Before I had my first (and only, so far) child, I thought that I would love to have a infant carrier. (Picture a beautiful Super-Mom, looking a bit like Cindy Crawford, waltzing gracefully down the Wal-Mart isle, with her sleeping infant snuggled contentedly in her Kelty Carrier...) So of course I was thrilled to receive the Kelty Infant Carrier by LL Bean as a shower gift. However, this carrier came with no instructions for use. I eventually figured out all of the straps and buckles. I was also able to find the instructions on the Kelty website so that I could learn how to adjust the fit and how to wash the carrier.

The carrier consists of two parts: the harness and the pouch.

The pouch is shaped roughly like an hourglass. The bottom half of the pouch folds up between the baby’s legs and the tabs wrap around the baby’s sides to Velcro to the outward facing side of the pouch (more on this Velcro later...). There is also a set of adjustable straps that wrap around from the outward facing side of the pouch to the inward facing side.

The harness consists of a waistbelt that is about four inches wide. There are adjustable straps on the waistbelt and when fully extended the belt appears to be able to accommodate waistlines of over 60". The ends of the waistbelt have buckles that attach on the inward facing side of the pouch. There is a triangle of nylon mesh webbing material that lies across the small of your back. The top point of this triangle connects to an adjustable strap. This strap leads up to a “V” shaped piece of material that sits behind your neck and extends down over each shoulder. There are two sets of adjustable straps that come off the ends of the shoulder harness. One set of straps buckles into the outward facing side of the pouch, approximately at the baby’s shoulders. The other set of straps goes down under your arms to attach to the waistbelt.

The following italicized text is from the instruction pages:
PUTTING ON THE HARNESS
Place your arms through the elastic armholes of the harness just as you would put on a vest. Make sure the soft black fabric is toward your body and that the colored nylon is on the outside. Check to make sure that the shoulder straps with the small buckles are at your waist. Easy enough if you can figure out what they mean by “elastic armholes”. Actually what they mean is the area under the shoulder straps, above the strap that goes from there to the belt, and on either side of the mesh webbing.

SECURING YOUR CHILD IN THE POUCH
Place the pouch on a stable flat surface with the buckles on the outside. Lay your child on the pouch with your child’s head at the same end as the padded head support. Lift the bottom portion of the pouch between your child’s legs as though you were putting on a diaper, Wrap the tabs around each side to fasten the Velcro around the back of the pouch. Fasten the side straps firmly around the child so that he/she is held in place snugly yet comfortably. The Velcro tabs alone are not enough to hold your baby in the pouch - you must also fasten the side strap buckles. This is a major understatement. The Velcro hardly reaches all of the way around, let alone getting enough contact to hold any significant weight.

ATTACHING THE POUCH IN THE HARNESS
Lift the baby into the pouch with the baby facing toward you. While cradling the baby against you with one arm, fasten the shoulder strap attachment buckles on each side. Once both shoulder strap attachment buckles are secured, fasten the waistbelt attachment buckles on each side. Easy enough to do, but it would be much easier if you had a third arm. Or at least help from a friend.

ADJUSTING THE FIT OF THE CARRIER
The harness system is designed to take much of the child’s weight off your neck and shoulders, and shift it down to your waist and hips. This is precisely where the whole concept falls apart. No matter how much adjusting and re-arranging you attempt, the weight of the baby and the carrier rests firmly on the base of your neck. And it rubs when you move. After the buckles have been engaged, position the waistbelt in a comfortable place on your hips. Tighten the waistbelt first and then secondly, the shoulder straps. Adjustment in this sequence will provide for the best fit. But of course, don’t forget the strap that is running up the middle of your back. Tightening this strap seems to be the only way to relieve the pressure on your neck. But you cannot adjust this strap with the carrier on. Even if you have someone else to help you. Everything has to be removed, including the baby, and adjusted. Then you put the whole thing back on, and if it still doesn’t fit right, you take it all back off again. And try to do all of this without annoying the baby.

FACING YOUR CHILD FORWARD
Your carrier also provides you with a second carrying option: you can face your child forward in the pouch. Assuming you haven’t thrown the entire carrier in the trash yet. The harness and pouch must be on and completely adjusted before lifting your baby into the pouch. Upon completing the above, carefully slide your child’s legs into the pouch. Once your baby is comfortable and secure inside the carrier, you can fold back the padded head support and fasten down securely. Or just leave it up and let your baby play peek-a-boo with passing strangers.

CARE AND CLEANING
Your carrier is machine washable. Wash separately from clothes or other articles. Machine wash in cold water on the gentle (handwash) setting. Do not use bleach or liquid detergent. Hang dry. Great! As if you don’t have enough loads of laundry to do with an infant in the house. Now you have something that has to be washed all by itself.

Infants can be carried in this carrier from 3 weeks up until they reach 6 to 9 months or about 28 pounds. At the time when your child is able to support his/her head, he/she should be carried in a Kelty K.I.D.S. backpack-style child carrier. Yikes. I would hate to see the instructions on one of those!

Each time before using the carrier, check its general condition. Make sure that fastners are in good working order and that the fabric and webbing are not damaged. Good advice.


The other participants of the Great American Re-write Off are: 1truluv, adjensen, arada392, bermudabum, bmcnichol, cartman_2k, ChrisJarmick, colldy, ed_grover, eplovejoy, fallyn96, jankp, jo.com, joubert, korova, lynnzop, machkick, magenta321, msmorvay, naphtalia, nfp, proeditor, quasar, saxguy, scmrak, sloucho, Social14, and tinasamuels. Please check out their re-write efforts. You can find links to all of the Re-Write off reviews at http://www.epinions.com/user-eplovejoy .

And because scmrak said that we had to include this, here is a copy of my original review:

I received this as a shower gift and it was something that I wanted, so I kept it in spite of my disappointment. It came from L.L.Bean, but there were absolutely no instructions included. I tried to contact L.L.Bean to get additional information, but I never received a response from them. For this reason, I was never completely comfortable using the carrier.
Also the material is stiff, not something cozy and comfy that you would want for your new baby.
The weight rating on this claims that it will hold a child up to 25lbs, but when I put my 20lb daughter in it, the carrier looked like it was going to give way at any moment. I wouldn't trust it with a baby over 15lbs.

Recommended: No

Amount Paid (US$): gift
Age Range of Child: 0 to 12 Months