a sling is all very well unless your 6 wk old weighs a stone

[fishandlilacs]

any suggestions as to what to do with a gorgeous squidgy beautiful boy who wont be put down, likes to sleep only on me and he weighs so much i can't carry him all the time.

I can't bend when i have him in the sling it hurts my back, I can't crouch it hurts my knees.

why don't you use a pram?
if you habitually carry and let him sleep on top of you it will be harder to stop as time passes. if you want to decrease the sleeping on top of you, get a Moses basket or lie flat carry-cot and introduce gradually and incrementally

Octavia There are things you can ask for close up photos of. Genuine sellers will understand once you explain that there are lots of fakes going around and you want to be sure. - See here for the main signs. Also, if an ergo is listed with a DVD that's a no-no unless it's one of the very early models. They have not done DVD instructions for many years now.

Thanks Bertie for clarifying. A lot of the fakes are new items and are suspiciously cheap!

If you buy a second hand from a private buyer who is listing only one, then that's less likely to be fake - check out their other listings.

It's true that it's less likely. But there is still the possibility that the seller bought a fake in the first place and is unwittingly passing it on as genuine.

Plus some of the fakes have started to be priced higher now as the cheap=avoid advice has become so widespread.

For me personally its just another reason to avoid ergos, I think that you can get a better SSC for the same or less money anyway. Ergos are the most easily accessible hence their popularity.

It could be an idea to check out ukbabywearingswap or the natural mamas forum for sale or trade forum to see what is out there. You should get more detailed information from experienced "babywearers" too.

I'm not sure I would go for a backcarry when baby is small. They are not good for developing hips and I've heard it said that they interfere with the development of spatial awareness etc., from experience of Africa, though that might just be if you backcarry all the time. Nothing wrong with front-carrying. I started with a moby and it was wonderful till he got to about 5 months, when he was really too heavy for it and it rode up between his legs. Other mn reviews suggest a manduca best if you have a bad back or heavy baby after that, as they are designed like an ergo but distribute the weight to your hips, protecting your lower back from stress. I've always had a bad back and gone for rucksacks that do this as they are 100X better, though haven't tried the manduca.

Back carries shouldn't cause a problem for hips as long as the legs are supported adequately, which means either folded up in the froggy position or in the "M" position with the knees higher than the chest.

The manduca is a nice carrier, someone brought one to our sling meet recently. I liked the way that you can zip the body to make it shorter or unzip to make it longer. There is an insert for newborns, too.

Thanks for that link Bertie - I will ask ebayers for photos of the inside as the label position seems to be one of the key things. What a minefield.