CANVAS CARRIERS FOR BABIES

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25253, 4 August 1947, Page 2

CANVAS CARRIERS FOR BABIES

METHOD POPULAR IN AUSTRALIA

Canvas seats, attached to shoulder slings, for carrying babies, are an every-day feature of city life in Australia where prams have not been permitted on trams for some years. Few have yet been seen in New Zealand. The ordinary canvas carrier is not recommended for young infants, as it does not give enough support for an infant’s back or head, but ingenious people are producing improved designs which give all the support necessary for young unformed muscles. Now some of the newer types have supporting straps and stiffeners, with high sides and footrests, and one recent model even boasts of a hood, and a frame which can be adjusted so that the baby can sit upright or lie down without either mother or child suffering undue strain. These baby-carriers are a modern adaptation of an old device, says an Australian writer. The idea of having some means of carrying a baby so that the weight is taken on the shoulders and the mother’s hands are left free, is ages old. The earliest baby carriers consisted of fabric bindings which enabled mothers to shoulder their babies while they performed manual work in the fields. For safety’s sake young children accompanied their mothers who, as hewers of wood and drawers of water, needed to have their arms and hands free.

In one respect these old devices were superior to the modern adaptation, for the binding or swathing gave a very young child the support it needed.