The Ultimate Baby Wrap Is Still Just a Wrap
Written: Nov 06 '09 (Updated Nov 06 '09)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: comfortable, one size fits all for grown-ups, several positions, washable
Cons: my big kids stretched the material after 3 months, some hard positions, not dryer safe
The Bottom Line: When is a wrap just a wrap? Always.
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| jeavinl's Full Review: Ultimate Baby Wrap |
When I had my daughter, almost five years ago, I wanted to be prepared. I asked for a little bit of everything on my baby shower registry and ended up getting a lot of the things I wanted. This Ultimate Baby Wrap was something that I'd read good reviews about and thought I'd try. Five years and two kids later and it's hardly gotten any use.
The Ultimate Baby Wrap is a large stretch of jersey cotton material that can be worn in one of five ways to carry a child from newborn stage up to 35 lbs. It can be worn so that baby is riding on your hip, back, forward facing, tummy to tummy, or in a nursing position. An instructional video is included in the box. Mine came with a VHS tape but Quicktime and Flash videos are available on the manufacturer's Web site: parentsofinvention.com. The Ultimate Baby Wrap sells for about $40 and is available in neutral colors. Mine is navy blue. But I believe it's also available in gray.
Although this wrap is said to be able to hold children up to 35 lbs, I couldn't use it once my kids hit about 12-15 lbs. My kids were both born big (8 and 9 lbs and about 22 inches long) and once they started holding up their heads and squirming, they were able to throw their weight around and stretch the wrap. Since the material is 95% cotton with a touch of Lycra, it can pretty easily loosen. No matter how snugly I wrapped it around me and my baby, my hefty kids were mobile and managed to kick around and loosen the material. Forget about bending while wearing this thing! Sit down and suddenly the material is bunching up and baby's hanging crookedly. The only way to adjust is to unwrap and rewrap. Ugh!
The fact that this thing is like 30 feet long when stretched out (OK, not quite) means you can't exactly wrap baby up in a parking lot before a trek to stores or the park. The ends touch the ground and my arms got a workout wrapping it around. Perhaps there's a learning curve I fell off of but I couldn't get it. And I tried. Really I did. Especially with my son.
The only positions I got to work were the tummy to tummy and the forward facing ones. Nursing was impossible. My son's legs were too long and his face was just not angled right in the wrap. To put baby on your back requires a second person, which defeats the point of putting baby in a carrier. If I had a second set of hands, they'd be holding my baby. The first time I used this wrap, I didn't watch the video and just followed the instructions on the box. I did watch the video as a refresher before I used this wrap when my son was born. It's detailed and helpful and worth a viewing. The wrap is not hard to use, just tedious to put on, especially if you need to readjust.
The Ultimate Baby Wrap has a front pocket and comes with its own pouch and doesn't require any buckles or snaps or anything. So it's comfortable. I have to admit, when I did use this wrap, it didn't hurt my back or shoulders like my Snugli did. The fact that it doesn't require any buckles means it's one size fits all so even Daddy can wear this, though he never had the patience for it.
The wrap can be machine washed in cold water but must be line dried. It wrinkles up in the dryer.
This was far from my favorite baby equipment. It was cumbersome to use, my kids didn't fit in it for long (3 months), and it was hard to use when I was out. This was the only wrap I tried. Personally, I found carriers like the Snugli and slings to be easier to use.
Had I planned it, I wouldn’t have been able to write a review that is exactly 666 words long. Thank you jurgrace for noticing and for cohosting, along with jenniferkateab, this year's Lean-n-Mean write-off.
Recommended:
No
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