By B

Onya Baby Carrier

My first impression on taking this out of the box was how very well matched everything ont his carrier is. The buckles are brown, the straps are brown, even the webbing is brown, rather than the normal black. This carrier coordinates everything beautifully!

The next thing I noticed was how well written the instruction book was. It’s really a book, not a booklet or an instruction sheet. It details, with pictures, several ways to get baby onto your back, several ways to wear the straps for front carries, even how to nurse in it. This is a fantastically detailed set of instructions! Very, very helpful for a carrier newbie.

Back to the fabulous brown webbing for a minute. I’ve only ever seen black webbing on SSCs. It’s all the same, on every carrier I’ve seen, except for this one. The webbing reminds me of a car seat strap. It’s very smooth and super duper soft, but clearly very sturdy. It has elastics on the end to prevent the excess from dangling.

I can see some needing an extender belt for the waist. The shoulder straps had lots of room, though. This would be a great fit for a busty mama or someone with a long torso.

For front carries, you can wear the straps criss crossed or rucksack style with the chest belt. I REALLY like carriers that give you the option as we all have different preferences. I tried the criss cross first, as that is normally what I would do. I decided to switch it up and try the chest belt. I’m really glad that I did. I found that way much more comfortable, a surprise! It’s very comfortable either way. I really like that the chest belt can be slid up and down the straps, making it easy to reach.

I wore this with my 17 lb 5 month old and my 35 lb 3.5 year old. She is on the small end of the recommendation for this carrier, but it fit perfectly. She could see out without any modifications, but she still had plenty of head support. She fell asleep twice in this! She was low enough that we didn’t test out the sleep hood.

The sleep hood folds away into its own little pocket. It is sort of a hoody hood that snaps onto the shoulder straps. I tried it with DS and it was almost big enough for him. He won’t be taking naps in a carrier any time soon, though, so it’s fine. This carrier has been tested up to 45 lbs. We don’t normally wear Mr Big Man for long periods of time at this point, but I was able to comfortable wear this for the half hour he was interested.

I found it very easy to nurse in this carrier. I do a lot of carrier nursing, but not too often in SSCs. It was easy to adjust the straps to just lower baby down to the right height. I tried it once with the criss cross straps. In that case, I did find it easier to lift my boob up a little. With the rucksack style straps, I just lowered her right down. So, again, liking the rucksack straps on this. I think it offered very good coverage. So, I took some pics.

From the front

From the side

There are several dandy pockets on this, a tiny one with a zipper and a larger one with zippers on either side. This would be nice to shove your cold hands on a chilly walk. There are also several straps and loops where you could hang your keys, a toy or a paci chain.