The Benefits of Babywearing

 

Want to know why I "just don't put baby in the stroller" 90% of the time I go places with her? Babywearing is the most loving, safe, nurturing environment for her while out and about or even at home! Since Trace was born I have experimented with so many different ways to "wear" my kids. Wraps, slings, back and front carriers.... and I have had my ups and downs. But eventually I found ones that worked for the both of us. Since then I have never stopped strapping my little ones close to me. In fact if I weren't so darn short I should still be using my Ergo for my 2.5 year old!

Trace in Ergo 10 months

Trace in Moby Wrap 8 months

• Mothers' oxytocin is increased through physical contact with the infant, leading to a more intimate maternal bond, easier breastfeeding and better care, thus lowering the incidence of postpartum depression and psychosomatic illness in the mother..
• Infants who are carried are calmer because all of their primal/survival needs are met. The caregiver can be seen, heard, smelled, touched, tasted, provide feeding and the motion necessary for continuing neural development, gastrointestinal and respiratory health and to establish balance (inner ear development) and muscle tone is constant.
• Infants are more organized. Parental rhythms (walking, heartbeat, etc.) have balancing and soothing effects on infants.
• Infants are "humanized" earlier by developing socially. Babies are closer to people and can study facial expressions, learn languages faster and be familiar with body language.
• Independence is established earlier.
• Attachment between child and caregiver is more secure.
• Decreases risk of positional plagiocephaly ("flat head syndrome") caused by extended time spent in a car seat and by sleeping on the back. Sleeping on the back is recommended to decrease the risk of SIDS. Cranial distortion resulting from non-vehicular time in car seats has shown to be more severe than in children who develop plagiocephaly from back-lying on a mattress. Concern over plagiocephaly has also led the American Academy of Pediatrics to recommend that infants “should spend minimal time in car seats (when not a passenger in a vehicle) or other seating that maintains supine positioning." None of the babywearing positions require infants to lie supine while being carried. Infants can even be worn while they sleep, also decreasing sleeping time spent in a supine position.

Phoenix 2 months in Sleepy Wrap

Studies of parent-child attachment, parental satisfaction and infant crying all point to babywearing as an ideal solution for most parents to provide an optimum environment for attachment between parent and child. Baby carriers and slings help increase the number of hours of day an infant is held, and there is an inverse relationship between the number of hours spend crying and the number of hours a child is held in a given day. Even 3 hours per day of babywearing reduces infant crying significantly, and at 13 months, babies who have been in soft carriers regularly are significantly more likely to be securely attached than babies who are carried in hard carriers. 

Trace 6 months in Moby Wrap

Babywearing allows the wearer to have two free hands to accomplish tasks such as laundry while caring for the baby's need to be held or be breastfed. Babywearing offers a safer alternative to placing a car seat on top of a shopping cart. It also allows children to be involved in social interactions and to see their surroundings as an adult would.

Phoenix 8 months in Ergo

By the way... if you can't tell. I am seriously obsessed with my Ergo!
 
Information borrowed from: http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Babywearing