Last Updated On June 10th, 2020
Given that baby wearing is so popular today, many parents all have the same question: are baby carriers bad for your back? It should be noted that all baby carriers are different, and that it is difficult to completely generalize about all of them. However, it is going to be difficult for parents to avoid all back pain when it comes to baby wearing.
Carrying anything heavy on one’s back for long periods of time is going to result in some back pain, especially because parents will usually be multitasking when they are doing baby wearing. Baby wearing is all about shifting the burden of a baby’s weight from one’s arms to one’s back, since people typically have enough back strength to handle that even if they don’t have enough arm strength.
Baby wearing allows people to leave their arms free for other tasks. However, constantly having to shift one’s weight with a heavy baby is probably going to cause some back pain regardless of the nature of the baby carrier. Babies vary in terms of their weight, and that can have a huge effect on the relative difficulty of using a baby carrier, especially as the babies start to get bigger.
Baby Carriers that Reduce Back Pain
However, some baby carriers have still been designed to be more effective than others at distributing that weight. It isn’t the baby carriers themselves that are causing the trouble, after all. The baby carriers that allow people to wear the babies high on their backs are going to be much more comfortable to use and much better on the back in general.
Baby carriers that have tighter straps and that hold the baby more closely to a person’s body are also going to cause less back pain. The baby needs to move with a person’s body as effectively as possible. The baby carriers should also use a person’s hips for support as much as possible, which should help to lessen the weight places on a person’s lower back. The weight of the baby more or less needs to be distributed across a person’s entire torso if possible, even though that is going to be difficult in the case of a lot of baby carriers.
Conclusion
Ultimately, the back pain that people experience as a result of baby carriers will usually have more to do with their habits while they are doing baby wearing. People can have the best baby carriers in the world and they are still going to experience back pain if they wear the baby carriers in an overly loose fashion or if they have other bad habits during the baby wearing. People who don’t bend from their knees when lifting their babies are going to have problems with their backs eventually. People who lift the babies into the carriers too quickly are going to have similar problems. Parents need to look at the bigger picture when they ask the question: are baby carriers bad for your back?
Also read: Are Baby Bouncers Safe?