Breastfeeding in a sling

[TheStorySoFar]

Which type of sling is easiest to feed in ? My DS Is 9weeks & I have three other DC & would love to be able to feed hands free... Tempted by a ring sling.. Have a Moby already & find it hard to feed in. Is a ring sling easier? Or should I persevere in the Moby?

I find ring slings easiest, mainly as my babies only feed lying down in the early weeks. Later on you can lower any sling once they will feed upright, today I fed in my oscha woven wrap while walking round an Easter trail with the toddler, and I'm fairly large and droopy

So ring sling easiest until they have really good head control, then anything. In my opinion anyway!

I fed in both the bjorn and the ergo. My boobs now however resemble droopy sacks and I'm fairly sure my ability to wrangle them into any position to shove in babies mouth has not done them any favours aesthetically

You could get to a sling meet or sling library and see what works best for you?

Have you searched you tube for how to nurse in a moby videos? I found once or two techniques easy but the other ways near impossible.

I'm with peppa- have fed in bjorn and manduca - just loosen shoulder straps and scoop boob. Only problem is if your baby is a nipplehound -mine gave me a lovebite on my chestwall as he wanted to walk around with the nipple in his mouth ALL THE TIME

Thx All .. I'm in NI & there are no sling meets that I'm aware of...

I found the first technique in this video good when Ds was small. I can now just article him down and scoop (though also get bruises from missed aims) but it was easier with him lying down to latch on to begin with.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=NZYC3x81LbE

I reckon a ring sling would be fairly simple as there isn't too much excess material like a wrap to get in the way.

There is at least one NI sling library and they will hold meets and may know of others - have a search on fb :)

www.facebook.com/SlingLibraryNI

www.slinglibraryni.co.uk/

Thk you Name: have arranged to attend a sling meet in the next couple of weeks :-))

Fab it's such a personal choice - you might live one style, but your child prefer another, and have to compromise on something that suits you both x

I wouldn't feed a 9 week old hands-free in a sling. You can definitely use a sling to support the baby's body, supporting their head with one hand/arm outside of the sling, and it can work very well to feed an older baby (5-6 months +) upright in a sling by dropping them down a bit and hoiking a boob upwards.

But hands-free feeding in a cradle carry is just too risky I think - from a positional asphyxiation / choking point of view. A significant number of the worldwide sling deaths have involved feeding and/or cradle carry. I realise the risk is relatively small compared to the number of babies carried in slings without a problem, but I personally would not be comfortable feeding a young baby in a cradle carry, and I would explain why not and not advocate it to customers/consultees (I am a sling consultant with several years experience).

If you scroll down the videos, these JPMBB videos show adapting a stretchy wrap carry for feeding a small baby (the JPMBB and Moby are fairly different in terms of stretchiness but you should be able to achieve similar with some playing around) but you can see that the baby's head stays out of the wrap and supported by the mother's hand/arm.

You shouldn't carry cradle carry full stop I thought. Ring sling use the upright centred position, with a muslin rolled into the rail for neck support, and when feeding you drop down so they are diagonally across the width of the sling with the fat edge at the neck so they can still pull away as the head is hanging over the edge and supported with an arm.

But slings still mean you can feed while eg helping a toddler at soft play, on the move, with one hand free at least.

Ticks guidelines for safety - but the sling meet should go through all this with you.

www.schoolofbabywearing.com/Images/TICKS.pdf

Thank you all..TBH Name I can't imagine DS staying properly latched whilst feeding hands free in a sling. He's just too little. But it'd be great to be able to feed in a sling knowing I could grab toddler/keep playing if I needed to, so I guess 'one handed' feeding is a better description of my needs. I know the Moby enables this, and I have done it with the toddler (when she was a baby). But I had two free hands then & all the time in the world to fiddle/tighten/correct latch. It'd be a real faff trying to feed DS in thd Moby ATM with DD in tow. Thx for the above links...all v helpful & informative.