Recently Sheen Slings have had the pleasure of hosting Sleepy Nico's beautiful travelling toddler carrier, which is doing a tour of sling libraries all over the UK. I've never had a Sleepy Nico carrier before and right out of the package I loved it. I love the pairing of the georgous cotton print fabric with soft and snuggly but very durable corduroy material. I was also impressed how light weight this carrier was, very lightly padded this carrier presents a great option for anyone wanting something in between the lightweight but unpadded Connecta and more fully padded carriers like the Ergo, Lillebaby or Manduca. In fact I was so impressed with this carrier that I have since bought a baby-sized carrier for the library collection. So this review will cover both carriers. Although, as our son is 3, we have mainly used the toddler-sized and my husband was pretty sad when the time came to post it on.
To test it out, my husband Dave wore it on a trip to Kew Gardens. He was immediately impressed, and found it really comfortable - carrying our 15kg 3 year old for 2-3 hours in total across the whole day. He loved the light weight aspect, while it doesn't fold as small as the toddler Connecta. David found it more comfortable and the right balance of comfort to lightweight. As any carrier spends more time in our bag than on while our son walks for himself, something that will fold relatively small but is still comfortable is a bonus. And Tom was certainly very comfortable in it, so comfortable that he fell asleep on the way home - despite having dropped regular day time naps sometime ago. Clearly living up to the 'sleepy' part of its name!
While for me, while I loved the aesthetic, I found the straps didn't sit as comfortably on me compared to other carriers. With any buckle carrier fit is everything and hence why its so key to try before you buy! For me, this wouldn't be the 'one' where as it absolutely would be for David!
That said I would have no hesitation recommending it to those who it does fit well - in particular I have found many coming to the library love the soft padding at the baby's legs. Many of those that leave with a Sleepy Nico came to try on the Connecta but found that the Connecta left red lines on their childs legs, the soft padding at the leg openings completely prevents this and is a real big draw of this carrier for those looking for a lighter weight carrier but not wishing to compromise on comfort!
Both the standard size and the toddler size are smaller than the equivalents from other brands - both in terms of seat width and panel length. So might not be as long lasting but also may fit your child earlier. The standard size has a weight range of 3.5kg-15kg and the Toddler 6.8kg-20kg. Although these weight ranges, like that provided by any manufacture, only tells you what the carrier has been safety tested for ... a child of these weights may or may not not fit .. the carrier might be too wide or too narrow etc. In general I feel the standard sizes works wells from about 4-5 months up to around 2 years depending on the child. I wouldn't recommend it for an infant as there is no infant insert and the seat panel can not be easily adjusted down. While the toddler carrier works well from around 18 months to 3 or 4 depending on the child.
-Madeleine
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