Infantino SlingRider 151-518 / 151-519 Baby Sling/Wrap

The Fiesta of Five Flags. Pensacola, Florida's annual way of saying, "We exist." For a few months activities abound, including a treasure hunt, balls, and of course that old Gulf Coast tradition, parades with "throws." It's my tradition to load up my kids and my nieces (affectionately known as Things 1 through 5) and head down to every "throw" parade that happens 'round here. This year, the Fiesta Parade fell just a little over a month after the birth of Thing 5, baby Girl, Bunny.

Thing 5 had, just the day before the parade, developed a case of momma-holds-me-good-momma-doesn't-hold-me-bad, also known in some circles as "Clingy Baby." Since before Bunny was born, I'd wanted to get a sling/wrap to make holding a Cling-on easier. I hadn't bothered to get one, so immediately before the troupe headed to the parade, I swung into Ghetto-Mart. Thinking that they sell everything else, they had to have slings. Right? Wrong.

For the record, all local Wal-Marts carry basic tried-and-true baby carriers and a thing called the Infantino SlingRider. I figured I'd grab the SlingRider since it most resembled the sling/wrap I really wanted. At $25.00, I assumed it would be of value at least until Bunny hit the thing's max weight of twenty pounds and, by then, I'd have replaced it with an Over-the-Shoulder-Baby-Holder or a Maya product.

Hell, I didn't even win the consolation prize. We parked the normal three-and-a-half blocks away and walked to stake out our usual piece of parade barricade. By the time we made it to the parade route, I was already wondering why I didn't just carry Bunny in my arms. The Infantino SlingRider is little more than an old Eighties-style slouch purse with Velcro safety straps for positioning the baby and an outer cell phone sized pocket.

At first, I didn't use the safety straps, because I figured my eight pound Bunny would find a comfy position all her own and then sack out. After a couple of hours during which I constantly repositioned her within the bag, I finally strapped her in. It didn't help. Her head was still hopelessly kinked up inside the bag. Also, the opening of the bag is elasticized and heavily padded and, no matter how I held the baby, the two sides of the pouch kept closing cutting off all light and air. I finally compromised with the baby and the bag by pushing Bunny's arms and head out and just holding her as if she was swaddled from the waist down in a blanket.

Getting the contraption off and on the Momma was no fun thing. I suppose that it was for safety that Infantino didn't make the strap with a clasp (probably due, in part, to a safety recall last year). The strap is adjustable, though, which is the only reason I could make it large enough to get over my head and shoulders to the cross-chest position the SlingRider requires (I'm 5'9", but I'm fairly thin and decidedly flat-chested). There is also a definite front and back on the strap, making the first few fittings annoyingly confusing. The only positive thing about the strap is the padding which no amount helps after a few hours of lugging an increasingly-affected-by-gravity-eight-pound-ball-of-baby.

The SlingRider box states that it makes nursing gooder, but It was more effort than it was worth trying to position the bag, help the baby find the nipple, and keep all this activity discreetly covered by a receiving blanket. I eventually found a quiet piece of sidewalk, sat down, ditched the SlingRider, and Bunny and I commenced to do our thing.

Another in this long list of gripes is how hot the SlingRider made both Momma and Bunny. All that thick padding is just not the coolest in setting sun 85?+ weather (although the thunderstorm helped – make us wet).

One very minor, and untested, plus: the SlingRider seems very machine-washable. If I were keeping it, though, I'd keep it out of the dryer. The thing can't afford any shrinkage at all.

To make a long story short (too late), toward the end of the parade I handed Bunny to my sister-in-law because I was tired of holding the baby (in a contraption that was supposedly to help me hold my baby predominately hands-free)! My back and arms were tired. I was hot. I don't know who was crankier, Bunny or me.

To sum up, the Infantino SlingRider is a good idea in theory, but as far as practicality goes, the SlingRider is about as useless as my arms after four hours of parade watching. Things 1 through 4 were happy with their "throws," and it was all I could do not to throw the SlingRider into the parade route. I'm glad I saved the receipt.