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hoyasmeg, flickr
From the Department of What on Earth Were They Thinking? Consumer Reports snares baby slings and cosleeping sleepers in its new list of five products not to buy for your baby, seemingly based on accidents caused by misuse, irresponsible parenting and faulty products. Say what? Last time we checked, nobody recommends ditching car seats because parents might actually drive someplace and get into a traffic accident. What gives?
Truth be told, just about anything is unsafe if engaged in irresponsibly, in excess or improper use. Oddly enough, Consumer Reports states right up front that these are, in fact, the primary factors behind the majority of accidents associated with these products. Most sling accidents occur when babies fall out of the slings they were in (improper use, faulty sling rings or inappropriate activity by the parent). Cosleeping sleeper "sidecars," currently unregulated for safety standards, have caused accidents when babies slip between attachment bars or between the bed and the sleeper. Sounds like user error to us.
Shouldn't we be pushing for safety standards? Shouldn't we be pushing for better products? Why, instead, are we urging parents not engage in practices that have been shown time and time again to offer lifelong health benefits to babies?
Our recommendation: Don't play it safe by skipping these invaluable attachment parenting tools—play it safe by becoming a savvy, responsible user.
- Learn how to cosleep safely. Find out why overlaying, suffocation and SIDS are not an issue for responsible cosleepers.
- Learn how to sling your baby safely. See safe babywearing in action on videos or PDFs.
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Moms have been wearing their babes since the beginning of, well, mom-hood, no? Consumer Reports' damning two of the most natural ways to care for infants, babies and sometimes even older children is plain maddening. I wore all three of my children in Over the Shoulder Baby Holders, Baby Bjorns and another sling I can't even remember the name of (I think it was Kangaroo or something). Slinging them kept us close in otherwise chaotic times (I had three babies in four years) and afforded us privacy while nursing in public, etc. Yeah, you're right Consumer Panic Reports. Let's just not touch our children at all. Let's sit them up in infant upright seats instead, before they can even hold their heads up. Preferably as far away from our warm bosoms as possible.
It's funny that some have noted that babywearing changes your center of balance and could be dangerous for this reason. The only times I have fallen with a child have been when I was carrying them, not wearing them.