Don’t let the cold or rain stop you from carrying your child in a sling!

Don’t let the cold or rain stop you from carrying your child in a sling! We try to answer some of the questions that we get asked frequently and give you some tips. 

Wearing your baby close, directly against your body with very few layers between the two of you will keep your baby warm and snug. Put your baby in the sling in the clothes that they would wear inside the house and the same for you. Then you can put on layers on your baby: hat, extra socks, tights, leg warmers, booties. Then you can put on your (babywearing) coat over your child and the sling.

• Always make sure that you can see your baby and the airway is free. Follow the T.I.C.K.S guideline

• Layering up means that you can take layers off easily if you move indoors and a way of avoiding overheating

• Do not put on padded clothes (ie snowsuits) on your baby while being carried in a sling. This will make it nearly impossible to get to ergonomic deep squat positioning, risk of overheating and potentially compromise the safety of child.

• Make them comfortable by pulling the tights/babygrow/socks a bit so that there is wriggle room for the little toes

A babywearing coat, fleece or cover is the most convenient way of wearing your baby in a sling during Winter and Autumn weather. But if you do not have a coat there are a few DIY options:

• Go oversized
  Your pregnancy coat may still do the job for the first couple of weeks but you can buy a cheap hoodie/coat/rain coat and use this as your babywearing coat.

• Sling over your coat
  This is only really suitable for toddler/pre-schoolers.

Happy Babywearing!