Winter Babywearing Tips

Winter Babywearing Tips

Winter in Melbourne is officially here. The days are getting chilly and babywearing is one of the best ways to keep you and your baby toasty. Don’t let the cold weather discourage you from babywearing whether you use a soft-structured carrier or a woven wrap. Here’s a few tips and product suggestions to make Winter babywearing comfortable for both you and baby.

How to dress your baby or toddler.

Layers:

When babywearing your body heat transfers to your little one so it’s important not to overdress them plus extra bulk makes it difficult to babywear. Layers are great especially if you’re going from inside to outside frequently you can just strip off a layer when needed.

On the bottom- Tights, leggings, knee high socks and legwarmers help keep your little one’s legs warm. Standard pants and leggings tend to ride up leaving ankles exposed to the cold weather. Lotus Baby Design makes great Flexi-Harem pants specifically for this reason. The adjustable cuffs can be left unfolded to lengthen out the pants and the soft stretch ribbing stops them from riding up, the high waist-band also keeps tiny tummies and the kidneys warm. Check out the range of cotton, cord, fleece and woollies here. The fleece and woollies are perfect for Winter and the woollies are great as an under-layer or just as is. Pants are better than jumpsuits in the cold weather as you can pull them down for a quick nappy change rather than taking them off completely.

Hands: Woolen mittens are great to keep hands toasty without sweating.

Feet: Warm woollen socks, ugg boots or gumboots.

Head: Again a woollen beanie helps keep the heat in, if your baby really doesn’t like the cold one of those fleece-lined beanies are extra warm and help cut out the wind. Ear flaps are even better!

How should you dress?

Again layers are great for mum. Too much bulk can make it difficult to fit your carrier and some Winter jackets can be slippery making it difficult to use a wrap. Your baby can be a little toaster. Once you get moving and carrying your baby you might work up a sweat quicker than you think. Breathable materials like cotton and wool for you are good. A long sleeve top for a base layer, oversized woollen cardigans or zip front jackets and a coat work well. Woollen cardis usually have a bit of stretch and can be buttoned up over the carrier for an extra layer if you front carry or can be thrown over the top of a back carry.

There are a range of babywearing coats out there that fit over you and your baby. Boba and Lenny Lamb both make a great ones for front and back carries. Etsy have a great range too.

Products

Babywearing pants- lotusbabydesign.com A huge range of cotton print, cotton cord, fleece and woollen Flexi-Harem pants. Flexible sizing made especially for babywearing and fit over cloth nappies. Two sizes available 0-8 months and 8-24 months (pants featured in all pictures).

Legwarmers- www.babylegs.com Violet used to live in these leg-warmers especially as we did elimination communication with her (another blog on that coming soon). Great for changing nappies without having to strip any clothes off and lots of funky prints.

Knee-high baby socks- www.littleroyaltwo.com I spotted this awesome shop on instagram @littleroyaltwo. Socks that stay up!

Babywearing coats- Boba make a vest and a hoodie www.boba.com. Lenny Lamb make a trench coat style http://en.lennylamb.com

Woven wrap pictured is a Didymos Size 6- https://www.didymos.com/en/

Ring Sling is from Hipababy- http://www.hipababy.com.au/ or you can buy from her Etsy shop. Lots of cool custom made ring slings and wrap conversions.

Enjoy wearing your baby this Winter and always make sure you can your baby or toddler’s airway is clear and their chin is off their chest.

Let me know in the comments if you have any tips for Winter babywearing.

Jin x