old.

http://i714.photobucket.com/albums/w...tos/Onback.jpg

That is so cute I just squealed a little inside. As if I weren't already having baby lust...

Personally for me it was a matter of when they could comfortable straddle my back... which I may have been more conservative than some with, I don't know. I didn't like front carries in the straddly fashion, either, when they were very small. So when they were little I had them in a MT froggied up... then once they refused to froggie we used a baby bjorn facing outwards... then around 10 months or so I started back carries with a Beco 4th gen.

Now I am thinking if there is a #4 I will probably be brave enough to try back carries sooner but... for us, it was 10ish months, I think. Possibly a little younger.

But OMG that back-carried itty bitty one linked above... I squealed!!!!

[Limabean1975]

thanks all, i am getting inspired!

great site adasmommy!!!!

nak