Product Review: Ergo Carrier

First, a tangent on the Chinese Mei Tai, illustrated in the pics below.



I saw many women in Chinatown carrying their babies in these carriers, and our daycare provider had loaned me hers when I forgot the Bjorn one day. When you forget your baby carrier as often as I do, the idea of a cheap, portable carrier to keep at the bottom of your 'purse' is very attractive. I saw a few online for as much as $90 plus tax and shipping. Assuming that the Chinatown women were not paying over $100 for their simple cotton Mei Tais, I searched the shops on Stockton Street.

My search was pretty futile and I lost interest until a couple days before the Asia trip. After reading several reviews which made it sound like the Ergo was the best innovation since sliced bread, I decided to buy one.

The Ergo is based on the Mei Tai concept. In place of the straps are wide and heavily padded backpack straps at the waist and for the shoulders. The concept is that the wide straps help distribute the baby's weight to your hips and trunk (rather than your back, as on a Bjorn)

The Ergo did work out pretty well.
1) Olivia enjoyed being close to me,

2) it was much easier for me to carry her in the Ergo that with our framed backpack carrier.

3) It was reasonably portable, much easier to bring into a restaurant than our large framed backpack carrier.

But for me, it didn't live up to it's hype. Maybe all those mothers out there raised my expectations too high. There were a few things that were funky about it.

1) It feels a little challenging getting the baby in the back position. You need to hold the baby on your back (like your giving her a piggyback ride) while simutaneously slipping your arms through the straps.

2) When front carrying the baby, there's a fastener is in approximately the same location as the spot you miss when applying sunscreen to your back. Maybe this is the real reason why pregnant women should do pre-natal yoga. It was a pain to fasten the straps, so I just left them unfastened most of the time. But this requires having your hands free to pull the straps back up when they start slipping. Not very easy when carrying 2 grocery bags.

3) The padding probably does help distribute the weight, but it compromises the portability of the product (it's about the size of a shoebox when rolled up.)

4) The design is a little hippie dippy. I'm not exactly a fashion plate, but I imagine that the design would not appeal to more stylish women.

Someone else must have had the same issues I had with the Ergo and come up with something they call the 'Beco' carrier:

http://www.theportablebaby.com/beco_vs_ergo.html

Although I can't speak from personal experience, hypothetically the Ergo or Beco carrier seems to be a better choice from day one than spending tons of money buying multiple carriers (sling, a Bjorn, backpack...) It also goes to show that you should never take baby gear advice from a guy who had his last kid 11 years ago. Innovation is a continuous process. And kids are different -- some kids love the sling, others hate it. And parents are different too.