Best Seat Challenge for International Babywearing Week 2016!

Starting Wednesday, October 5th, it’s the Best Seat Challenge for International Babywearing Week 2016!! The theme of this year's IBW celebration is “Best Seat in the House” so we’re focusing this challenge on SEATS!

This challenge will work a little differently than our usual challenges. Each day we’ll have a prompt and YOU get to pick the carry that best fulfills the prompt for you. We’ll have ideas and topics for discussion each morning to get you going for that day.

Join via the Babywearing Challenge group on Facebook or share photos on Instagram with the #bestseatchallenge tag!

Day One: Seat fundamentals, front

Today our focus is front seat fundamentals to kick off the start of International Babywearing Week 2016! Tutorials are linked below to help explain ideal seats and there's also a gallery with some info graphics about optimal seats for babywearing. Throughout the videos and graphics you’ll find themes reinforced for optimal seats: a seat is a lot like sitting on the edge of a hammock as fabric is taut between baby’s knees, it lifts the knees higher than bum (M position), and it creates a tilt to the pelvis that is optimal for baby’s comfort and development. While the fabric does reach from one of baby’s knees to the other, it doesn’t not extend any further so that baby can move freely from the knee.

While many find that tucking the fabric up high between them and baby helps to maintain the seat while tightening, it is not necessary for a finished seat. Any excess bunching that was tucked up should come out when tightening so that the fabric forms a straight and taut line from knee to knee.

Please feel free to post any photos throughout IBW 2016 that demonstrate a great seat in a front carry for you! Use the Babywearing Challenge group on Facebook or share photos on Instagram with #bestseatchallenge and #bestseatibw2016!

Video tutorials:

Day Two: Seat fundamentals, back

We have a couple more video tutorials for today, this time focusing on the fundamentals of good seats in a back carry. Mechanically, back carry seats need the same things as in the front: fabric forms a straight line between baby’s knees, knees are higher than bum, and baby’s pelvis tilts forward. What the focus is in back carries is HOW to make the seat - reaching UNDER baby’s knees and pulling fabric down smooth over baby’s back are two consistent key points.

Again like with front carries, there may be a need to tuck excess fabric between you and baby while making the seat. While tightening, make sure to get out all the slack (it will find you later if you don’t!) and finish up the seat with a taut bottom rail between baby’s knees.

Please feel free to post any photos throughout IBW 2016 that demonstrate a great seat in a front carry for you! Use the Babywearing Challenge group on Facebook or share photos on Instagram with #bestseatchallenge and #bestseatibw2016!

Video Tutorials:

Day Three: Carries with a deep seat

Now that we've spent a couple days on fundamentals, let's move into the big variable in seats: do you prefer a very deep seat? What are some of the advantages of a deep seat for you? Are there disadvantages? Do you feel that a deep seat helps prevent seat-popping? Is a deep seat helpful in carries that do not have a cross pass?

What carries lend themselves to a deeper seat? Some carries we find to work well with a pretty deep seat are…

Please feel free to post any photos throughout IBW 2016 that demonstrate a great seat in a front carry for you! Use the Babywearing Challenge group on Facebook or share photos on Instagram with #bestseatchallenge and #bestseatibw2016!

Day Four: Carries with a shallow seat

If you’ve wrapped your current wrappee from newborn to toddler, has your seat become more shallow over time? Stayed the same? What are some of the advantages or disadvantages of a shallow seat? Do carries with cross passes lend themselves to more shallow seats?

Some of our favorite carries that lend themselves to a more shallow seat are…

Please feel free to post any photos throughout IBW 2016 that demonstrate a great seat in a front carry for you! Use the Babywearing Challenge group on Facebook or share photos on Instagram with #bestseatchallenge and #bestseatibw2016!

Day Five: "Seatless" methods

What is a seatless carry?? It’s one where a traditional “seat” for a back carry isn’t made right at the beginning of the wrap job but rather the seat forms itself as the carry is being tied on.

​This might be better explained in video…

Please feel free to post any photos throughout IBW 2016 that demonstrate a great seat in a front carry for you! Use the Babywearing Challenge group on Facebook or share photos on Instagram with #bestseatchallenge and #bestseatibw2016!

Day Six: "Hammocked" seats

A “hammocked”  pass is a cross pass that is brought between the wearer and the child.  When doing a hammocked pass, the rails are switched so the old bottom rail becomes the new top rail.  This is easy to see on wraps that have different colored rails or have a right and wrong side.  

A hammocked cross pass can create a more symmetrical feeling carry and helps prevent seat popping more than a regular cross pass. A hammocked pass can be done whenever a cross pass or even a reinforcing pass is done.  

Video Tutorials:
Please feel free to post any photos throughout IBW 2016 that demonstrate a great seat in a front carry for you! Use the Babywearing Challenge group on Facebook or share photos on Instagram with #bestseatchallenge and #bestseatibw2016!
Thank you so much for participating in the challenge with us!!