There's a new style of parenting that offers lots of benefits for both you and your baby. It's actually not all that new, and has been used by many different cultures since the beginning of time. These days, it is called baby wearing. Many parents note, “as long as I carry my baby, he (or she) is content.” So what is the key to keeping your baby content? Always have him or her close to you! You can attach your baby to yourself with a baby sling or similar carrier, and chances are very good that your baby will be happier and better adjusted than babies who weren't carried everywhere.



Cultures throughout the entire world, and all throughout history, and even prehistory, have carried their babies in homemade slings. You can make a simple homemade baby sling, or you can choose one of the many commercially available baby slings in which to wear your baby. Baby wearing is convenient and easy, and good for you as well as your baby. Not only does your baby derive many benefits from this practice, but you no longer have to bring along additional equipment to help you transport your baby wherever you go.

Many pediatricians have adopted the practice of wearing their babies. In fact, pediatrician Dr. William Sears, who coined the term baby wearing. Advocates of baby wearing claim many benefits for the baby-wearing parent. For example, it is said that the mother's progesterone, a crucial hormone for mothering, increases through physical contact with the infant. This will lead to a more intimate maternal bond, easier breast-feeding, and a lower incidence of post partum depression and psychosomatic illness.

Babies who are carried tend to be calmer. Their primal needs are met and their survival instincts are satisfied. The caregiver is constantly seen, heard, smelled, touched, tasted, and constantly stimulates the baby's senses to help with his or her neural development. Normal parental rhythms, such as walking, the beat of a heart, and so on, can help calm, soothe and emotionally balance a baby.

As the baby is physically in balance, so will the baby be capable of developing in balance socially. Babies who are closer to people can learn to better interpret facial expressions, learn languages faster, and learn to read body language faster. Contrary to western cultural myths, this contact helps make a baby more, rather than less, independent. Also, the attachment between child and caregiver becomes more secure.

It will also decrease the risk of positional plagiocephaly, or flat head syndrome. Flat head syndrome is can be exacerbated by extended time spent in a car seat, or spent sleeping on the back. Sleeping on the back decreases the likelihood of SIDS, but too much time in car seats when not actually driving can lead to cranial distortion. Infants can also be worn while they sleep, and they are not only comfortable, secure and happy doing so, but it also will decrease the chances of flat head syndrome.

Wearing your baby involves changing your preconceptions of what babies are like. Although new parents visualize babies lying quietly in a crib, actually wearing the baby around is the more normal, developmentally. It's what we are built for as humans.