Designed with newborns in mind, the Baby Bjorn Mini carrier is a super soft, supremely intuitive, lightweight carrier that does indeed fit newborns well. But on the flip side, it simply doesn't last well. As baby grows they will very rapidly grow out of this carrier.
Read on below for more, or you can see this carrier in action and hear my full thoughts on this carrier in this video.
The Mini really has 2 main pros and 2 main cons. The pros are;
- It is really soft and really moldable and gives a lovely fit to a newborn baby. The manufacturer states from 3.2kg and this is realistic, most babies will fit right from their first days. And the soft jersey material will gently hug and snuggle their tiny form
- All the fastenings are at the front. Which is brilliant for parents with limited mobility who maybe struggle with straps that fasten at the sides. Also being able to see all the fastening makes this carrier supremely intuitive. They've even printed left and right on the tabs that attach to the panel, and colour coded where the panel slots into the straps so you can't get it wrong. And as you fit the parent separately to the child, this can be a great advantage if you are feeling very nervous about using a carrier.
The cons are;
- The panel doesn't adjust in width. It does adjust in height so you can easily lengthen the panel as baby's torso grows to ensure the head support is correctly positioned for them as they grow. But you can not adjust the width, which means as their legs grow the carrier can not continue supporting them in a comfortable "deep squat" seated position. Why does this matter? Well it is more comfortable for them to have the weight on their bottom and have their legs supported so they are not carrying the weight of their legs (verses having their weight resting on their inner thighs and the weight of their legs pulling down). The deep squat position gives a great alignment between the ball and socket joint of the hips, which means there is no pressure on their hips from their legs. And it is more comfortable for you, as when their legs are fully supported more of babies weight is aligned with your load bearing centre so baby feels lighter and easier to carry than when more of their legs are spilling out pulling away from you.
- There is no waist support. Which means all the weight is resting on your shoulders and upper and mid back. Rather than around your waist and transferring onto your hips. This is fine for when baby is younger and thus smaller, but as they grow this will rapidly feel heavier for the parent compared to a carrier with a waistband.
In terms of weight testing, the Mini is tested up to 11 kg, but for the reasons above it actually won't last anywhere near this long. In reality most babies will start to grow out of it around 3 to 4 months and by 6 months it will feel disportionately heavy to use.
If you do have this carrier already you can use a scarf to extend the width for baby and gain a bit more comfort for you too. You can see how to do this here. Generally this scarf trick will get you about a month or so more use out of the Mini before it starts getting quite heavy again.
The Mini offers 2 different carrying positions. Front inwards and Front outwards. However, it worth noting that most babies aren't ready to be carried outwards in a carrier until about 4 months (you can read more about how to tell when they are ready here). Yet, but 4 months most babies are growing out of this carrier. Parents are often drawn to this carrier over others because it offers forward facing and don't realise that in all likelihood their baby will have grown out of the carrier before they can do it. And even if they haven't, without a waistband, the forward facing position is very heavy for the parent because the baby's weight pulls forward and puts a lot more strain on the shoulders and upper back.
All in all the Baby Bjorn Mini is a lovely soft, very very easy to use carrier for a newborn baby. But what really puts me off is the lack of longevity. The lack of longer term support for both baby and the parent. This carrier costs £95 to buy, but when you compare it to its closest comparables on the market - the Ergo Embrace (£89.90) and the Izmi Baby Carrier (£80), both of which last a lot longer and offer more carrying positions and much much more flexibility and support to both baby and parent, it just doesn't seem like a good deal. While most babies will grow out of the Mini around 3 to 4 months the Embrace generally lasts to around 9 months and the Izmi will often last at least 1 year. The Embrace offers 3 carrying positions and the Izmi 4. Both have waist bands and adjust in both width and height. So while the Bjorn Mini does have things going for it, it's just hard to recommended it over these two carriers when they offer so much more for practically the same price. However, if you do decide you would like to buy one you can find it on Amazon (and earn me a small commission at no extra cost to you) here.
-Madeleine