Baby wearing

 

Me baby-wearing my daughter while walking on the beach in 2007 or 2008. 

I have one very vivid memory from when I was working at the child crisis center. A 10 month old baby was recently admitted to the nursery. This center had two houses- the baby house was for birth to age 3, and the big kid house was for ages 4-12. I worked in the 3-11 shift in the baby house about 70% of the time. Other times, I filled in on the night shift in either house.

This ten month old baby that was admitted to the baby house cried constantly, and was only content when being held. In the baby house at the time, there were four staff members and ten children. The ten children consisted of 8 toddlers that were able to walk, this ten month old infant, and a one month old newborn That’s only a ratio of 2 and a half to one. Not only that, but there was a baby wearing device almost identical to the one I’m wearing in the above picture with my own baby about 7 years later. Someone had donated this baby carrier to the child crisis center. I had just grabbed it from the pile of donations, strapped it on, and put him in it. Once I did that, he stopped crying!

My three coworkers were not amused. They were glad for the break in his crying, but they obviously didn’t approve of what I was doing. I already knew their stance. I’d heard it several times. They believed that even though we had enough staff to enable one person to be holding a baby, there might come a time in the future where we don’t. In that case, the babies need to get used to not being held constantly. 

I wish I hadn’t been too shy to ask the obvious questions- if that day ever came, what would the chances be that it would be this exact baby that needed to be used to it? Kids stayed at the crisis center for only two weeks on average, with the longest available stay being 90 days. Two of my coworkers were out on the playground with 8 toddlers and one would have needed to stay in with a smaller infant if I had gone with them. But why not let me out there with them, helping them watch the toddlers while I had this baby strapped to my chest? 

They believed it would spoil him. Finally after no more than an hour, the most aggressive of my coworkers there told me to go put “that thing” away, put him in the crib, let him cry, and go outside with the toddlers and the other coworkers. 

I expressed my feelings to the executive director of the crisis center. She told me I was correct- it would have been better for the baby if I’d kept him in the donated carrier and took him outside with me instead of leaving in the crib to cry like my older coworker insisted. But she would have never enforced it. My coworkers were brutal and I was afraid of them. I did try to carry this baby as much as I could after that, and was often insulted to my face because of it. 

Here is a good article about baby wearing with scientific research linked under it. You can also look here, here, and here.