Carrying children into the forward facing is widespread. Carrying children in the baby carrier or in the baby carrier facing forward is a widespread practice, especially with traditional baby carriers.
Perhaps not everyone knows, however, that this is a highly discouraged method for babywearing experts. Especially if practiced for long periods!
Why carrying children facing forward not recommended?
Carrying children facing forward is a position not recognized as adequate by the world of babywearing, both with a baby carrier and with a baby carrier. Here are the main reasons …
- The child’s back, resting on the parent’s trunk, assumes a non-physiological position and arches. The vertebral column of the newborn should always be able to maintain the natural C-curvature (as well as in the womb and in the classic positions in the baby carrier or ergonomic baby carrier). Especially with infants still very young, the risk of early column overload is real.
- The child has no supports: the head must always remain erect, the hands and feet do not find points where to anchor. And the little one has no way to relax and enjoy the babywearing as a moment of rest, if he needs it.
- Its legs, without support, remain dangling: inevitably, the hip and the femur assume a physiological position and are now widely recognized as incorrect.
- All its weight is discharged directly into the genital area.
- The child is completely exposed to the stimuli he receives and the parent, who has no way of seeing him in the face, cannot notice what is happening, failing in his role of filter and containment: the child can in no way protect himself from this who sees, hears, invests him (even only by the light of the sun!).
But carrying the children facing forward is not recommended for mothers and fathers too!
The legs and arms of the child are free to move outwards. In this way, the center of gravity of the bearer-child couple is shifted: whoever carries the child facing forward, therefore, will tend to arch the back to compensate for the greater perceived load, overloading it and doing much more effort …
Isn’t it okay to carry children in your arms facing forward?
Absolutely not! It is a completely different thing: it is one thing to be welcomed in the arms of mum or dad, in a mobile position, which is constantly changed, shifting its center of gravity, balance, side. Another account is to be carried in a fixed support baby carrier, perhaps for a long time, without some changes in position or direct interaction with the bearer.
What positions can we bring children correctly?
Speaking of babies and small children, the babywearing position with Rebozo can correctly contain, protect, support them and respect them in their delicate physiology, are certainly those on the front, belly-to-belly: in close contact with the mother’s body, in a similar position fetal and collection.
In these positions, in fact, his need for “openness” is satisfied, but at the same time, he is assured the possibility of protecting himself and of cowering towards the always comforting body of the mother (or whoever wears it).
Carrying the children allows them not to directly receive the streaming of stimuli that the world imposes (let us think, for example, of a child carried on the street in the city or in a mall!). The adult continues to be a protection, a filter, a containment for him. The child can in fact take refuge, as needed, in the baby carrier or in the baby carrier in close contact with the wearer’s body, finding the safe intimate space he needs.
