You also want to carry your baby? Wonderful!
Face forward? Better not.
During pregnancy, most moms and dads in Spe are already thinking about whether and how they want to carry their baby. No wonder - the Baby Carrier baby carrier is an incredibly useful purchase. Especially when mom is alone with the newborn after the birth and has to reorganize her life, there is often a lack of hands. Because the baby wants to be carried, rocked and held.
The baby is here! And with it a new phase of life.
You finally hold your baby in your arms. The first few days fly by, even though time seems to stand still in the postpartum period. And often fathers have to go back to work. Now, at the latest, is the time when mom has to get back into the daily routine, mastering household chores, cooking and even going for walks on her own.
You get used to the togetherness. The Baby Carrier has proven itself and helps you to have your hands free. Over time, you notice that your baby is becoming more agile, turning his head and reacting to his environment. And it occurs to you that your baby probably wants to see more. Stretching and squirming in the Baby Carrier is the final icing on the cake for you. Thoughts come to you like, "The baby doesn't just want to see my chest and face anymore. I should turn it around."
Follow the impulse, but not face out!
Of course, you should also give in to your baby, who now wants to see more of his surroundings. Because it's getting exciting for the little eyes: Something is moving here. A new sound is coming from there. Didn't a dog bark here?
But caution is advised: The baby can see and notice a lot even without sitting facing forward. Namely on your back.
If your baby is already sitting securely on his own, and can hold his little head, it's time to move your sunshine onto your back. The ergonomic Baby Carriers from KOKADI grow with your child's height. But they are also ideally designed for the different learning stages of children. First of all, tying a baby on your back alone may sound difficult. But it isn't.
We recommend you check out our tying instructions. The first few times you can practice while your partner is at home or while you are sitting on the bed. This will give you confidence. Now you're ready to go! The first few tries can be bumpy, but a few tries later, carrying on your back will feel like tying shoelaces. It's almost automatic and your baby will feel more comfortable because of your security.
In general, small children feel very well when mom or dad are insecure. That's why it's advisable to get started in a calm and relaxed manner. Super - tip: best when the baby is full, and a few minutes have already passed.
Now discover the world - in safety and with a good view
On the back of mom or dad it is simply the most exciting. From above, you can see everything that mom/dad sees. But a walk on your back can also be exhausting. New smells, sudden noises - the new world is always good for surprises.
This is where back-carrying has its first advantage: if it gets too much for your baby, he can snuggle up to you again and close his eyes. In front of his belly there is still you - and you give support. When tiredness wins out, your baby can literally "let himself fall" and will continue to be ergonomically supported by the Baby Carrier held, carried and protected.
Why wouldn't that be possible when carrying forward?
If your child were to be carried facing outward, he or she would not have this opportunity to retreat. Did you know that children's eyes are not mature enough to see in color and focus until they are one year old? This explains even more the overstimulation during outward carrying. Because your baby doesn't recognize as much, new stimuli can scare him. And it doesn't have a place to retreat. The only choice the baby would have is to close its eyes. But even then, the belly hangs out in the open and the baby feels exposed. Whether stimulus overload has occurred does not necessarily manifest itself in acute crying. The night's sleep is also a good indication: if your baby has trouble falling asleep, has difficulty getting to rest, or wakes up again and again with a startle, these can be indications that the baby is processing the many stimuli to which it has been exposed during sleep.
But stimulus overload is not the only problem.
Imagine lying in a hammock on the beach. Your legs dangle down from the hammock. The solid fabric carries you, and you feel safe. It feels good to lie in there and know that your weight is being held. Now, however, introduce yourself to a new kind of hammock: It's not a real mat, but it's a tighty-whities with strings attached. These hang down from the palm tree. No matter how nice the idea of a beach and palm trees may be - nobody wants to hang from a fixed underpants. Especially not with your own body weight. But that's how the weight distribution is for your baby when you carry it face forward. All the weight is carried in the area of "the underpants". And now someone is moving there, and the baby is bouncing its own weight with every step mom/dad takes. Ouch! Because even the best Baby Carrier will not be able to imitate the natural squat-straddle posture when the baby is sitting facing out. Why? Simple.
The natural shape of the child's back up to the age of walking
When your baby is born, the child's back is still in a C-shape. Rounded, and not supported by the lateral back muscles. This forms only with crawling, and later with walking. When carrying "belly-to-belly" with the ergonomic and growing Baby Carriers from KOKADI is supported by the special fabric, the baby is not pressed into a prefabricated form.
On the contrary, the fabric hugs the baby's back and at the same time is firm enough to support it. If you turn the baby outward now, it is a stretched back in the best case, in the worse case it would go into a hollow back. Either way, it is not a true support.
The missing headrest
So far, we've paid attention to the back, the privates, and the sensory overload. Still, there is an important factor missing from the Baby Carriers is of particular importance: the support of the head. Small children and especially babies have a relatively large and heavy head in contrast to their body weight. The narrow, relatively weak neck is not yet able to hold the head for a long time. When the baby is older the head can be held well: at the latest when tiredness sets in and the little darling is in slumberland, the head wobbles back and forth.
It needs a headrest. Children carried face outwards do not have a headrest that could protect the relatively heavy head against the movements of the person carrying it. KOKADI Baby Carriers have all the headrests that can be easily pulled over the head when the child sleeps and fastened to the snaps on the shoulder straps.
These are so tight that they hold the head ideally. But so smoothly that you can also do this with one hand. Laterally looks at the sleeping child that is carried to mom / dad, the little nose out, and the airways are free.
For very practical reasons, this would not be possible with children carried forward. The headrest would cover the airways. And support would not be guaranteed.
Learning from primitive peoples. Enjoy contemporary parenting.
Actually, it is not so difficult to know what is good for our children and us.
Because we would only have to look at primitive peoples. There, children have been carried on their backs for centuries: everyone knows the photos of indigenous people with sleeping babies on their backs while their mothers work in the fields. These women know what makes physiological sense.
We don't usually work in fields anymore, but making a hot cup of coffee while the baby is safely tucked away on your back: that sounds sensible!