The New Parenting Club

BABY PRODUCT REVIEW
By Dalit Fine, MS.
Name of the Product: Ergo baby carrier
Description of Product: This is a piece of baby equipment I would not do without. There comes a point with the sling, when baby is so heavy he pulls on your neck and shoulders.
It’s time to switch to an ERGO baby carrier.
It is a lightweight carrier made out of denim that buckles around the hips allowing you to carry a baby or older child (up to 5 years old) on your back or in the front. An additional buckle around the chest provides additional safety. A flap behind baby’s back can be velcroed through two loops to support the head if baby falls asleep. ERGO carriers come in a variety of colors and currently sell for around $100.00. They are worth every penny.
The ERGO Baby Carrier’s ergonomic design supports a correct sitting position for the baby’s hip, pelvis and spine growth. It disperses most of the baby’s weight between the hips and thighs, which help to eliminate any pressure points and hip strain which other carriers can cause. The ERGO also balances the baby’s weight to parents’ hips and shoulders, and alleviates physical stress for the parent.
You can also get ant Infant Insert- The design encourages healthy maturation of the spine by supporting the pelvis, hip joint, and leg position rather than putting a baby in a compromising sitting position before the spine is ready. The ERGO baby Infant Insert also supports the safety of the baby’s head and neck in this critical stage of development.
What do you like about the product? ERGO carriers are designed to put the baby’s weight squarely on the mother or father’s hips. This relieves back and shoulder strain and makes the baby feel light. There is no backpack frames, so the carrier is compact and can be easily packed in a bag for travel or just thrown into the car. The material is incredibly sturdy so there is no question about it being able to hold a heavier baby. My ERGO carrier has been a lifesaver for me when running errands with my child as he got older and heavier and still wanted at times to be on mommy. Around the house I can hold my son on my back when he wants to be held while I must be doing something else. It’s washable and dries overnight on a line.
What do you dislike about it (if applicable)? It’s important to make sure baby is all the way inside the carrier or he’s not as stable on my back. Sometimes that is difficult for whatever reason. I jiggle the baby around to make sure he’s in and that does the trick, but this is a concern to be aware of each time baby is put in the carrier.
I use the carrier mostly as a front carrier because I like to make eye contact. The important thing for front carrying is to buckle low around the hips. Baby can even nurse in that position. Also, you can buy an infant insert for carrying a really young baby, but I’ve just stuck with a sling for that.
The only thing I don’t like about my ERGO carrier is that it doesn’t come equipped with an alarm to keep me from forgetting it as I’m packing up to run errands. I’ve forgotten it a few times when I’ve had several places to stop and I sure have missed it. Can product be purchased online? Yes. Where? www.ergocarrier.com .

TIME AND THE SOUL
It is necessary to realize that technology itself is not the cause of our problem of [not having enough] time. Its influence on our lives is a result, not a cause — the result of an unseen accelerating process taking place in ourselves, in our inner being. Whether we point to the effect of communication technology (such as e-mail) with its tyranny of instant communication; or to the computerization, and therefore the mentalization of so many human activities that previously required at least some participation of our physical presence; or to any of the other innumerable transformations of human life that are being brought about by the new technologies, the essential element to recognize is how much of what we call “progress” is accompanied by and measured by the fact that human beings need less and less conscious attention to perform their activities and lead their lives.
The real power of the faculty of attention, unknown to modern science, is one of the indispensable and most central measures of humanness — of the being of a man or a woman — and has been so understood, in many forms and symbols, at the heart of all great spiritual teaching of the world. The effects of advancing technology, for all its material promise they offer the world (along with the dangers, of course) is but the most recent wave in a civilization that, without recognizing what it was doing, has placed the satisfaction of desire above the cultivation of being.
The deep meaning of many rules of conduct and the principles of the past — so many of which have been abandoned without our understanding their real roots in human nature — involved the cultivation and development of the uniquely human power of attention and its action in the body, heart and mind of man. To be present, truly present, is to have conscious attention. This capacity is the key to what it means to be human.
It is not, therefore, the rapidity of change as such that is the source of our problem of time. It is the metaphysical fact that the being of man is diminishing.

–Jacob Needleman, in Time and the Soul