Essential New Born Gear

This sling is not good up to 20 pounds as it says on the box. But if you accept the fact that you will probably not use it much 12 weeks, then it is still a small price to pay for a quiet happy newborn. The first three months of life are often called the "fourth Trimester" because the baby is still transitioning from being inside your body to dealing with the outside world. That's where the slingrider comes in. It folds the baby up into a fetal position, which at first I thought would be uncomfortable, but then I realized was exactly what he really craved. It creates a very womb like environment that is warm and the movement of walking rocks the baby to sleep quickly. Every time my son was fussy and feeding, soothing, changing rocking, etc. wouldn't work we'd put him in the sling and he would calm down. I'd read that societies where babies are carried by the mother all the time have no such thing as collick. Now, I believe it.

The best thing about the this sling is the ease of taking the baby in and out. With the Slingrider, you can get the baby out without waking him, which is a huge advantage over every other sling we've had. It is true that it is uncomfortable to carry after a while, but since my baby fell asleep within the first five minutes of being in the sling, I rarely wore if for long periods of more than a half an hour. It was also very handy for taking him out to restaurants, etc. when he was newborn. He was safe and quiet and so many people commented on how neat the sling was and how they wished they had that type of thing when they had their kids, etc. I don't think we would have survived the first three months without this sling. After that our son got too long for the sling so we had to stop using it. By then his neck was strong enough for a baby bjorn.

Very well constructed. Mine was a hand-me down from a friend and still in good enough condition to be handed on again. Also fully machine washable which is a must with newborn gear.