Ring Slings. Love Them or Hate Them?

Alright, so I got the idea for title of this post from one of my local babywearing leaders. She makes me laugh. She buys ring slings and within two weeks will sell them because she doesn't like them. But I have to get her credit for continuing to try.

Anatomy of a Ring Sling

Ring slings are great for quick in and out carries, and can be used from newborn to toddlerhood. Ring slings are basically a piece of fabric between 65 and 80 inches (typically) with rings sewn into one end. There are about as many styles of sling shoulders as there are sling makers. The most popular are pleated (Sleeping Baby Productions' knife pleats are by far the most popular), gathered, eetsi (a hybrid of pleated and gathered), and Highland box pleat (like the ones done by Oscha). Most slings are made with high quality rings made by a company called SlingRings. These are tested up to like 200 lbs, and are all one piece of either aluminum or nylon, so there is nothing to snag the sling or scratch baby. You thread the loose end of the sling (or tail) through the rings like a buckle, and then slip it over your shoulder so that it drapes similar to a beauty pageant ribbon. You then slide baby into the cradle formed at your hip, and pull it tight. The tension of the baby's weight in the sling prevents the fabric from sliding back out of the rings. Ring slings are great because they can adjust easily for different sizes of wearers and or babies.

Below are some pictures of different types of shoulders and different ring slings. I've also linked a video I did explaining how to use a ring sling (sorry, this was before my hubby made me an awesome place to do videos, but it's pretty decent).

Ring Sling video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=406FlDMsWgg


This is an eetsi shoulder. This is the hybrid shoulder: there are two small pleats on either end, and then it's gathered in the middle. It spreads out fairly well when you're wearing it, but doesn't go as far as the gathered.

This is a gathered shoulder. The fabric is pulled through the rings and then sewn without any pleating. This allows the shoulder to spread out nice and wide...great for daddies because it can accommodate their larger frames well.

Here are a couple examples of the knife pleat shoulders, similar to those done by Sleeping Baby Productions (SBP). Note how the pleats are the same size and evenly spaced across the rings. This shoulder tends to spread out a lot less than either the eetsi or the gathered shoulder, and is a favorite for mamas with smaller frames for that reason.