Baby Front Carriers
If you want to keep your baby close to you while shopping or going for a walk to the park, the front baby carriers are an excellent choice. Baby front carriers allow you to make sure your baby is safe and also allows you to interact closely with them.
Most Baby front carriers comprises of two shoulder harnesses and some sort of fabric seat in front for the young infant to slip into with the legs dangling out. Depending on the carrier, you can have your baby on the front facing towards you or outwards.
Some of the best baby front carriers include The Ergo, Beco, Mei Tai, Baby Bjorn, and the Snugli. The advantages of front baby carriers are different with each style, however, most of them have the same goal of using the straps to help to distribute the baby’s weight evenly across your back and allows you to have your hands free. Although not all carriers are made the same, that is the general goal of all front carriers.
Usually the baby’s face is towards yours until they gain control of their head. At which point, with most baby front carriers, infants are able to face outward and look around. For the very newborn stage, carriers like the Ergo also sell the ergo infant inserts to help with the newborn stage and supporting the baby’s neck and fragile body.
Slings and pouches are sometimes referred to as Baby Front Carriers, but for this blog, I have given them their own section as I find they are very different from the Baby front carriers that use straps and buckles on both shoulders. These types like the Bjorn, Ergo. Mei Tai, Beco or Snugli seem to distribute the weight better, can carry heavier babies and are easy to take on and off when you are going in and out of the car.
As your child gets a bit older and heavier (usually over 20lbs), you can start to use many of the carriers like the Front Back Snugli, Beco, Mei Tai and the Ergo on both your back and the front. Initially this may not seem important as you will want to keep a newborn infant as close to your chest as possible to maintain the womb like environment where they can hear your heartbeat. However, as your child grows, gets more curious and as well gets heavier in weight, you will find that having them on your back is much easier as it allows them to look around and for the weight to then be distributed to your hips vs. your back.