When it comes to the Australian heat, baby sling fabrics are important

Australia is one really big spread of land.

There are climatic differences around the country, generally though, when our great Aussie summer hits, like it actually did this year....it's hot no matter where you live.


It's easy to add layers & rug up for the cold, but when you're down to just underwear, not much more can come off. It's important to keep baby & you cool too, especially when you're carrying them.


Bubba Moe Slings have always been very mindful of the heat factor, that's why we are so strict about the fabric we use.

The big difference between us and other brands is the fabric. Every print we use is specially selected to cater for the Aussie  heat, especially the top north end of Australia, where it's the hottest.

When it comes to searching for a baby carrier, the material it is made from is something that is often overlooked on the check list, unless you've had the previous unpleasant experience of a baby that has reacted to the synthetic carriers or overheated because the fabric was far too thick.

Really important to remember that when it comes to baby carriers & slings, they are like another layer of clothing on your baby.

100% cotton is always the best choice, but not all cottons are the best choice to use.
Many companies use Cotton Drill, which might be great for Europe, but far too thick for the Australian climate. A bit like wearing jeans on a summer's day, a bit sticky & sweaty.

We only use 100% lightweight aerated,  yet strong,  Supercale or Max cotton.

Supercale & Max cotton are like the Percale cotton used in good quality sheets, except it's a grade better; softer & cooler.

A set of real Supercale cotton sheets might cost you an arm, a leg & a small mortgage perhaps, but it's so worth the 'ahhhh' factor of bliss & comfort and the money invested.
There is nothing more heavenly than sliding into bed that has luxuriously soft sheets, and with Bubba Moe slings, baby gets that too.

Plus with these types of cottons, not only are they soft on baby's skin, they allow the air to move freely, which stops stale air from developing around baby.
Its a healthy mix all-round.

So when it comes to hot summer days, baby can be down to just wearing a nappy, when carrying them in the sling.

Enjoy wearing your baby this summer!

Hands Off The Baby

Do you ever feel like putting an invisible force field around your baby when out & about?

In particular – The Supermarket!

Ah! The ‘My Baby has far too many Fans” situation.

The peril of every parent who has a beautiful, gorgeous baby that draws attention like a bee to honey, which makes around 99% of the entire baby population. No wonder celebrities get narky at times.

The other day, waiting in line at Michel’s Patisserie (who make the best shopping mall Chai Latte by the way) 

I was playing Peek-a-boo with a fractious baby while mum was trying to order a birthday cake and some other delectable items.

There she was, looking so sweet, so adorable, sitting in a grocery filled shopping trolley…. I just couldn’t help myself. 

Actually I thought I was helping her mum, while I was locked in waiting for my own Chai.

Well, she had stopped crying and started giggling so I thought I was doing mum a favour in those few seconds, till she scolded me 

“CAN YOU STOP TALKING TO MY BABY!”

Oops. Gulp.

Red faced, grab now finished Chai, exit promptly, baby returns to crying.

 I was one baby entertainer too many for her mum that day.

OK, as parents we do enjoy the ego boast that comes with the compliments and the attention, why not? don’t we love our children?

But when its every aisle, every stop to study products, at the register, it does get too much, especially when it involves staving off wondering hands.

Elderly shoppers tend to be the worst in my experience, followed close by clucky women and the ‘grandparents in waiting’ crowd.

‘It may take a couple to make a child but it takes a village to raise the child’ primal instinct going on here, but do they have to suck on my baby’s first, just because she is so delicious they could eat her! Ewwwwwww!

I warrant that type of experience is a little too ghastly for words!

I encountered this when my first daughter was 3 months old. There she was laying on the baby seat of a shopping trolley, looking all things perfectly angelic, a full mane of little black ringlets, a pristine white frilly dress, I was gushing with all the maternal pride & deep joy I’m totally entitled to, when an elderly man stopped us in the bread aisle.

Nothing unusual, she had already developed a fan club following from the previous 4 aisles.

She had curled her little fist around his finger, smiling up at him; he started to kiss her little fingers then by surprise, started to suck on her hand. Um, Um, Um……. Excuse me mister,…..um……could you let go of my baby please…um sir…mister please…

“HANDS OFF THE BABY” even with that outburst,  I still had to  literally wrench them apart!

Up until that point I admit, I enjoyed people complimenting me on my beautiful, darling, drop dead gorgeous baby girl. She was!

However, I did feel uncomfortable when strangers proceeded to pinch her cheeks, pull at her toes (I thought leather moccasins might have stopped this from happening), poke her chest, play with her ringlets, rub her head, tap her nose (sometimes a tad too hard) or kiss her adorable arms. I also wanted to get my groceries done.

There were times I felt I needed to add ‘personal bodyguard’ to the growing list of parenting duties.

There seems to be no personal space when it comes to children.

By the sounds of it, most parents I’ve spoken to, can recount at least an ‘odd moment or few’ from their experiences.

I remember one mum in a our playgroup wanted to pin a sign on her baby’s chest “Nice to Look, Not Nice to hold” or “Warning – Baby bites”

I stopped placing my babies in the shopping trolley seat, or the pram and used my Bubba Moe sling permanently out in public.

When it comes to the effectiveness of adult personal space, Slings take on a wonderful subliminal brilliance!

An invisible cocoon shoots up when babies are carried in a sling. Strangers very rarely cross the line of adult personal space, which stops the ’I must touchy-feely the irresistible baby’ habit dead in its tracks.

I’ve often noticed a finger head towards a baby then stop as if repelled by some unseen force field!  Works every time!

Basically, if you want to stop all that uninvited physical attention that your superstar baby draws, carry your precious cargo in a sling.

In managing your baby’s public appearances, positioning is very important also.

The 2 positions I recommend for baby’s public engagement is the Lap & Hip Position.

There are specific reasons why!

Babies from around 6 months and hitting a peak at around 9 months of age, babies become very aware of familiar & unfamiliar faces.

Having a baby locked in a full frontal forward position (like most upright carriers) can be very intimidating for baby at this stage. Your baby can feel you, but cant quite see you fully and this can cause quite a lot of distress. Babies will, when socially distressed, ‘push’ their backs to their parent’s chest, turn their heads and almost force their cheeks to their parents, like a vertical stiff plank, before they start to cry. Crying is the last resort emotional resort.

This is why the Lap & Hip positions shown here, is the most developmental ideal.

Babies can still be chest to chest with their parent, yet still look forward as their confidence allows them at their own pace. So in strange & unfamiliar places, baby will turn to their parent’s chest for comfort before facing forward again. 

They seek reassurance from mum or dad that everything is ok.

If baby becomes too distressed or overwhelmed, a quick slide from the Hip or Lap position will have baby in the Snuggle hold (chest to chest) within a few short seconds with out having to remove baby from the sling.

Snuggle hold is often called the ‘comfort hold’. Unfortunately this quick manoeuvring can’t be achieved at all with stagnant or stationary uprights such as the Baby Bjorn or Ergo carriers, which means parents should consider their lifestyle when choosing a baby carrier that will suit them best.

If parent’s lifestyle involves lots of people congestion, such regularly using public transport or many social events, the benefit of using a hammock sling such as a Bubba Moe Sling would be an ideal choice.

Enjoy!

all photos either gratefully sourced from the web or from Bubba Moe's own gallery.

ACCC is not an authority on safety - a must read!!

What if you are in the market for a new car. You've done the research, you've thought about it and came up with a decision on a particular car. What if you read an article from an authority you believe is an expert on all things car related. This authority, this car expert steers you away from your decision, saying it's a bad choice, don't go near it. You decide on another type of car from the findings of this expert. What if, a few months down the track you discover that this expert doesn't know the difference between a motorcycle, a truck or even a station wagon. How would you feel? ripped off? angry perhaps? annoyed about being lied too? steaming at the ears because your original choice would have been perfect to suit your needs. What would you do? speak up?

I spent over an hour 2 weeks ago speaking with Tony Mintura from the ACCC, who released to the media that cloth slings are dangerous and shouldn't be used. A sort of Armageddon type statement that smacked of innuendo that if you put your baby in a sling it will die, it will suffocate instantly.
Yet no baby actually has. The first one last year was the famous 'hang the baby on the door knob' case.

OK I warrant that it was a 'bag style sling' that had 2 layers, elasticised opening and the baby was strapped to the bottom of the sling and hung off the door knob so the parents dogs couldn't get at the baby. It might have sounded like a good idea at the time but it became a fatal one. The elasticised opening closed up as a natural reaction, the dual layers of fabric stopped airflow and the baby was at the bottom of the bag carrier breathing in stale air. A mistake that can never be repaired.
Infantino recalled all of it's bag style carriers for review, while most of the industry had again repeated what they all thought when it first appeared on the market.....WTF! We all still do.

The ACCC went into fight mode and the newspapers said that if the ACCC have their way, all slings will be banned. Shock waves hit the industry, contacting the ACCC was harder than a needle in a hay stack, so emails were written, phones calls - all unanswered.

I saw more than 15 years of hard work, research, study, testing, go running out the door faster than my family when I offer Brussels Sprout Pie is for dinner.

Only those who are fans, didn't read the article, or tish-toshed the ACCC antics away that we are still here today.

Looking at the photo's in this blog, it looks nearly impossible on how a baby can suffocate. Rule of thumb with any product, you must be able to see baby's mouth at all times.

With the death of a 2 day old newborn baby in SA worn under the mother's jumper, the ACCC is at it again, trying to blame the death on slings. Most people will agree carrying a baby under a jumper without visible access to baby's mouth is never a clever idea, regardless of being in a sling or not.

The coroner handed down the judgement that the death was indeterminable, but the ACCC once again tried to focus the blame on a sling. The point is that with any type of suffocation, there is clear forensic evidence, such as cell & tissue damage, explaining it simply. This was not evident in the baby's autopsy.
Again we approached the ACCC with a 'please explain & why are you scaremongering the public!"

No answer again until I decided to follow protocol and make a complaint about the ACCC as a jeopardising monopoly, which by the way is illegal. The only government body who can approach in times like this is the ACCC. So the ACCC had to follow mandatory protocol and investigate itself.
My outcome - result! A phone call from the man himself, Tony Mintura, the expert on sling safety, except he doesn't know the difference between any of the different types of carriers on the market.

I'm not joking!!!!!!!! this man who made the statements, the press releases, doesn't even know the difference between a hammock style carrier, a parachute style, a wrap style or the dreaded bag style (ok most of us in the industry want to see this style go, because we are all in the know). I had to spend some time explaining how the different styles operate, the benefits, the whole kit & caboodle. I also asked him if he had ever used one, though I suspected the answer - no, "I just doesn't like them" he said.
This is the man that is trying to govern what you are allowed to use, like the car expert who knows nothing of cars.
Our industry was ever grateful to Kidsafe who immediately got on TV to feature how safe slings are.


What or who is the ACCC anyway? What do they do?
The ACCC was formed as a watchdog to protect businesses and consumers from pricing & practise monopolies.
They are not an authority on product safety.

Mostly this organisation was established as an outcome from the insidious dealings of the building industry, then became a protective blanket for all industries.
As one example, in our industry, some years ago, a private organization called INPAA, aka Industry Nursery Products Australia Association was formed as a regulatory group to list safe products that had undergone or met high safety standards, including legislative, such as car seats or non-legislative products, such as baby carriers etc.
Initially this non-government body was an ethical group determined to make Australian babies & children's products safe, but with a changing of the board of directors over the years, an insidious practise started to emerge.
Around 5 years ago, Bubba Moe Slings was the first to achieve product liability for soft baby carriers within Australia. I approached INPAA to become 'certified', and was rejected without any comment. Numerous phone calls were never returned and we at Bubba Moe were left scratching our heads as to why?
It wasn't till we were at a baby expo in Melbourne we were told the truth by another sling competitor who also had trouble gaining any entry into this elusive organisation. Having done some research herself, she found that another competitor of ours was one of the board of directors of INPAA, therefore any other soft baby carrier company would not be allowed a certificate of approval. Of course INPAA approached retailers to become a part of their group (retailers paying a hefty annual fee to display a sticker in the window) and then telling the retailers to clear their shelves of any non-INPAA products. A monopoly formed.
Many retailers bucked at the cost and the loss of some of their favourite products. It was a pram manufacturer (who wishes to remain anonymous) who found that another board member was also a pram manufacturer, that contacted the ACCC. This is were the ACCC is an authority. The board members were sacked, a new practice protocol was put into place under the guidance of ACCC, and we in the industry sighed a hefty sigh of relief.

For the record, Australian Standards & Kidsafe have never been in any association with the ill-fated INPAA. Though INPAA is still trading (eyebrows raised) it doesn't have any clout or bearing and most people don't even know of its existence. The former board members who eagerly wished the demise of their competitors all went out of business themselves (karma always bites back)

The strange thing is that why is ACCC getting involved? They along with the ABA (Australian Breast Feeding Association) are trying to set a standard on baby carriers personally. I feel that this is INPAA revisited all over again. ABA themselves don't have a breastfeeding carrier except for their 'apron' style carrier that has been rated the worst carrier in history for it's tiny shoe string straps and no infant head support. They approached me around 2 years ago to redesign this carrier to be more supportive, user friendly and most importantly breast feeding friendly! I was eager until a change of staff (there's a lot of staff changes) left me dealing with their project manger........ in short -  I quit!!!!!!!!!!!
I, like all their previous staff wanted to hide on the Sahara side of Timbuktu.

In the Media industry, they are often referred to as the 'WHO', but these people have some clout.
Do you know why you never or very rarely see advertisements on bottles or dummies? The ABA is responsible for that. Whether you are a member or not, all new parents are under the wrath of the ABA, who themselves are creating a monopoly - which is illegal.



New parents are being denied access to knowledge of an item that they might or have to use. No parent should be made to feel ashamed for using a bottle, after all what is a bottle really? It's a drinking vessel, like a cup, glass, pop top etc, its just something to drink out of.

Our caricature (mascot) is a derivative of a photo of my 2nd son 'the Chef' & me when he was 5 months old. In the photo he is sitting in the sling chomping at the side of his mouth a dummy (great for teething instead of me) with me looking at him with motherly love. We cant use our mascot because of the dummy.
For me it's a homage to my son who made me start the business of Bubba Moe.

We were incredibly poor, faced with a moral dilemma when he sold his 4 rabbits to produce $20. Do I use the money to buy food or buy fabric to make some more money maybe? when I had my first non-family customer. It was he who said "If you do this, our lives will change"
The next week, when she paid for the sling, we bought something that we hadn't had in a very long while - ice cream.

Death by bombardment and how to be unliked by fans

Blogging used to be the domain of artists, thespians, budding wordsmiths and some unrequited authors, much like 'The Mean Fiddler' a once was, uniquely styled pub, that attracted the likes of same sort of people, has now become over run by the masses.

No longer do artists, writers frequent 'The Mean Fiddler'. Their muse has made way for underage clubbing, pub crawling of the weekend and family bistro on Sundays.
I hear it is now on one of the most violent pubs of Sydney list. ***Sigh***.

It is now mandatory for all businesses to have a social media side whether they are good at it or not. Thankfully there is a new merging business trend on Social Media skills building, which I, like a few thousand others are learning.

One is bombardment, apparently never appropriate.

Take a look at the novice trying to uploads some photos of new products on Facebook. Last week, one could upload to an album then share when finished. Remember those days! life was simple then.
Then it changed, one photo at a time please........
This week the novice, after 3 photo's realises something is different, scratches head, tries again, only to find they are shut out of their page for spamming
Sniff, sniff, sniff..............pouted lips.... I was only trying upload some photos. Enter the 'inadequacy syndrome'.....or DODIFS (Dear Oh Dear I Feel Stupid)

I am in constant trouble from all sorts of people about this blog. Well consistency should be a hallmark of all businesses I agree, so I am consistent about one thing; being in trouble.

OK, so I haven't included much about 'Slinging'  I was under the misguided belief that's what the official website is for? "But a blog will give extra tit bits and info" my Virtual Twitter man emphasises on the phone. Well when it comes to the numbers game he is right, he is winning hands down compared to my efforts on Facebook. Between you and me, I don't know any of those Twitter people. I might know several languages but Japanese isn't one of them. I do know the wonderful people on Facebook though.


To appease my VA, I started an article on Sling safety using a few different types of carriers as well, cant seem, nor do I want to be appear biased.
I came across an American site that is the guru of baby wearing safety, cool beginnings I thought, until I saw some of their photo's. After a few minutes I managed to collect my chin that had fallen down onto the desk and pushed back  my eyeballs before they popped and caused harm..........WHAT THE FRIGGIN F>>>>>>>>> (censored)
Karen Fantastic turned off the heater with a quip  "Its suddenly gotten hot in here?"
Steam was erupting from my ears.
I downloaded the offending 'safe' photo's for this blog and decided to make a photoshop copy of each to show the correct way. After several epic fails on photoshop,  I was trying to reconstruct a babies leg which kept turning out more like a pasty sausage salami looking appendage. ****Sigh****

3.30 am I haven't been to bed yet and its at least an hour after I normally get up (2.32am and I are long standing friends) The first of, what seems to be a few thousand daily inbox drops from a company called www.makeuseof.com  greets me with a large hello via Entourage's distinctive loud chime.

Normally this would irate the bejesus out of anybody, definite breach of social media etiquette and candidate of the year for "bombardment", but inside every single notification is something I can use or entertains me. At some point of the day I peruse each one. At this rate of education I will be a certified geek by years end. Whoo Hoo, get to wear the dusty mortar once again.

I found this site after my most famous DODIFS moment ever in my living history, no one was around to witness this vital crucial moment of epic fail proportions, but I did have the tissue box to help me though.

A project of trying to get a 'live' inventory accessible to our sales reps led me to seek out my brother in law Andy, the computer programmer extraordinaire!! thinking this was a completely logical & safe move.

I can out 'Excel' and database anyone at 10 paces but MySql is language that I don't speak either, but Andy thought I was up for it, confident, even insisting "I am quite confident that you should be able to set up a simple database access within 2 hours live on the Cloud" he left me with that. 6 Hours after that conversation I vowed never to speak to Andy ever again unless I do some serious physical harm first.

The one thing I have learnt in this modern time is that if you have a problem of any kind, then 'google it'. Guaranteed some poor misfortune soul has had that problem before you. Once I set up the Bubba Moe's MySql, which was incredibly easy, the blank black page appeared.......blink, blink, gulp.
Headed straight for Google for any possible life rafts that might have been floating on the sea of despair & humiliation.
I found 'Make Use Of', within an hour I could initiate a simple programme on MySql. Trying to get the programme working on the level I needed it to be was eating at my sanity, while trying to push aside an epiphany that arose somewhere in between.
Being a classic Taurean, the stubbornness meant I couldn't stop till I could do it, then I went for the far more intelligent user friendly system called google doc's which Make Use Of recommends.
What I like about Make Use Of is that its not all serious software & gaming & business solutions & articles but a whole list of seriously funny bits, as picured in this article.
One cartoon all about 'blogging' of all things, managed to surface on my Mac dashboard surrounded by my sticky notes instead of my downloads. So I am off to Goggle again with "How do I get a clip file that has appeared on a dashboard?"
Oh look! there's the answer, some other idiot has done that too!!


OK the Safe Slinging article coming soon