The Latest Fashion Accessory for the Hip Mom: Your Baby

By Lisa Poisso

Brooke Shields does it. Kate Hudson and Cindy Crawford do it, too. Courteney Cox-Arquette and Gwyneth Paltrow have been spotted doing it, as well. Wearing your baby — in a baby carrier, sling or wrap — is fast becoming the way to get out and about with the little ones.

Long advocated by breastfeeding and attachment parenting advocates, babywearing is taking on a modern twist. Celebrities saddle up with $700 Gucci baby carriers, fashionistas order custom slings to match the season’s trends and individualists tie on embroidered silk mei tais.

Oddly enough, Dallas is the behind-the-scenes hub of much of this activity. Local mama Tracy Dower heads The Mamatoto Project, a babywearing advocacy website. Dallas physician and La Leche League leader Maria Blois authored Babywearing, the only book currently out devoted to babywearing. Sling sales site Peppermint.com is based in McKinney, TheSlingStation.com is in Mesquite and HotSlings.com is also in Dallas.

“We’re in a babywearing Renaissance,” claims Dower, who’s often seen with a child nestled close to her chest, swaddled on her back or riding on one hip. “Anything that makes parenting easier is bound to catch on,” Blois agrees. “It is hard to argue with a happy baby and two free hands — and that is precisely what babywearing offers parents.” Indeed, babywearing is earning a whole new mainstream rep. “I've been so happy to see babywearing break out of the ‘crunchy mama’ rut,” says Peppermint.com’s Vesta Garcia. “Babywearing benefits working parents, parents who travel light (ever try Europe with a stroller?) and parents trying to juggle more than one child at a time. Sound like anyone you know?”

Besides being such a wonderful parenting tool, Blois notes, babywearing can be seriously stylish. The options, Garcia says, are many: “Right now it's very hip to search out fabric combinations that express a person's individualism. Mod? It's out there. Silk? Got it. Camo? Unfortunately, yes.” Fashion-forward celebrities agree. “Celebrity mothers have the same desire as we do to have a content, well-behaved baby in public — think of all the photographers!” Blois exclaims. And as Garcia points out, baby carriers make more of a statement about style and family focus than strollers and car seats. “Does a celeb really want to be seen wrestling a stroller in and out of a car?” she points out.

Dower, Blois and Garcia all decry the popularity of structured front carriers. “This style is the least comfortable and only lasts through about 15 pounds,” Garcia says. “There are so many other great options out there.” Slings, wraps, mei tais and pouches can be used from infancy through three years — a real bargain for something you will use every day.

For the sizzling Texas heat, the experts recommend anything in 100 percent cotton or Solarveil sun protection fabric. You can even buy a sling to wear in the water (for wading – not swimming!). “It so much easier to play with your baby in the water when you are not constantly worrying about dropping a slippery baby!” Matyus exclaims.

Resources
Tummy to Tummy: The Babywearing DVD
http://www.tummy2tummy.com/?ref=mamatoto

Babywearing by Mary Blois (Pharmasoft Publishing, 2005)
Drmariablois.com

TheSlingStation.com
Peppermint.com
HotSlings.com

Dallas/Fort Worth Babywearing group
Helping parents find and use the type of carrier best for their family. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DFWbabywearing/

The Mamatoto Project
WearYourBaby.com