Babywearing is one of the best ways to carry your child. Despite falling out of fashion in the late 1800s, this practice – which involves strapping your baby against your body using a strong fabric wrap – is thought to be much more natural than a pushchair or pram.
It’s also a great way to provide your baby with much-needed warmth, reassurance and comfort; regardless of whether you’re doing chores in the garden, shopping for groceries or taking a stroll around town.
According to scientists at the Al-Azhar University in Cairo, babywearing might even speed up your child’s development: In one study, these researchers found that frequent, close contact between mother and child was strongly correlated with:
- More blood flow to developing brains
- Increased baby weight
- Better coordination and physical development
It’s nice and easy to get started too. All you need to do is pick a sling and learn how to tie it. Once you’re comfortable with a few different methods, you can get out and explore the world, safe in the knowledge that your little one is wrapped up snug against your chest.
In the Post
Moby Wrap vs. Boba Baby Wrap Carrier
To help you out, we’ve provided an in-depth comparison of the two best wraps available on today’s market: the Moby Wrap and the Boba Baby Wrap Carrier.
These slings are both excellent choices; boasting incredibly soft and stretchy machine washable fabrics, plenty of versatility and a reassuring selection of five-star review.
There are a few key differences between them though: The Moby is sturdier, stronger but less user-friendly, while the Boba boasts a 5% spandex weave that provides a little more give.
And then there’re the differences in material type, design and style, which you can read about in detail below:
Comparison Table
Moby Wrap
The Moby Wrap is a popular choice with beginner babywearers. Thanks to its versatile design, endless tying options and incredible durability, it’s also a shoo-in for experienced mums too. In fact, the Moby is probably the best-known baby carrier on the market, and with good reason too!
Put plainly, you can do anything that you want with the Moby: It can be fashioned into a hip sling, used to secure your baby to your back or even tie them into a front-hold that’s breastfeed-friendly.
A Well-made WrapThe Moby does come in a huge selection of different colors and fabrics too. At present, you can buy Mobys that are:
- 100% bamboo
- 100% cotton
- 70% Viscose / 30% Cotton Knit
Making it a great option for babies with sensitive skin, or parents with a keen eye for aesthetics.
There are slightly different pros and cons to each material too: The bamboo is naturally antibacterial, while the cotton offers slightly more support and the viscose cotton blends offer a good combination of attributes that makes them an excellent all-rounder.
We tried the Moby Wrap Evolution – a 70/30 viscose/cotton wrap in an effortlessly-stylish shade of slate grey – and we were absolutely thrilled with the way it looked.
We were also blown away by the way it performed too. Once we’d learned to tie it properly, it kept our little one nice and snug against our chest; close enough to hear a heartbeat at all times, and well-supported too.
Sturdy Support
The Moby feels sturdy, regardless of whether you tie it into a hip, front or back carrier. There’s very little ‘give’ and we wore the wrap for several hours without any sign of sagging. This means that you can rely on the Moby to perform well during long day trips, and that you won’t need to stop and re-tie every 30-60 minutes.
It also means that your baby feels nice and safe at all times. Being suspended in a wrap is quite a new sensation for most babies, and the last thing you want is for them to feel like they’re not secure.
Super Long
Finally, we were really impressed with the length of the Moby. At 18 yards long, there’s enough material for you to try a variety of different ties, and there’s no real limitation to the way you can use this wrap.
Browsing Youtube videos and online resources, we saw people using them for hip ties, for feeding-friendly wraps, and even ‘backpack’ style carriers for long walks.
Let’s just watch one of them by courtesy of Naturally Brittany.
Some Downsides
There are some downsides to the Moby though: For starters, its length and relative simplicity do make it quite hard to get to grips with. There is a very steep learning curve, and it will take practice to make good use of all the material.
The lack of ‘give’ can be a bit of a downside too. Because there’s very little flex to the material, you have to achieve the desired tightness when you first tie the carrier to yourself, and it is very easy to make it too tight (or too loose).
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You will get used to tying the Moby in time, but you should expect to spend a few hours tying and re-tying before you’re comfortable with the product.
Finally, some of the thicker, cotton blends can get a bit hot – particularly if you’re living in a warm country, or spending a lot of time outdoors in the sun. If you want to keep your baby nice and comfortable, you should probably opt for one of the bamboo blends.
Bottom Line
That said, the Moby is a real joy to use, and you are well rewarded for mastering its steep learning curve. If you are looking for a safe, reliable and sturdy carrier, the Moby is definitely a good choice.
Boba Baby Wrap Carrier
In a lot of ways, the Boba Baby Wrap Carrier is quite similar to Moby’s offering. At its core, this product is also a long, thin strip of sturdy material, which can be tied into a variety of different configurations.
It’s of similar length to the Moby (16ft vs. 18ft), and it’s also designed to be robust, hard-wearing and easy to maintain. It does look quite stylish too; despite the smaller selection of colorways and fabric choices.
To the untrained eye, both products could have been produced by the same manufacturer, and you’d be hard-pressed to tell them apart without looking at the label first.
Stretchy Hug
You don’t really see a big difference until you’re actually using the Boba baby wrap, at which point, you suddenly realize that you are using a very different product.
This is because Boba, unlike Moby, have decided to produce a very specific type of wrap. Rather than offering different types of material, they’ve settled on one blend of 95% French terry cotton, and 5% spandex.
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This gives the wrap a lot more “stretch” than competing products, while allowing a fully-tied carrier to offer similar levels of support.
Wearing it, you have a lot more freedom to shift your baby around, and it’s very easy to move your baby between the normal, chest-facing position, and a nursing position that allows for easy breastfeeding.
Easy Adjustment
It’s also much easier to adjust your baby’s sitting position during a long walk, and much, much easier to tie your baby in securely. Because there’s a bit of give to the material, you can actually tie the carrier as tight as you possibly can, and still have scope to shift your baby into their favorite position.
And there’s much less need to constantly re-tie the carrier during the first hours of use as well.
The Only Downside
The specific material composition of the Boba does mean that it’s only suitable for two specific types of tie: The “newborn hold” and the “love your baby hold”. Both of these positions keep your baby facing your chest, and put most of the weight on your shoulders/upper back.
This does mean that you have slightly less freedom than you would with the Moby, and that you might need to buy additional wraps if you want to explore, say, a backpack hold.
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The extra ‘give’ does mean that the Boba sags over time too. We didn’t think this was really noticeable on short walks, but if you plan to keep your baby in the carrier for more than an hour, you might need to re-tie so to ensure that they’re as snug as they possibly can be.
Bottom Line
All in all, it’s fair to say that the Boba is a great beginner wrap, and a really good choice for parents that are comfortable with the two holds. For parents that want something more flexible, the Moby is probably a better choice.
Final Words
The Moby is the Swiss army knife of baby carriers; offering you unlimited freedom, plenty of options and reliable support. The Boba is more limited; offering just two holds, but it is easier to get to grips with, and it is of comparable quality.
Having handled both wraps, we have no doubt that they’d last for years, and we’d be confident recommending either option to parents interested in babywearing.
Ultimately, you should choose the wrap that sounds like it would suit your own, unique style of parenting best, and rest assured that both products are of premium quality.
Last update on 2021-01-09 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
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