By Emily Holdaway – Raising Ziggy
When Babes in Arms asked if I would be interested trying out the new Ergobaby Omni 360, I said, “Yeah of course”. I was pregnant with my second child, and babywearing had been a huge part of life with my firstborn.
And then Jagger was born, and he spent the first 6 weeks of his life screaming and arching and being as rigid as a board. It was damn near impossible to get him in a carrier. Oh, I managed it every now and again, but it was very hit and miss.
Then the four-month sleep regression hit. And suddenly baby carriers were the only place he would sleep. Which has been great as it’s given me the opportunity to wear the Ergo Omni 360 enough that I can finally write my review!
The Ergobaby Omni 360 is the latest carrier Ergo have released, and their best carrier yet. It’s like the love child between the Ergo Adapt, and the Ergo 360, taking all the best bits and leaving the rest.
Like the Adapt, it is suitable from newborn without an insert. But the Adapt doesn’t forward face, and the Ergo Omni 360 does.
Like the 360, it offers a full range of positions, but where the 360 needs and infant insert, the Omni doesn’t. And where the 360 has a velcro waistband, which makes quiet transfers almost impossible, the Omni has the standard buckle waistband, with lumbar support.
So, if you are looking at the Ergo range, the Ergobaby Omni 360 is the best one to get.
As the 360 in the name suggests, the carrier can be worn in the full range of positions. Front facing, forward facing, on your hip and on your back. Personally, when I front carry, I prefer my baby facing me, as often I need to breastfeed, and this is the only position it can be done from (Mrs Incredible with elasta-boobs I am not). However, many parents appreciate the forward-facing aspect of a carrier, especially if a baby is not quite ready to back carry, but interested in seeing more of what is happening in the world around them. As far as forward facing goes, the Ergo Omni 360 has the most supportive design for this position than any other carrier I have come across.
The Ergo Omni 360 is suitable from newborn, and its clever design makes the transition easy. Unlike other carriers that make adjusting the carrier small enough for a newborn “YouTube instructional video” worthy, the Ergo Omni 360 is simple. Its clever velcro tab design that narrows or widens the waistband was one that AJ, who wears nowhere near as many different carriers as I do, was able to figure out just by looking at it. The back panel adjusts in height by buttoning up or buttoning down which is very easy to work out, but not as adjustable in the body panel as some other “from newborn” carriers on the market.
While the weight recommendation is from 3.2kg to 20kg, I found it a bit stiff and clunky when Jagger was tiny. The first time I tried it he was two weeks old and he was lost inside the carrier. But, by about a month old he was big enough to sit in it much more comfortably. I also threw Ziggy up in it, because why not right?! Ziggy is a tall two-and-a-half-year-old. While he fits, the base is not very wide and supported his bum, but little of his legs. And while “knee to knee” is not as important at this older age as it is when they are younger, it wasn’t very comfortable for me to have his legs dangling. So yes, you can get a two-and-a-half-year-old up, and yes the weight recommendation does go to 20kg, but honestly by this age you need a bigger toddler carrier.
The shoulder straps on the Ergo allow for both crossed straps, or the more recognised H style. From the years of wearing Ziggy in carriers that did not have this adaptable feature, I’ve become rather used to the H style. However, I found that the shoulder straps on the Ergo were quite big (at the tightest setting, they are about 66cm), and done up to the maximum, they only just went small enough to be comfortable for me when Jagger was newborn.
There is a trick to getting the straps done up as they only tighten in one direction. Grab the padded part of the shoulder strap, just above the buttons, and feed it back over your shoulder and around your body, then tighten the slack. This allowed me to get a better fit than just tightening, without feeding the strap around (this trick works for any buckle carrier). As Jagger grows, the longer strap length will not be as much of an issue as he will take up a bit more room in the carrier. When I had Ziggy in it, we had heaps of slack left!
When I changed the shoulder straps over to crossed straps, they were able to be adjusted much smaller and it was a more secure fit.
See next page for the rest of the review…
