Ever wondered what that bit of elastic near the buckle on your baby carrier is for? Designed as a safety feature in the extremely unlikely event that the buckle spontaneously undoes (or the more likely event that a parent absentmindedly undoes the waist strap before the shoulder straps), these elastic loops act to “catch the buckle”.
But only if you thread them correctly. Most parents assume simply threading the buckle through the loop is enough, but actually the full “catch” effect relies on you then pulling the extra webbing back over the top of the elastic loop. As shown here:
Thus the elastic is able to securely “catch” the buckle if it comes undone because the webbing coming in and out of the buckle is trapped under and over this elastic respectively. Meaning that if you accidently undo the buckle absentmindedly or if it failed or undid spontenously the buckle would be caught and you’d have plenty of time to resecure the carrier or take your baby out as needed.
Did you know this? If you didn’t please don’t feel silly I would say 90% of parents don’t! I didn’t until I was shown either! Did you find this helpful? If so please do let me know below!
-Madeleine
(PS – sometimes parents don’t like to use the safety buckle as they find it hard to untangle the strap when taking the carrier off. But there is a trick to this – watch to the end of the video to see it! You simply fold the buckle back under the elastic to quickly release the strap without needing to do loads of untreading.