About Us

A Note From The Founder & Creator

Check out my  blog!  While I'll obviously be talking about babywearing, most of what you'll find inside my blog will be about my family, our lives, and the day-to-day kind of stuff that everyone goes through.  I'd love to hear from you!  You can find my  blog at http://babysosmart.blogspot.com/.

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Baby So Smart got its start "accidentally" back in 2002, with the birth of our oldest child, Elijah.  Within the 6 months following our son’s birth, he was diagnosed with a head injury sustained during the birth, a small bowel obstruction, severe reflux, severe food allergies, and sensory integration disorder.  In addition to that, I had a pituitary tumor which caused me to have a gross oversupply of milk, resulting in a foremilk-hindmilk imbalance, and all its subsequent complications.   If our son was awake, he was screaming in pain, arching, and stressed; and so were we.  We tried everything—car rides, rocking, swaddling, the swing, nursing for comfort (he hated to breastfeed, due to the associated pain he suffered), antic-reflux medications, our popular front-pack carrier—but nothing served to soothe him.    Suffice it to say, we all cried lots. 

It was in desperation one day that I tried out a ring sling that I purchased (against my better judgment, I might add) while I was still pregnant.  Although in hindsight I didn’t wear it correctly, within minutes of settling my son into the sling, he stopped crying, visibly relaxed, and went to sleep.  I was immediately hooked.  I had used our front pack baby carrier before, but it had not had any kind of positive effect on my son; I was intrigued—what was the difference?  My background as a pediatric nurse spurred me in delving into all the research and literature I could get my hands on.  I was amazed at what I found.  From that point on, my son lived in our ring sling, and we began to see a dramatic improvement in him.

After the birth of our second child, our oldest daughter, Avelyn, in the spring of 2004, I began to experiment with using some of the high-end fabrics –silk brocades, dupioni, and shantung—to create stunning but practical ring slings.   By that time I had recognized that while I was appreciative of the functionality and positive benefits of my  original sling,  I had a creative desire to improve upon the aesthetic  look of my sling—I wanted to maintain my sense of style as a woman.  Quickly people around me began to ask me to make silk and brocade baby slings for themselves and their loved ones; often they asked me why I was so “hooked” on using the slings with my children; I was happy to oblige and share my love of both babywearing and sling  design.    I also discovered some of the more “obscure” of the Asian-style baby carriers, and began using and designing those as well.  We opened up shop officially that spring of 2004 (under a different name), selling baby carriers of several styles, natural baby care products, and other natural parenting products. 

Our third child, Malachai, was born early in 2006.  Our older two children were just in love with him, and loved to see me carry him around in his special ring sling.  A little girl at our church took notice as well, and soon she began to notice something that we had not picked up on:  how quickly our fast-growing little boy was meeting his developmental milestones (one of the benefits of babywearing).  Each time we would see her, she would pat our youngest son, who was always snuggled with me in his sling, and remark incredulously to me, “Baby so smart!”  We agreed whole-heartedly.  At this point we had realized that the demand for our slings and other baby carriers was growing exponentially; we decided to focus solely on the design and manufacturing of our popular silk baby slings and Mei Tai baby carriers and on the educational component of our business.  A business name change and some internal restructuring  was in order.

And so was born Baby So Smart, a company that specializes in the manufacture of high-end silk, brocade, and cashmere baby slings, and hip Mei Tai baby carriers.  Our beautiful silk baby slings and Mei Tais have received rave reviews and loving homes across the globe—in the US, Canada, and across Europe—for not only the elegant beauty and unique designs that we create here at Baby So Smart, but also for their comfort and durability.  We've  been pleased to count several celebrity and TV personalities as our customers.  We also pride ourselves on  providing excellent educational classes and seminars (developed by us) for parents (to help them avoid much of what we went through with our son) about the "Benefits of Babywearing", the impact of our birthing practices on breastfeeding outcomes, pregnancy education, infant development, and other health related classes.  We are extremely pleased to have been able to partner with several area hospitals and health staff to provide   a “Benefits of Babywearing for the Medical Professional” that we have developed specifically geared toward educating physicians, midwives, chiropractors, nurses, nursing students, and other health care providers about the positive effects babywearing can have on both the mother’s and baby’s health, and the family as a whole.

We were thrilled to add another child to our family in the fall of 2008, our youngest daughter, Brynley.  I’m sure she will also inspire our business to grow and develop in many ways as well! 

So from our family to ours, we wish you many happy years of babywearing as we have had, and may blessings of peace and love rain down upon your family!

 

The Baby So Smart Family

 

Could wearing your baby change the world?

Babywearing, while fairly new to the modern Western world, is as old as the family unit itself. Families were carrying and holding their children in soft carriers out of necessity, long before the advent of strollers, infant swings, the "infant entertainment saucer," bouncy seats, and the like made carriers a thing of the past. Moms, dads, older siblings, cousins, grandparents, and virtually everyone else deemed to be part of the family took their turn in sharing the responsibility of caring for and carrying the babies and smaller children of the family. This practice continues today in many lesser-developed countries around the world, again, partly out of necessity, but partly out of tradition. It is from the style of parenting that includes the practice of babywearing that Attachment Parenting has been derived. Unfortunately, in our attempts to "modernize" here in the West, we have "advanced" our society and culture so much as to lead to not only the breakdown of the family as it once was, but also to the degradation of this beautiful and intelligent style of parenting.

The products we create at Baby So Smart, slings and other indigenous style baby carriers, were designed to help parents implement Attachment Parenting with their children, while also allowing the parent to continue their own sense of style. The seminars and classes we offer were designed to help inform and educate today's parents about the many benefits of babywearing (and other topics pertinent to Attachment Parenting), our ultimate goal being parents reshaping their parenting style into one that is more gentle, nurturing, high-touch, and respectful of the children with which they have been blessed and entrusted Psalm 127:3,5a—"Sons are a heritage from the Lord, children a reward from Him. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them."

So Why Baby So Smart?

Smart Parents

We believe Smart Parents actively seek out information and education in an attempt to equip themselves to be better parents. We believe Smart Parents seek out products: proven to facilitate and promote the healthy physical, emotional, and neurological growth and development of their babies and children; that promote the growth and development of the parent-baby bond; that facilitate the breastfeeding relationship; and promote the physical health of the parent.

Smart Slings

We believe Smart Slings, and other styles of carriers, prevent the development of physical problems in the infant, such as hip dysplasia, plagiocephaly, and spondylolithesis; minimize the physical and emotional demands intrinsic with caring for and carrying an infant, particularly in our Western society where we are generally without the benefits of the proximity of the extended family; place no physical barrier between the parent and child, but instead promote closeness; are easy to use; are very stylish.

Smart Babies, the result of smart parents who choose smart carriers.

Recent research has shown that carried babies grow up to be less aggressive, more independent, more confident, more nurturing, and more others-focused than their non-carried peers. It seems to us that our world could use more people like that. And today's Smart Babies grow up to be tomorrow's Smart Parents.

Could wearing your baby change the world? We think so—one family at a time.