Why We Need a Baby Carrier Industry Alliance
When there are deaths associated with a crib, the crib is recalled. When there are deaths associated with a product that is outside of the comfort zone of the mainstream, an entire industry takes the hit.
Infantino designed “bag slings” that were unsafe, and which managed to lose most of the benefits associated with babywearing by slinging the babies down by the hip like an accessory, rather than making them the center of your world tight against your chest and in your line of vision.
When the Infantino bag slings in question were recalled, strangers began warning me that I was endangering my baby when I wore her in the grocery store, on a walk, or at the park. Well meaning advice, I’m sure, but it illustrates the problem. The recall threw babywearing into a bad–a deadly–light. So much so that one of the oldest, best, and most popular brands of SAFE, COMFY, BEAUTIFUL mom-designed baby carriers is off the market. Hotslings has officially closed its doors, not due to any fault in its products, but because of that misunderstanding that could lump such disparate carriers as the bag sling and the pouch carrier into one, harmful, category.
With Infantino taking the lead on creating industry standards, every other good baby carrier is in jeapardy of becoming illegal. Infantino has no concept of what contributes to safe babywearing or the benefits that can be derived from it.
And that is when the Baby Carrier Industry Alliance (BCIA) was formed by the mothers and fathers behind some of the most innovative and well-loved baby carriers available, to set the standards for babywearing devices before the companies that are home-based, and which started out home-based (like Hotslings) can be edged out of the market leaving us with such slim pickings as you can find at your local BabiesRUs store . . .
If we let Infantino run this show, parents’ choices in the United States will narrow to Infantino style carriers. We can do better, our babies deserve better. This organization can save lives.
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