Advice please from baby wearers?

[wtbmummy]

So I am due in April with baby no.2.

To make things easier dh and I have discussed babywearing and I have been to talks, had demonstrations done sooooo much research.

But......

In the bid to save money (being as last baby and already having a preschooler) I have found LOTS of baby stretchy wraps on ebay and Amazon.

How can I tell if these are safe and to UK standards (which they all say they do)

Also I found a few I like from a european company. Again how do I know if these are made to same safety standards.

Or does that even matter as its just a piece of stretchy fabric and is it just down to dh and myself making sure we have tightened it correctly with there not being any "standards" as such as long as we follow TICKS.

I didnt babywear at all with ds so this is all brand new to us but with a demanding 3yo we think this may be our best route.

Any advice is welcome.

Thank you

 

[Twag]

I got my stretchy wrap from Amazon it was about £20 and it worked perfectly for me as it basically is a piece of stretchy fabric it is all down to making sure you have it tied correctly and following the baby-wearing guidelines - there is an acronym but it alludes me right now but basically making sure you can kiss babies head etc

I LOVED mine it was a life saver

 

[xdxxtx]

I've heard from babywearing experts that you can make your own and considered it until I found my new Moby for a really good price. I only use Moby brand stretchy wraps, though, personally. I have no experience with any other brand.

 

[MindUtopia]

Is it a known brand? That will give you an idea of the quality (assuming it's legit, you never can know, but most stretchy wraps are pretty cheap even new, so I doubt there is much motivation to make fakes). Many of the really high quality woven wraps are from Europe. I think Lenny Lamb is Polish? Ellaroo I think is Italian. They are all well respected brands. In fact, I don't know of many that are British made. I would say get something that is a known brand. You can always ask someone who has babywearing experience and they'll likely be able to tell you if they recognise them or know anything about them. I didn't even know there was such as think as a 'UK standard' in terms of wraps (so they might just be making that up for marketing purposes!). I doubt these things are particularly tightly regulated.

But yes, you can make a stretchy wrap from fabric at home yourself, so you really can't go wrong with it. It's just one long piece of cotton fabric, with no stitching really, so totally hard to screw up. Wraps in general are safe in terms of their manufacturing and really only go wrong if you don't use them properly. This is different than carriers, which are much less adjustable and flexible in terms of positioning, so a dangerous carrier will always be a dangerous carrier no matter really how you use it. But you can't really make a long stretch of fabric unsafe unless you just don't tie in on properly. So I wouldn't necessarily worry about that. But at the same time, a brand new moby or kari-me wrap, which are reputable and popular brands won't set you back much anyway. So at the cost of paying shipping from Croatia or wherever, I might just get a known brand here. It was a few years ago, but my moby was 38 quid brand new from Amazon. It got way more use than the pushchair I shelled out 200+ on! So it's worth the investment. Or if you aren't sure you want to commit the money, you can always hire only on the monthly basis to start from a sling library. There should be one near you.

 

[Button#]

My friend had a rubbish one from eBay, it was too stretchy and not at all supportive. You can get 2nd hand Moby wraps. I used a cot2tot that was a good one and a bit cheaper than a Moby.

You could also go straight to a woven which although more expensive means you don't have to fork out for a different wrap/carrier once baby outgrows the stretchy.

 

[wtbmummy]

Thanks for your replies ladies.

I actually went on ebay today and got very lucky!! I found a purple stretchy Moby for auction. I won the auction and got it for £11.50 + £4p&p
I am over the moon as not babywearing before I was unsure about spending out and then finding it's not for me.

I am excited for it to arrive as I can then practice putting it on and be a pro by time baby girl arrives in April.

 

[cskme_]

I put an ISO baby wrap on kijiji. There is likely a Facebook page for your hometown like baby buy and sell. I ended up getting a very lightly used Boba wrap for free! I just explained that I just had a baby and have very little money and someone messaged me and told me to come pick it up. You could give that a try!