Baby Wearing Safety: "Bag" Slings

M'Liss Stelzer, author of Mothering Magazine's Babywearing Bliss how-to primer, has recently posted the results of some research she's been working on regarding safety in so-called "bag" slings*. For the full research, please create a free membership at The Baby Wearer and read "Concerns About Bag Slings".

M'Liss is a former NICU nurse, mom to two, and an avid babywearing advocate and teacher. She's married these specialties and has been doing research on oxygenation levels in newborn babies. Part of this research is mentioned about in the Babywearing Bliss primer, but she has continued to collect data, focusing more on what she is calling "bag" slings.

Here is an excerpt from "Concerns About Bag Slings", taken with permission from the author.

With the majority of fabric carriers it takes only a few minor adjustments to get baby safely and comfortably positioned (see the "Correct Positioning article")". However, unlike most other types of carriers, it appears the Infantino SlingRider baby carrier has several significant design flaws that could place an infant at risk of respiratory distress, oxygen deprivation or even suffocation.

First, the design of the SlingRider causes baby to naturally curl chin to chest, larger babies more so because their heads are positioned further up in the carrier. This position kinks baby’s airway causing the baby to work harder to breathe. (For more information on the importance of maintaining an infant's head and neck in an aligned position see the articles “Baby car seat ‘cot death’ concerns” and “Simple Car Seat Insert to Prevent Upper Airway Narrowing”.)
Now, the instructions for every Infantino front pack emphasize that baby should not be chin to chest (“Baby's chin should not point down toward baby's chest") and there are even diagrams of correct positioning. However, the SlingRider instructions omit this important detail and, not only that, but the product shots of the SlingRider contradict the information in the front pack instructions. Photos on Infantino’s website.

Second, it is very difficult to keep a newborn’s face away from the pouch fabric. The SlingRider is roughly triangle shaped; flat bottom and two sides that slant upwards toward the elastic top. This “triangle” means that the pouch fabric is always angled very close to the sides of baby’s face. If baby rotates even slightly he ends up with his nose within a ¼” of the side, or even pressed against the side of the pouch. Once baby has his head pressed against the side of the carrier and/or against the parent's body there is a risk of the baby suffocating or becoming oxygen deprived. (See SlingRider #1)

Read more here: Baby Wearing Safety: "Bag" Slings