Why a toddler carrier can help with toddler sleep

Carrier use might not suit all families (and may not work for parents who have musculoskeletal challenges or back pain) but can be a useful tool as you experiment your way through these first few years of your little one's life.

In my own life with small children, decades ago now, backpack carrier use from early on helped make a dialled down baby, or later, a dialled down toddler. Some parents use cloth wraps or semi-structured carriers on their backs, and there are many cultures in which this is the normal way mothers transport their small children.

But for me, it was important to make it easy. Having a light structured aluminium frame that sat securely on the ground as I put the toddler in, before lifting it up onto my back, worked well. I could put the toddler on and off, on and off my back, according to our changing circumstances. Straps in structured backpack carriers are a sensible safety feature. My hands were then free to do things. The toddler loved it, her nervous system drinking in the constant small changes in posture, the irregularly altering visual environment. She loved the security of being physically close to me.

Other parents like to wear their toddler in a buckled carrier on the front of their body. You can see a video of that style of toddler wearing below.

Structured backpack carrier use is a strategy some parents like to experiment with in the evenings with toddlers, whose sensory needs can be intense and exhausting at that time of day. Backpack toddlers love seeing what the parent is up to, peering over the parent's shoulder, pulling on the parent's hair, chewing on the parent's T-shirts, revelling in the constant motion and changing view, at the same time as the parent – if slower than usual – might even manage to get something done!

Using a toddler carrier is another powerful tool for providing rich sensory motor nourishment, which keeps your small child dialled down while his sleep pressure rises, so that sleep is easy and no-fuss.

Here is a video of my daughter walking with her 17-month-old in a carrier through the streets of New York City. I was walking beside them, and I'd started to say "happy baby" in rhythm with our steps. Then suddenly my ltitle grandson joins in!