Babywearing with Spica Cast

I asked for advice on BabyCenter Community babywearing board and there is a mom whose daughter has hip dysplasia and needed to be put in a spica cast at 7 months old. Here is her reply to my request for help with possibly being able to babywear my daughter;

I used a woven wrap and faced out because of the bar on the spica cast. The spica cast keeps the hips in the proper position. Without it, you have to be very careful to make sure the rails are under the legs, and supporting your DD in a seated position. Since it is not as bulky as the spica cast you might be able to use the Pikkolo or Gemini. Those are buckle carriers that can face out in a seated position. Most of the forward facing carriers are pretty bad. I know you can rent them from PaxBaby. Jillian is very sweet and would be glad to help you out. I do have to warn that you need to watch out for overstimulation when forward facing. Jilly used to get pretty fussy if we were in a busy place too long because there was no place ti hide her head and get away from it all.

Steps to wrapping:

1. Safety pin the wrap in 2 places in the back to keep it in place.

2. Pick up the baby and thread the wrap up through the bar and over the shoulders. Make sure it is tight and baby is close up against the body. The straps should be in an X across the front.

3. Cross the straps around the back, in an X across your back. Tighten thoroughly.

4. Bring the straps under the baby's bottom and tie the wrap.

5. Spread the wrap so that it is supporting baby's bottom and back well.

6. Thread a strip of cotton gauze through the center of the wrap and tie it around the baby and yourself to add support to the sides.

Here is a video of the type of wrap I am basing this on.

http://www.gypsymama.com/beginner.htm#x

Here are 2 other techniques using the Front Wrap Cross Carry. Both eliminate the need for an extra peice of fabric or safety pins.

http://www.wrapyourbaby.com/frontwrapcrosscarry.htm

Both techniques start with finding the middle of the wrap and holding it up to your chest then bringing the rails over the opposite shoulder.

The first technique has DD facing out like the above technique.

1. Instead of making a pouch, the piece of the wrap around your chest is used as cumberbund. It must be left pretty loose to get the baby in there, and the baby will be facing out instead of in.

2. Then tug on the rails to tighten the cumberbundt securely around your babies middle.

3. Thread one rail through the bar of the cast, downward and spread it across your baby's bottom for support. The rails will make an X.

4. Bring the second rail down thorugh the bar and spread evenly.

5. Bring the rails around your back and tie them off.

Photos and information reposted with the moms permission. Thanks a bunch Candy!