A Commentary on Carrying Infants and Toddlers

Dr. Eckhard Bonnet, Paediatric Specialist

Opponents of baby carriers routinely warn of spinal damage, compression of the body, and lack of air while carrying. These fears, for which no evidence has ever been presented, are unfounded.

The Overall Development of Carried Infants Is Positively Supported

The benefits of a correctly used carrier include:

The child feels the mother's/father's body warmth,
feels their heartbeat,
smells their body scent,
feels and hears their voice (with an ear against the carrier's chest),
is fully enveloped and therefore feels secure,
can burp easily (without spitting up),
has their digestion stimulated ("tummy massage"), and
can pass stool more easily.

When walking or working (in the field or garden), movement is always rhythmic. Over time, this causes the carrier's breathing rate, stride, and heartbeat to settle into whole-number ratios with each other (a finding from sports medicine). This produces a harmony in the carrier's psychovegetative state.

The carried child can smell this (a relaxed person smells different) and can sense it. Through the rhythmic movement, the child relaxes too and can, for example, fall asleep more easily and digest better. The acupressure points against digestive and sleep problems, on the belly and the inner lower legs, are massaged automatically.

The Carrier Supports the Child's Body Evenly

This kind of carrying resembles being "carried" in the womb (enclosure, security, warmth, and so on). Nothing is too tight, nothing too loose. Just as a mother walking during pregnancy has no adverse effect whatsoever on her child's spine, walking with a baby in a wrap has no adverse effect on the child's spine either. Anyone claiming the opposite would also have to forbid children from walking, running, jumping, hopping, and dancing, since all of these mean constant "jolts" to the spine.

Quite the opposite: the even loading and unloading of the spinal and hip joints creates an optimal growth stimulus. We have never seen a healthy child, carried from the start, develop hip dysplasia or scoliosis.

But we have seen many purely "pram babies" (back-lyers) with a misshapen skull (flattened at the side and back), a misshapen body, and hip dysplasia, as well as "tummy-lyers" with frog-legged posture. In addition, "tummy-lyers" face a higher risk from poor air quality at the lowest point of the pram, and from heat build-up, since the palms and face can barely generate evaporative cooling through sweating.

The Mother's Movement Supports the Child's Development

If a woman had to spend long periods lying down during pregnancy, this has – as developmental neurologists have found – a negative effect on her child's overall development. Conversely, the child of a mother who was active every day during pregnancy shows a clear developmental head start.

It's the same with the carried = held child and the uncarried = "unheld" child. The carried child has better physical stability (statomotor development, vestibular abilities = balance, skeleton including cartilage, tendons and connective tissue), better neurological stability (coordination, deep sensitivity, sensory perception and processing), better psychological stability (self-confidence, frustration tolerance, basic trust, creativity), and better social stability (ability to integrate). When I meet a 1.5- to 2-year-old for the first time, I can say with fair certainty whether or not that child was carried during their first year of life.

Psychological Aspects Must Also Be Weighed in the Debate

The child in the wrap is "close" to me.
The child in the pram is "distant" from me.
Among supporters of babywearing, women predominate.
Among opponents, men predominate.
Carriers are used less often in one-child families than in families with several children.
A child at the same eye level, in a wrap or carrier, is more of an equal.
A child in the pram is less of an equal: I look down on them.

(It's similar with how women are treated during childbirth: if the labouring woman lies on a bed, she is distant from me, subordinate, and not my equal. If the woman gives birth in an upright position – squatting – and I crouch in front of her to receive the child, then she is close to me, on equal footing, and my equal.)

There Are, However, Some Critical Points to Keep in Mind

Some carriers don't allow the child to sit in a physiological posture on the mother's/father's hip or front.
Some parents carry their child almost constantly. But both the child and the mother need periods of rest and distance.
The child's weight puts strain on the carrier's body (muscles, ligaments, spine). This is why the child should be carried regularly from the start, to build up condition.
Take care in very cold weather. I remember a "steaming" father trudging uphill through the snow, whose baby, carried on his back, had ice-cold little legs.
Carrier materials can contain formaldehyde ("easy-care") or other toxic chemicals (check the label).

The Pram Has Its Disadvantages Too

It's an unnatural means of transport, the child is surrounded by unnatural things, it doesn't smell good, it off-gasses "chemicals",
its interior climate is poor (like a covered bassinet or an unventilated bedroom),
it doesn't provide warmth,
it jiggles unrhythmically (which is why, as a way to help a baby fall asleep, it's rocked quite differently, namely rhythmically, than when it's being pushed along),
it offers the ear only unphysiological sounds,
the face of the person pushing is too far away (a young infant can only see about 40 cm); if the child is lying on its front, it sees nothing at all,
the mother or father don't have their hands free,
it's expensive and ends up sitting in a corner after a year,
the child is put down and left there. With a carrier, the mother/father "has to" walk, which means daily exercise.

In the past, there were no prams. Infants were carried while out and about or at work (carrying belts in South Asia, cloths in Africa) or taken along by nomads (Asia) and Native Americans in vertically hanging carrying frames (hanging cradles with head support). Prams were at first a privilege of the wealthy: the nursemaid took the well-to-do child out for a walk. It was only later that the middle classes copied this "model".

For more than 20 years, we have recommended the Didymos wrap from Frau Hoffmann. For 28 years I have worked together with my wife, Dr. med. Magdalene Bonnet, in our own practice. She has contributed a great deal to my findings.

Reproduced with the kind permission of the author

Dr. med. Eckhard Bonnet is a specialist in paediatrics, adolescent medicine, environmental medicine, and sports medicine. He ran his own practice in Reutlingen together with his wife, Dr. med. Magdalene Bonnet, and published his research on the impact of carrying on child development in, among other places, the journal "Krankengymnastik" (1998).