Out of the Loop on Babywearing
Apparently, babywearing is something people feel very strongly about right now. That's news to me, and apparently it was news to the ad team at Motrin, who thought it would be cool to make fun of as a faddish practice that leaves its status-chasing followers in need of pain relief.
Moms who believe in babywearing were not amused, and by the power of blogging and Twitter, the campaign was brought low. Motrin yanked it from its website, and the vice president of marketing issued an apology. You can read more about the protest and the fallout on the About.com Baby Products site, but let's just say that the person responsible for that campaign probably won't be wearing his or her head for very long.
The whole thing is supposed to be a demonstration of the power of Mom Bloggers, but ... golly, I'm a mom and a blogger and I'd never heard of this whole babywearing thing. It gives me that same out-of-the-loop feeling I often get as a parent of children with special needs, when I'm so busy dealing with the crisis du jour that I fail to pay attention to what less preoccupied parents are up to. I adopted my kids when they were past the age of being wearable, so that may make my baby radar a little weak, too.
So tell me -- anyone out there worn a baby with special needs? I can see how it would be great for bonding, both from the baby's and the parent's point of view. I can also see how it might not be appropriate for some kids, some parents, some families. And I wonder whether, as with so many things that mainstream parents embrace, an inability to do this thing that everybody else is enthusiastic about might lead to more feelings of outsider-ness and failure for some special-needs parents. Got enough of that, for sure.
Share your babywearing experience, or lack thereof, in the poll above and the comments below.
Read more: Special Needs News | Site of the Day | 10 Reasons to Give Thanks for Your Child With Special Needs
LOL. I had to crack up when I read this. I didn’t know about the ad campaign, I wish I had because I could have predicted this result. Us baby-wearers can get pretty militant:) In my hometown they actually have their own festival (http://www.fresnobabyfest.com
I wore my first daughter for about a year, in a BabyBjorn and not as full-time as many people advocate for. My newest child is 8 months old and has Prader-Willi Syndrome. I knew the minute she was born that the BabyBjorn was out of the question. I had a MobyWrap, an Over the Shoulder Baby-Holder, and a KangarooCorner pouch when she was born but ended up buying a MetroMama Wrap (two actually) and a Wrap’n'Wear after she was born–mainly out of grief at the diagnosis.
While she was still a new-newborn I wore her in the “kangaroo hold” (where the baby is chest to chest with the mother), with the wraps like Moby, Metro, and Wrap’n'Wear, I could go “topless” underneath the wrap (at least around the house) and baby and I could have quality “kangaroo-care”-time while I did chores.
As she grew and got more alert she didn’t enjoy that position as much, but unfortunately a lot of the cradle-type holds didn’t work as well for us. So I haven’t been able to wear her as much as I’d like, her severe hypotonia has made it really tricky to fit her into some of the wraps, she practically folds over on herself no matter what I do. When it works, it’s awesome and I wouldn’t trade it for the world, but mostly I’ve just had to carry her in my arms a lot. Now that her tone is improving and her head control is better I’m really hoping that I’ll be able to wear her more full-time (especially this winter).
I’m not as fanatical as some, but I do think that it is very beneficial and that everybody should try to do it as much as possible. I know that there have been some studies done that show that it is good for cognition if the baby experiences the world at the eye-level of adults, so being able to wear the baby (and both of my girls prefer to be held facing out anyway) in that position is good for them. But like anything, people should do what feels best for them and not get bullied into anything.
One thing I will say to folks though is that I know that a lot of people get turned off on the wraps because they’re like twenty feet long and come with a manual fifty pages long (I know I was)–try to find a baby boutique (or sometimes the LaLeche League has somebody) who can show you how to put the thing on and how to fit baby into it — that was a huge help to me and really sold me on the wraps over the Bjorn-style carriers.
My son went through a phase when he was 16 weeks old… Every night, I had to carry him in the baby snuggly, stand in the bathroom with the fan and light on, do the ‘mommy-bounce-wiggle’, and sing, for several hours. If I’d known back then that he had ADHD and needed the extra stimulation, I might not have cried so much… He *needed* the stimulation, and nothing else worked.
My daughter has no diagnosis yet (except for some communication issues), and maybe won’t. However, when I take her to speech therapy or OT, she always falls asleep on the bus ride home. It’s so much easier to be wearing her in the baby sling and just tuck her in close to bring her the rest of the way home, than to carry a sleeping child and stroller off the bus, open up the stroller while carrying a sleeping child, and then tuck her in.
I have fibromyalgia, and carrying her *hurts* – but it works. I won’t be taking Motrin afterwards!
This would definately not be for me. Of course I’m looking at the idea through my own filter.
I don’t get to go to the bathroom by myself. Even if I do happen to sneak in before someone notices I end up having a conversation through the door.
Because of the boundary issues my youngest daughter has, I guess the idea of literally being attached to my child just makes me cringe. If it works for someone else though, I think that’s great. I’m a big fan of “whatever works”.