SaddleBaby Shoulder Carrier-Original Model

I was so excited for this product and couldn't wait for it to arrive. And I was equally disappointed when it finally did. It was simple enough to strap adjust the straps. Anyone who has ever worn an ERGO will find this thing to be fairly simple to adjust.I had watched the instructional videos online and was ready to go with it. However, I’m a busty woman who has been nursing babies for the last seven years, and found that the straps were designed to go directly over my nipple area. Not the most comfortable place to cinch down a strap. Also, once the saddle piece (which is much much harder than it probably has to be) was clipped in to place, it pulled on my neck and there was no way to adjust the length of the connecting straps. My armpits kept me from simply moving the chest strap up. Not willing to give up, I forged ahead and decided to at least try it with my three year old on/in it.To give you some perspective, my three year old is in the 4th percentile for weight and the 50th percentile for height. So, he’s very skinny and has a very small bum, but legs that should be plenty long enough for the saddle and safety straps. I lifted him up over my head like I would for any other shoulder ride and found that as soon as my arms were parallel with my ears, the saddle was squeezed back and fell a few inches down my back. When I set my toddler down on, he landed wedged onto the front edge of the saddle and my neck—not in the seat. We tried this several ways and there was just no safe and reasonable way to boost him back as my shoulder shifted the saddle to a backward incline every time. Not one to give up, I tried sitting in a way that he could simply climb on. By this time, he was having none of it, but I convinced him to try. There was no way to reach up and steady him, so he couldn’t climb on securely no matter what we did. I tried shifting the saddle and adjusting it to be tight AFTER my son was in it, which finally allowed us to get him all the way in the saddle. However, this was probably not as safe as it should be (and was only possible because we were in front of a mirror) and my son complained that the saddle pinched his private area and begged to be let out.Thinking it was a problem of body shape and bust size, and that maybe the saddle itself would be more comfortable if worn by a man, I had my husband try it on. He too felt like it cut into the back of his neck, pinching in a very uncomfortable way. (We both had neck aches simply from trying this thing on for a few minutes each.) He also had the same problem with the saddle shifting backwards when he lifted our son up to put him in the seat and found he could not get him into the saddle no matter how he tried to shift or lift.The only way to make this work is to have another adult help you lift your child into the seat. Even then, you have to have exactly the right neck shape or this thing is going to make you ache. In the end, my son was running away from it and refusing to ever try it again. It’s going back. And I’m still wishing it would have worked.

This works better than carrying the child on your shoulders, but after having it for about 6 months, it has only been used a couple of times. We used it walking around at the fair and it worked OK, but not great. The 18 month old was a little small for the unit and his feet barely made it to the ankle straps. After 15 minutes or so of walking around, he felt really heavy. Neither mom nor grandma wanted to use it so it was just traded between grandpa and dad. The 4 year old fit much better in the unit and didn't really seem much heavier even though she weighs nearly twice as much but still, we got tired after a short time. It was quite a bit better than carrying the kids on the shoulders without it, but once the adult got tired of carrying (the kids were fine), it was awkward walking around with the harness either on the shoulders without a kid or just carrying it.We tried again, when we went on a beach vacation, but ended up not actually using it even once. I really wanted to like this but it just doesn't fit into an everyday use lifestyle. Maybe if the family was really into hiking and could use this a lot it would be worth it but only being used twice, it wasn't worth $40 each time it was used.

The video of this carrier was all over facebook and as soon as my husband saw this carrier, he wanted it right away. This is two separate pieces. My daughter is very large for her size, but she is only a little over a year old, so she does not fit onto the orange saddle. We only have used the leg straps on her. My husband is very large. He is over six feet tall with broad shoulders and a broad back. He has carried her on his shoulders for months now. She has a very strong core.If you are not a man that would normally carry your child onto your shoulders, this child carrier is not for you. I doubt that many women could even use this carrier. This carrier is very well made. It is very simple to use and you can use just the leg straps or you can use the saddle with it also. If your child does not have a strong core, this carrier is not for you.We bought this carrier because my daughter loves to ride on my husband's shoulders but his neck and shoulders hurt after wearing her for only ten minutes or so on his shoulders. Now he can put her on his shoulders and we can walk around for extended periods of time without any issues.

It's a cute device that is a fun way to transport a child via a shoulder ride, as advertised. I like neat gadgets and when I first saw this listed on an airplane in the Skymall catalog, I new I would purchase it eventually. The Amazon price now was considerably discounted, so I went for it. I won't get a true feel for the utility of using this until warmer weather. My 1.5 year old was all smiles and giggles as we ran around the house, with my arms free of course. I wore it for about 10 minutes which was our trial run. My only complaint thus far is that it made my shoulder blades sore. I hope that doesn't limit the usefulness of trying to transport the toddler for long periods of time. Perhaps I'll update later once warm weather comes.

Everywhere we go people ask about this and where we got it. I am sure that we end up in lots of people's pictures, too. Comfortable for my 4yo and for me to spend hours at the museum or aquarium, and she gets a better view of everything. It's much more comfortable than just sitting on my shoulders - which gave me a stiff neck and made her legs fall asleep. The ankle cuffs are awesome- the let me free my hands and make her feel secure. Only gripe is you can't wear a backpack at the same time. Since we bought it a new backpack version came out which is a great alternative if you think you want to keep a day's worth of stuff. We used it at Disneyland, for hikes, at the museum, at the aquarium and around the city - and it worked great for all these excursions. I highly recommend it.

This is the best product we have purchased for our children. We recently took it on holiday and we had at least 3 people stop us every day to find out about it. Kids are comfortable and don't have to hold on and my husband finds it very comfortable as it redistributes the weight.

It was not a baby saddle but original ! It was a later version that had a backpack attached so totally not what I wanted and therefore has been used. I was very disappointed. I wanted the version the same as the picture above and I didn’t get that.

Very useful

Die Idee ist zunächst toll: man setzt die/den Kurze(n) drauf, schnallt an und hat die Hände frei (und niemand nörgelt ich kann nicht mehr). Dazu kam der Reiter super alles sehen.Dann die Umsetzung: aufsetzen und anschnallen ging noch gut. Bereits nach wenigen Metern (!) war jedoch festzustellen, dass das Hartplastik derart geformt ist, dass es schmerzhaft auf die Schultern drückte und an einem Verwendung über einen längeren Zeitraum überhaupt nicht zu denken war.Wenn es eine verbesserte Variante gibt, die dem Träger Komfortgewinn gegenüber dem einfachen Schultertragen bietet, würde ich über einen zweiten Test nachdenken, dieses Modell kommt leider nicht in Frage.

Leider hat das Produkt unsere Erwartungen nicht erfüllt.Als wir das Produkt erhalten haben, haben wir es gleich ausprobiert. Folgende Punkte sind uns aufgefallen:1. das Produkt ist nicht für Frauen geeignet dies weil der Gurt vorne über den Brustbereich gespannt wird2. Der einmalig Versuch das Kind hineinzusetzen hat sowohl beim Partner als auch bei mir zu starken Nackenschmerzen geführt.3. Das produkt war bereits bei Lieferung nicht vollständig, ein Schnalle hat gefehlt.All diese Punkte waren der Grund warum wird das Produkt gleich wieder zurück gesendet haben.