Hi it's Kylie here from Babywearing and You and today I'm going to be talking to
you about forward-facing carriers. We will have a look
at a few different brands to see which one's going to be the perfect one
for your family. In terms of forward-facing, you can forward face when
your baby is about five to six months but it really depends on their
development and their size. With their development you
want to make sure that they have adequate head and neck control because
there is no support if they lean forward and you also
want to make sure with regards to their size
that their chin is clear of the back panel so they can breathe easily
Most baby carriers recommend that you can forward face for about 20 to 30
minutes but as long as you're checking your baby
for signs of over stimulation, it depends on what's right for your
family. Because they can't escape into you, just make sure that
they're not getting too overwhelmed. And then in terms of safety, if they ever
fall asleep you want to turn them into facing you
the reason is because they don't have that head and neck
support so their chin can drop on their chest which can obstruct their airways
Those are the things that you want to consider in terms of forward facing
it's a really great option for those nosy, super interested babies
or the babies that really just want to look around and see what's happening in
the world. Today we're going to go through three
different baby carrier types we're going to go
have a look at the Tula Explore, the Ergobaby Omni and the Ergobaby Embrace
now there are other forward-facing baby
carriers on the market but we're going to go with these three
because I think that they put your baby in the best
ergonomic position when forward-facing. First we will start off with the Tula Explore
So here we have the Tula Explore baby carrier
it's a really great carrier because you can wear baby
front (inward facing), forward facing and back carry so you get a really great
range of carries that you can do, not just the forward facing
it's also adjustable for newborn to toddler. You can adjust the width (with 3 options)
the width of the seat and the height of the back panel
You can use it from newborn so 3.2 kg all the way up to 20 kg
so it is going to last you a long time! The Explore also has this really great
solid waistband which a lot of people find very very comfortable and it is a
full buckle carrier (buckle waist and shoulder straps). In terms of the forward facing with
the Tula Explore, it's really easy to do. You just have the
width of the seat on the widest setting and all you have to do
is move over these buttons to the smallest setting here
You also want to make sure that the cushioned flap of the back panel is down so your baby
has plenty of space for their head. Putting it on is nice and easy, put on the waistbelt
just clipping it in tightening it and you're going to position it where your baby's
bum goes when you hold them. The other part I really like about the Tula Explore
is that even though it's a canvas material, it's
quite soft and it's really moldable so you tend to get a really nice fit for
your baby
So grabbing my baby and placing them into the back panel (not above it)
we're just going to bring up the shoulder straps
and then doing up your back strap. The next part that we want to do is tighten the
shouler straps so with these ones you're just pulling the straps forward
always remembering when you do tighten in the forward facing position
you don't want to go quite as tight as when you're doing inward facing just
because they're in kind of a different
position and if you have boobs, they are in the road
so you don't want to put too much pressure on their upper body
you really want to make sure that they're sitting into the carrier and then the final thing
that we're going to do is the pelvic tuck to make sure
the baby's really sitting into there and that they have that nice M position
and you can see this baby's chin is free of the back panel
so this is what it looks like in the Tula Explore.
super comfortable and really easy to use in the
the forward facing position.
Next up is the Ergobaby Omni baby carrier so this is the baby carrier that you can
carry your baby in front (inward facing), forward facing, back and hip carry
So it does a range of options, it's a little bit more structured than
the other two carriers that we're going to go through today
which means that you need to spend a bit more time getting a good fit
but for other babies it fits great. The Omni's
other features includes great lumbar support which is nice and comfortable
and you can also get mesh which makes a difference if you live in a hot climate
so in terms of forward-facing with the Ergobaby Omni
the difference is that we just leave it at the setting
that you have your baby for front carry. Also you can see, you can adjust the
width of the seat and the height of the back panel so you can also use this one
from newborn 3.2 kg up to 20 kilos so if we're going to put it on
similar to the other carrier
clipping in the waist strap and i'm just going to make sure
that my lumbar support is centered here
like so. You can pull on either side to make sure you get that perfect fit
now because it is a little bit more structured
I like to create the seat (by 'popping' the sides out) before i get baby to just
to help get them in that M position and the other thing that I have to do is
to go to the forward facing position you just slide these
down (into the centre) to a smaller position. Also making sure the shoulder straps
are looser so I can get my baby in. And this time I'll do the t-shirt method with my back strap
For the t-shirt method I'm just going to clip up my back strap
and let it all hang. Next I will grab my baby and position them into the back panel
and pull up the back panel. There we go and because i did the
t-shirt method i'm going to take it up over my head and
put my arms through here similar to putting on a t-shirt.
You pull the shoulder straps backwards to tighten and I like to pull the slack out first
and then pull back. It just makes it a little bit easier to tighten
Again not going quite as tight as what you would do
for inward facing. But still nice and comfortable. And you can also cross your
shoulder straps with the Ergobaby Omni and with the
forward facing position. Depends on what feels more comfortable for you
and finally we are going to do the pelvic tuck
so tilting baby's pelvis forward gently bringing up their knees higher than
bum and you can see that they get that nice 'J' position and baby's good to go
so this is the forward facing in the Ergobbaby Omni!
And last but not least we have the Ergobaby Embrace baby carrier
With the Ergobaby Embrace you can use from newborn
from 3.2 kilos up to 11 kilos so it doesn't have quite the
weight range of the other carriers but it does have some other features
that make it super soft and a really great carrier
With this one we don't really do any adjustments to the baby carrier
in order to do the forward facing position they've kind of made it so that
it's going to be suitable. The Embrace, also crosses the shoulder straps
and it's made of this really nice jersey fabric that's very similar to a stretchy wrap
so it's super comfortable and it's going
to mold perfectly to your baby. The other difference is in terms of the
forward facing and the front carry position with an older baby
is you're going to wear apron style and so what that means
is it's going to sit up nice and high and the material is going to hang down
if you have any c-section pain, any lower back pain this can actually
be a little bit more comfortable because it's not going to be pulling on those
muscles or it's not going to be really sitting
on your scar so that's just something to consider
With the Embrace, you can see it thins out
in here and that's where baby's going to go for the forward facing position
Again holding baby to us , we're going to bring up the back panel
and we're going to put the shoulder straps over our shoulders
As we cross our straps, I'm going to reach back, pull down and then pull it around to the opposite
side. The reason I pull it down is it just make sure that it doesn't
sit too high up on your neck muscles here
so pulling it tight by pulling backwards. Bringing the slack around to make it easier
and then we're going to do the same thing on the other side so
pulling down bringing it across and clipping in
You can also spread your shoulders to get a really nice
fit and again doing that pelvic tuck with your baby
so you can see with this one, the back panel, is a little bit higher than the
other two so my baby wouldn't fit it because
they're not quite clear of the the height of the back panel
that's another thing to consider, as it's going to fit your baby when they are a little
bit older (depending on their size) but it is super super comfortable
So this is the Ergobaby Embrace
If you have any questions about forward-facing carriers
Please let me know but I hope that was useful! Enjoy those babywearing snuggles!
Thanks, bye.