A collaboration on baby carriers has been established between Learn to Move and Runa Gustafsson, a psychologist who also works with body therapy Runa’s knowledge of the body, posture, and balance has naturally led her to observe children in baby carriers She has observed children and also the adult’s bodily movements when carrying the child. The adult’s movement patterns and their significance for the child are seldom addressed in facts about baby carriers and slings.
Read Runa’s wise thoughts on the effects of adult movement patterns on the child’s development:
How We Use Baby Carriers
When an adult carries a small child in a baby carrier, a complex movement pattern is underway. We need to pay attention to how this occurs as it has a significant impact on the child’s development. First, some background to begin with.
Background Introduction
Various thoughts, needs, and motivations lie behind parents’ choice to carry a child in a baby carrier, including the desire for physical closeness with their child and to develop a positive attachment. Another desire may be to have hands-free while carrying the child. There are different models of baby carriers on the market, including models where the child can be carried facing forward, i.e., the child’s face is outward without eye contact with their parent. Some parents choose to avoid this option because they wish to have eye contact with their child and also to protect the child from excessive visual stimuli. Articles about baby carriers that can be found online mainly focus on the ergonomics of the carrier, the discussion of whether or not to have eye contact, and the positive effects of using the carrier.
Some articles emphasize the importance of correctly using the child’s legs and hips in the carrier and clarify how the child’s legs should not hang straight down but should be in an M-position to promote hip health and the child’s developmental process, thereby avoiding hip instability. Centering the child in the carrier is emphasized. Several articles warn against having the child facing forward where they are leaning forward and the center of gravity is on the front pelvis, on the pubic bones, instead of on the sitting bones (ischial tuberosities).
There are articles and blog posts that highlight the importance of seeing one’s child, and especially that the child can see their parent for support, security, and validation. A small child hanging in a carrier and facing forward is not only subjected to an unnatural posture but also to intense visual stimulation. If this occurs in a stressful chaotic environment, the child cannot defend themselves. We adults can walk away if it becomes too burdensome.
Communication and Development
In 2011, Swedish television highlighted a scientific study by Suzanne Zeedyk on the importance of placing children in a rear-facing stroller, where the child and the parent can see each other. The study describes how this position promotes the child’s communicative skills and linguistic development. Through eye contact between the child and the parent, they can share experiences in their nonverbal and verbal communication, and the child receives help in interpreting internal and external stimuli. The child receives confirmation. This position does not prevent the child from seeing and experiencing the surroundings. The child can alternate between being able to see the parent and observing the surrounding environment. The key is the parent’s presence and attention. Moreover, this position allows the parent to more easily perceive their child and respond to the child’s expressions and behaviors, creating more security. It is easier to comfort and support one’s child through eye contact.
Furthermore, through eye contact, it is easier to see when something is happening, such as being able to see when a sleeping child is waking up, and as a parent, one can meet the child’s gaze and perceive the child’s condition, and respond to the child.
A significant dimension is missing
When it comes to articles and marketing that highlight baby carriers, I find a dimension that is missing. This dimension is essential and crucial for how the baby carrier can be used and how it affects the child. It is the significance of the adult’s own bodily movements and how they move with the baby carrier and the child and how this movement pattern affects the effectiveness of the carrier, and its impact on the child.”
Unfortunately, I have noticed that there are parents who use the carrier in a way that risks a negative development for the child. I have observed signs of stress reactions in children, and parents do not seem to be aware of how the physical and psychological interaction between them and the child can affect the child’s motor development and sense of security. Here, I will try to explain what I have observed and how I reflect on it, based on my theoretical and practical knowledge and clinical experience as a psychologist, body-oriented psychotherapist, and Rolfer®.
Movement patterns – and their various dimensions
Several factors are important to consider when using a baby carrier. If, as a parent, you move stressfully, clumsily, quickly, jerkily, or with a swaying gait, it leads to initiating movement forces that cause the child’s legs and arms to move (rapidly) in different directions, which means that a force and stress move towards the child’s body, usually centrally towards the hips and spine, and it can become too forceful and difficult for the child to handle. The child may defend or protect themselves by resisting or tensing in various places inside the body to handle the stresses. There are children who hang “crooked” in the carrier (sometimes almost diagonally), making it more difficult, difficult, or impossible for the child to focus their eyes and head in a centered manner.
Walking less smoothly and not paying attention to how the child’s head is positioned and moving can put a great strain on the neck, with the risk of serious injuries or neck problems as a result, now and in the future. I have seen how children lie with their heads backward or to the side while the adult moves harshly and rhythmically. It can become a kind of shaking violence on the child’s neck and spine. The shaking can occur sideways or vertically (like bumps up and down), depending on how the adult moves. I have seen situations where the child’s neck could be broken. The small child becomes vulnerable and exposed in this position. I have seen children collapse, give up.
Most of us adults know how awkward and uncomfortable it can feel to dance with someone on a dance floor where it doesn’t feel good to dance with. Perhaps we step on each other’s toes and experience an unharmonious interaction, and within us, we wish the dance would soon end so that we can leave the floor. The small child cannot opt out; the child must endure, and one way to do so if stresses become too strong is to shield off. If this mechanism occurs frequently and for a longer period, it can lead to symptoms of stress and imbalance in the nervous system. I have seen children’s eyes and gaze be restless and tense, signs of stress in the autonomic nervous system.
Hands that embrace
Another important dimension to consider is not using a baby carrier instead of your hands. It is valuable to tenderly hold your little child with your hands or with one hand to support the child, embrace the child so that they can feel safe and experience the presence of the adult. The baby carrier should not replace hands and human holding. Instead, it can serve as relief for the adult, perhaps to make it easier to carry in terms of weight. Considering the carrier as a practical accessory where the child can simply hang freely while you do other things poses the risk of not being attentive to the child’s bodily position. Even a hand on or around the carrier is significant for the parent, to thereby receive more direct feedback from the child’s body. The early phase in a child’s life is built on feeling security and care, being able to rest safely in someone’s arms, and in this, develop based on their conditions, to develop in this embrace in their natural curiosity and playfulness. If the child feels insecure due to strong forces on their own body, the child devotes time and focus to endure, or to survive and handle a strong strain.
Breathing
Common during stress is to hold one’s breath, or to breathe quickly and shallowly. The rhythm of breathing is affected, and this can be perceived by the child. One can describe the interaction between the child’s body and the parent’s body as a kind of communicative dance, where the child experiences the parent’s outer and inner states so directly and nakedly. If the parent is stressed, moves stressfully, and is more focused on something other than being present with their child in the carrier, the child experiences this quality in a non-verbal way. The parent’s own bodily state is transferred to the child. The early phase in the interaction between the child and the adult is fundamental for the child’s development. It affects the child’s motor skills, emotional, psychological, cognitive, and linguistic development.
Development of balance
When using a baby carrier, one should consider that the child’s sense of center of gravity in their body and in relation to the effects of gravity in the gravitational field changes and becomes complicated. This ability to find one’s inner balance, mobility, and stability is a foundation for good posture and function – even before the child learns to walk. From birth and the first months, the child is deeply involved in developing their balance, such as developing balance reactions in all directions and fine-tuning balance.
Ergonomics
As mentioned earlier, articles online and marketing of baby carriers often focus on the concept of ergonomics. There are beliefs in the market about ergonomics and the child’s body that need to be questioned and discussed. In conversations with pediatric physiotherapist Ulrika Myhr, we have discussed the perspectives on ergonomics that appear online and on manufacturers’ websites, and reflected on how the function of the baby carrier can be developed to promote the child’s natural development. I refer to Ulrika Myhr’s article “Perspectives on and Reflections on Baby Carrier Ergonomics and Child Motor Development” with a brief summary of perspectives on baby carriers and ergonomics, see link.
When it comes to baby carriers and ergonomics, there is a need for scientifically independent research on how the construction of the carrier affects the child’s physique and motor development, but also on how parents’ movement patterns affect the child, and how interaction can occur and develop when using a baby carrier.
Ergonomics and movement
As I now highlight perspectives on ergonomics regarding the child’s position in a baby carrier, it is essential to emphasize how ergonomic the carrier’s structure and technique may be, the importance of being aware of how you move with the child in the carrier remains How the parent’s own bodily movements affect the child and the interaction between them. This dimension must be central in its use.
The child’s development is an interplay between the child’s own abilities, the tasks the child receives, and the environment the child is in. Gravity and its field are an invisible force we often overlook, but its effects are very much present and alive when both the child and the adult move together. Even subtle signals are important in the child’s orientation towards staying upright and in interpreting internal and external signals. Here, we do not scientifically know how stresses in the form of movements affect the child’s ability and capacity Some children may cope with this, others may not. But I know that pediatric physiotherapists are increasingly seeing serious neck problems in small children. These problems may also be related to the use of a baby carrier with a negative movement pattern. Stressful movement patterns, therefore, constitute a risk factor.
With this article, I want to draw attention to the risks of not being attentive to the interaction between the parent and the child when using a baby carrier in motion. Becoming more aware of one’s own body’s condition and movement patterns is an important starting point for developing and promoting the child’s motor function and physical self-esteem.
Recommendations: Simple Guidelines
Here, I recommend some important simple guidelines to promote and develop a positive body awareness and movement pattern in adults who wish to use a baby carrier:
- – Slow down, walk more slowly, softer
- – Remember to breathe without stress
- – Hold your child gently with your hands or with one hand, as primary support and holding
- – Be aware that your body awareness and movement patterns matter when using a baby carrier
- – Maintain eye contact for mutual communication
In conclusion, I want to emphasize the need for independent research on the effects of baby carrier use, both in the short and long term. According to reports, there is no research on baby carriers and the interaction between parents and children in a baby carrier. But until we obtain more scientific knowledge about the possibilities and risks of baby carrier use, based on my observations and clinical knowledge of bodily structure and posture, I emphasize the attention to movement patterns and their importance in the interaction between the child in the baby carrier and parents. This is to minimize harmful risks and instead promote positive development.
I suggest that manufacturers, in their marketing and user manuals, clearly emphasize and clarify this dimension. A salesperson in a store knowledgeable about baby carriers once said, “It’s just about putting your child in a baby carrier.” It’s not just about putting a child in a baby carrier. It’s a dynamic, complex movement pattern that occurs during motion and must be recognized as it affects the child’s well-being and development.
Stockholm August 29 2017
Runa Gustafsson
Licensed Psychologist, Licensed Psychotherapist
Certified Advanced Rolfer®
Runa Gustafsson has extensive clinical experience as a psychologist and psychotherapist, specializing in psychosomatics and the interaction between body and mind. Her knowledge and experience regarding early traumas and tension patterns in the body and mind are relevant to this article. Previously, within the county council, Runa Gustafsson worked as a child and family psychologist, focusing on language and communication development. As a Rolfer, she has extensive experience in how individuals’ early bodily tension and movement patterns shape their physical posture and balance, including their myofascial system, movement patterns, nervous system, and emotional development. Runa Gustafsson practices at her private clinic in central Stockholm.