Buckled Sling for 20month old?

[shipsladyg]

Hi all - your wisdom sought... DC2 is due in 5wks. I really enjoyed baby wearing with DC1 & generally used a Moby/Sabe/Wilkinet/Patapum to carrier her around. DH preferred a Vaude. I've obviously got out of practice carrying whilst pregnant. I dont really want to buy a double buggy for the few months it will be necessary but DC1 cant quite go the distance on foot yet and I prefer the idea of back carrying her than struggling with a buggy board. Any suggestions for a buckled carrier that's easy to get on & can be chucked in the buggy shopping basket. I didn't find the patapum quite long enough up her back when DC1 was a baby so reluctant to buy a toddler one. Any experience with Bobas? I like the look of their foot straps. I'm going to splash out on a Storchenwiege too but I feel that wraps are a slight pfaff when the toddler is having a strop & I'd like the option of leaving DC2 asleep in the pram whilst DC1 & get on with stuff.

We (dh and I) used an ergo til dd was 3 - found it easy and small to carry

How about a Beco Butterfly? It also has an inbuilt insert for newborns, so v easily interchangeable. Pretty easy to get toddlers in and into a back carry.

I have several friends in the states who are going mad over the Biba 3G but I have never seen one in person. I gave an Ergo which I like and am going to stick with. Do you have a sling meet near you? They might be able to help.

I would say it depends on whether you primarily want a carrier for your older one, that will last for her, or a carrier that you can use for her for a relatively short while and then use for the smaller one - if that makes sense? There are plenty of standard-sized things that will work for so long, and then you can pass to your littler one. Finding toddler sized things that will last is trickier.

I run a sling library so have tried a fair bit. I'd say:

• Beco Butterfly II is one of the narrower carriers out there - great from small baby, good for back carries if you're not confident, but not the best choice for bigger kids
• My top choice of the standard-size buckle carriers would probably be the Boba - because of the foot stirrups. I also find the waist very comfy and it packs down smaller than Ergo/Manduca. I'd check out whether anywhere has the 2g left at a decent price though....a lot of places were selling them off cheap when the 3g came in. I've seen them around the £55-60 mark instead of the £85-90 of the 3g and given the differences are relatively small I'd save the money and go with the 2g. That said, I love the Boba for back carries, but don't like it so much for front carries, as in a front carry I prefer to be able to cross the straps over my back. If you want something that does this, the Manduca would be my top pick of the standard sized carriers. And as Loopymumsy says, it also has the advantage of being suitable from newborn.
• I do think the toddler patapum is a much better carrier than the standard patapum. But it still isn't that big a carrier - more of 9 months - 2 years.
• If you go for an Ergo, beware the large number of fakes on ebay etc.
• Toddler size buckle carriers are much harder to find new and off the peg. If 2nd hand would be an option for you, check out what you can find on the for sale or trade board on www.naturalmamas.co.uk . The only easy-to-find-from-new (i.e. you can purchase from a UK retailer) larger-kid-sized things I can think of are the Preschool Rose and Rebellion, which would be too big on your daughter at 20 months, and the toddler Melkaj mei tai (available from www.mamanatura.co.uk). There are lots of options for custom-made things though - my favourite is the Bamberoo, made in Hungary (www.bamberoo.hu). It takes about a month from ordering to receiving, but you can pick your own fabrics, strap colours etc, and she will custom-make any size from small baby to preschooler and everything inbetween. But you'll find lots and lots of other suggestions on Natural Mamas too.

If you're anywhere near a sling meet or library you could go and try some things out to get more idea what works for you.