Our Hip Baby Has Made Us a Hip Family
Written: Nov 17 '06 (Updated Nov 17 '06)
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Pros: good construction, hands-free for 45 lbs., washable, durable, well padded, easy to use
Cons: confusing sizing chart, back adjustment, can get slightly uncomfortable after about 30-45 minutes
The Bottom Line: Who knew I could carry a quarter of my weight without a dead arm and an aching back?
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| jeavinl's Full Review: Hip Baby |
My daughter is a big girl who loves to be held. She’s just shy of 30 lbs., almost three feet tall, and just turned two. I gave up on using baby carriers when she was around one because they just didn’t work for me and I didn’t see any point in dishing out more cash for yet another useless baby accessory. We have a front and back-fitting Snugli, which she outgrew way before she hit the weight limit and which was a pain to put on and adjust. We also have a wrap that is supposed to be able to be worn five different ways for children up to 35 lbs. I couldn’t even get it to stay on comfortably one way when my daughter was around 20 lbs. So while both of those have been sitting in the closet for about a year, my little princess has been growing and growing and growing and my arms and back have been suffering and suffering and suffering. “Hold me” and “dance me” are two of her favorite phrases and both involve me hefting her up on my hip, doing a V-8 slouch to one side, and complaining about my dead left arm and the aching pain in my right lower back.
So I was very happy when I was asked to test out this new product in exchange for my honest opinion on Epinions. I had my doubts about any carrier working for me (seriously, how can I comfortably carry ¼ of my weight for longer than, say, 10 minutes?) but I figured, why not try? It couldn’t be any worse than what I was already doing to my body by carrying my daughter on my hip, with just my arm to support her. All I asked was that it wasn’t a nuisance to put on and take off, that my daughter would stay in it for about a half hour at a time, and that I could actually walk around hands free (a claim made on Walking Rock Farm’s Web site).
SO WHAT’S A HIP BABY LOOK LIKE?
I received the Hip Baby in Metro. The outside is black nylon canvas while the inside lining is a cottony-soft red mesh. It’s incredibly soft and easily scrunches up without getting wrinkled. The shoulder pad is thick and firm. Although I’ve never owned a hip-only carrier, none of my carriers nor any of the ones I’ve seen others use has such a plump and sturdy shoulder pad. It really looks comfortable and supportive and doesn’t seem to get squished over time (granted, I’ve only had it for about a month). At the time I’m writing this review, there are six styles available: Air Flow in iris blue, Air Flow in leaf green, Asia, Cooler II, Metro (the one I have), and Sand. They range in price from $76 to $84. Shipping on the site is $5.75. Although there is an online catalog on the manufacturer’s Web site, orders must be processed over the phone using their toll-free number. A newer version of the Hip Baby is slated for release in early 2007.
HOW DOES IT MEASURE UP?
The Hip Baby is meant for use with children 6 months up to 45 lbs. Honestly, I don’t think I could tote around 45 lbs. for very long no matter how much padding is involved, but the carrier does allow for it. My two-year-old weighs in at 30 lbs. and fits well in it. Depending on how I wear the carrier (entirely on one hip or shifting a bit toward the front), her dangly legs can trip me up a little if we’re walking. I’m average height (5 feet 5 inches) so I suppose dangling three feet from my body will trip me up in most situations. My husband, who’s 5 feet 11 inches tall, has only used this carrier in the left hip only orientation but said he’d probably prefer having it pushed slightly toward the front.
I’m so used to measurements for baby products being about the baby that I was really surprised that the Hip Baby comes in three waist sizes that are tailored to mom or dad. Even though there’s a helpful sizing guide on the Walking Rock Web site, I still was left feeling a little perplexed when it came time to select which size I needed. There’s a lot of overlap between the different belt lengths and while I can still squeeze into size 6 pants, I’m more comfortable wearing size 8 or 10. Clearly, I don’t have my slender 26” waist any longer so I chose the Medium size. With its upper limit of 54 inches, I figured it would allow my husband a chance to use the carrier, too, and it has.
Small: 24 inches to 42 inches
Medium: 28 inches to 54 inches
Large: 34 inches to 58 inches
I REFUSE TO FOLLOW DIRECTIONS
I actually got my Hip Baby while I was dashing out of the house. I saw the package on my front steps and stuck it in my car, knowing that I planned to be out with my daughter that day and it might come in handy.
I’m terrible about reading directions. If I think I can figure something out on my own, I’ll do it without consulting the paperwork. And such was the case with this carrier. Amazingly, it worked out this time. I had no problem figuring it out on the fly while standing up outside my minivan (my daughter waited patiently inside for the minute it took me to get everything adjusted). I strapped the belt around my waist and clicked the buckle into place. (Wow, that rhymed!) Then I lifted my left leg and rested my foot on the step of my minivan. I placed my daughter on my upper thigh so that she was seated on the carrier cloth and then I lifted the shoulder strap up and over her and then up and over me. I tugged a little on the front strap to tighten the shoulder strap and made sure the skid-free padding was balanced across the top of my right shoulder. That was it. It was on, my daughter was snug and comfortable but not scrunched up, and we went shopping.
Since it was my first time using this carrier, I did encounter a couple of snags that I’ve been able to fix since then. One was that I put the belt buckle a little too high. I had strapped it around my waist but that tends to get uncomfortable, at least for me. Now I buckle it slightly lower, more around my upper hip. I guess I don’t have a long torso. It seems to balance out my daughter’s weight a lot better at that position. The other thing I found uncomfortable at first was the shoulder strap. It just didn’t feel right. I realized I didn’t have it tight enough and have corrected it since then. I read the one page of instructions when I got home and easily corrected the problems. They were straightforward and helpful.
But even that first time, without reading the manufacturer’s directions, I was able to window shop in a few stores for about a half hour with my daughter in the Hip Baby with little discomfort.
DANCING UP A STORM
My daughter loves to dance. I blame myself. But she doesn’t just dance on her own. She requires a partner, namely, me. You try bouncing and swinging 30 lbs. in your left arm (the only one I ever use to hold my daughter) several times a day, everyday. See if you don’t start complaining and popping Advil. But I’ve actually been able to dance around with her with little to no pain while using the Hip Baby. In fact, now we can hold hands while we dance and do little twirls and waltzes.
I’ve had my 30 lb. toddler in the Hip Baby for about 40 minutes at a time dancing around (and jumping in some cases) to all of her favorite tunes. I think I sat down every 15 minutes for about a minute just to catch my breath and make sure the carrier was still in place. But it wasn’t the Hip Baby that tired me out or made me uncomfortable. When we dance without the Hip Baby, I need to stop after five minutes and after ten, I’m done. My arm gets too numb, my back starts to ache, and I’m flat exhausted. With the Hip Baby, my daughter’s weight is balanced across my body and I don’t feel any tugging in my back, my arms are completely free, and there’s only a little discomfort (after an extended period and/or overly active movement) on my right shoulder (and occasionally my neck) where the padding rests.
Originally, I had concerns about my daughter’s safety and comfort in the Hip Baby. Other carriers I’ve used have had little to no support and she always seemed to wiggle around too much or have her upper body wiggle while her lower body was too constricted. With this one, she seems comfortable and secure. The carrier hits her right under her arms and holds her close to my body. Yet her lower body has room to grow. There’s a fastener at the top of the seat that is accessible while I’m wearing my daughter to pull her closer. She’s not about to slip out the side of the carrier (a fear I had before using the Hip Baby) but there’s nothing digging into her sides either. I do wrap my arms around her if we’re doing something rigorous, such as jumping or rushing through the house. Both of which are probably not advised uses with the Hip Baby.
THE HIPPY, HIPPY TWITCH?
I’ll admit, the Hip Baby isn’t perfect. The back adjustment strap is impossible to reach on my own. Fortunately, I haven’t needed to adjust it while my daughter was in the carrier and since she’s the only kid I’m using this with, I don’t need to make adjustments on a daily basis. But fixing the straps after my husband used the carrier probably took under a minute. I also don’t agree with the claim in the included literature that this would be good for “easy and private breastfeeding.” Although it may be possible (my daughter’s head does reach the right spot), I don’t think it’d be very comfortable. Granted, we stopped nursing about six months ago so I didn’t get a chance to use this carrier in that mode. But as I recall, head-on nursing felt very weird and unnatural while cradling on a slant was much more comfortable.
The Hip Baby can also get slightly uncomfortable after a while. I usually just need to resituate the shoulder strap to a different part of my shoulder. I can do this while my daughter is in the carrier and she doesn’t mind getting bounced around a little while I lift the pad and slide it over. Sometimes readjusting where my daughter is helps, too. I usually start out with her on my left hip and then end up sliding her closer to the front after about a half hour. By doing this, I can wear the Hip Baby for about an hour at a time with little discomfort.
THE ANSWER TO MY CLINGY, NON-NAPPING DILEMMA
My daughter hates to nap. The only way to get her to nap (and even this doesn’t always work) is to drive around when she’s super tired at around 3:30 or 4pm for about a half hour. This being the usual time when I’m exhausted and I need to start cooking dinner, cruising the town just doesn’t cut it on a daily basis. So, out of curiosity more than actual hope that it’d work, I stuck my daughter in the Hip Baby at her usual super-tired time and went about my business. When I saw her eyes getting droopy, I swayed a little for a few minutes. Amazingly, she was out. It wasn’t even a pain to unbuckle her and put her in her bed. I just put one hand under her while I unclasped the belt buckle, which is very easy and silent. Then I lifted her toosh a bit and ducked my head down while I lifted the shoulder pad over my head. I put her in her bed and pulled the Hip Baby out from under her as soon as she rolled over. There wasn’t any zipping or Velcro or other noisy nuisance that might wake her up or get in my way.
Since then, I’ve tried it in similar circumstances with almost as good results. She doesn’t always fall asleep but she does get to cuddle while I can go about my work. Bending down can cause the Hip Baby to get shifted. But it’s easy enough to reshift it back into place while my daughter’s still in it. Unlike my old Snugli, the skid-free shoulder strap stays in place so I don’t suddenly feel like my daughter’s going to fall out even when the carrier shifts.
Often at night, my daughter, who refuses to concede that she’s tired, will cling to me and want me to hold her. The Hip Baby allows me to do that hands free. She’s often too fussy at that point for the carrier, but once I get her in there, she relaxes.
A HAPPY BABY MEANS A HAPPY MOMMY
No matter how much I like the Hip Baby, the real bottom line was finding out how my daughter liked it. So far, so good. She does sometimes get bored of it after about a half hour and asks me to “get out.” But she happily goes into it at least once a day. She even asks for it. This from a girl who hasn't been in a carrier for about a year.
HOW HIP IS DADDY?
Though my husband’s an athletic big guy who adores our daughter, he’s always had a hard time carrying her. I guess he hasn’t developed the right muscles for extended baby carrying. That’s a mommy thing. Generally, if we’re out, I’ll carry her because he’ll take her for five minutes and then complain. So I was really curious to see if the Hip Baby would work for him.
He got a chance to use it last weekend. We went to a show and then walked around town afterward. He agreed to wear the Hip Baby while we strolled. Other than the initial confused look when he held it up in front of him (he was holding it upside down), he had little problem using this carrier. The medium size I ordered fit him well. One of the straps needed to be pulled almost entirely out while another one still had quite a bit of give. He was able to get our daughter into it, walk around for about 15 minutes, and didn’t complain once. In fact, he commented that he liked it and would use it again. He only had two qualms/observations. One was that he felt he’d be more comfortable with the Hip Baby rotated a bit toward the front (the same observation I made when I first used it). The other was that he worried that the top of the seat was digging into our daughter's back. While she's never complained, it does look like it could irritate her. He wanted some sort of padding there. Personally, I think that would make the carrier kind of bulky.
My husband also mentioned that he’d like to be able to wear the Hip Baby on either shoulder so that he could use it for an extended period. I believe this carrier can be used on the right hip as well, but it needs to be turned inside out. The literature that came with it mentioned a newer 2007 model that will make it easier to wear on either hip. It actually can also be used on the back, but I never tried that.
In addition to having my husband test out this carrier over the weekend, I also got a chance to carry it around with me for a few hours when it wasn’t in use. That’s been a concern of mine from the first time I used a baby carrier: how to tote the carrier without it getting in my way? I was happy that I was able to cram the carrier into our compact-sized diaper bag and pull it out without it being deformed. This carrier is very lightweight and did come packaged in a clear plastic, drawstring bag, but being able to shove it into my tiny diaper bag (about 12 inches in length) was really great.
WASH AND CARE
I’ve run the Hip Baby through the wash once and it looks as good as new. I hope that holds true after many washes and I think it will because of the high quality of the materials. The wash instructions are stitched onto the waist belt and are very simple: “machine wash cold separately” and “drip dry.” I actually threw it into the wash with my daughter’s clothing in the cold cycle. It came out of the wash damp, but almost dry. So I left it hanging on my towel rack for several hours.
OVERALL
I’m so glad I gave carriers another chance. I didn’t think there was one that I could use with my 30 lb. toddler but this one has been a success.
Disclaimer: I received the Hip Baby free of charge from the manufacturer in exchange for my honest opinion.
www.walkingrockfarm.com
866-635-2140
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): see review
Age Range of Child: 12 to 36 Months
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