Baby Slings- What you need to know!

A baby sling is a piece of cloth that is used to support an infant or a small baby by tying it against the body. There are different types of Baby Sling and depending upon your requirements you can choose the one that best suits you. Two of the most common baby sling types are described below.

Ring slings

The ring sling baby carrier uses a dynamic tension. A cloth or nylon rings or a metal like aluminum are used in ring slings and one end of the cloth is stitched with the two rings. To create a buckle effect, the cloth is wrapped around the body from shoulder to the hip on the opposite side. The cloth is then taken up from the back to the shoulder and the cloth end is then threaded through the rings, thus resulting in a pocket shape. The baby can then be placed or made to sit in this created pocket comfortably.

Pouch slings

The pouch sling is commonly known as pocket, tube, or ringless sling. In a pouch sling, a wide piece of fabric is stitched in a tubular shape. In this sling approach no rings, or fitted pouches or other hardware is used. These slings can be adjusted with various methods like clips, zippers, buckles, rings or velcro. Most of the pouch slings have a curve which is sewn depending on the shape of the parent’s body which helps in holding the infant more securely. The pouch sling is slipped over the head and a single shoulder creating a pocket for the baby to be placed in.

Benefits of a sling

There are various benefits of using a baby sling. Some of the benefits are that the baby sling gives freedom to use your hands to do other activities. Since your hands are not occupied, you can use them to do other home house activities easily.

For a parent having more than one child, using of baby slings help in breast feeding along with meeting needs of other babies simultaneously.

Using a baby sling also helps in reducing the arm pain for parents specially the one who carries a heavy baby.

Helps in compact traveling as you do not need to push other baby carriers like a stroller, in crowded public places. Most slings fold down small into your diaper bag, purse or luggage.

There are lots of different companies that make slings: Hotslings, Baby Buddha, Maya Wrap Sling (ring sling), and Balboa Baby Adjustable Sling by Dr. Sears are just a few of the top names.