Every Easy Feel Soft Structure Carriers feature a soft fabric hood. It's that rectangle of fabric neatly tuck into a pocket on the top of the body panel. You may have wondered what it's for or how to use it safely.
It is a sleep hood. Hoods like these have been featured on most models of soft carriers for quite some time. They were originally designed to support baby's head if they fell asleep in a back carry. This keeps baby's head gently resting on your back, which is the optimal position.
Why was it designed for just back carries? Because the original intended use of soft structure carriers was for back carrying. Specifically carrying a baby who was sitting upright unassisted and fit into the carrier without any modifications. As the popularity of carriers increased, people want to use them for front carries and for smaller babies, so modifications and adaptions were made. But the original design remained the same, for the most part----including the sleep hood.
Does this mean you cannot use the sleep hood for front carries? It is possible, but we want to express that this is not the intended design.
So, how in world do you get that small rectangle of fabric from behind your back, over baby's head, and secured safely? We promise it does not require super powers or double-jointed elbows!
Before you place the carrier on your body or secure your child in the carrier, the first step is to take the hood out. Simply undo the Velcro and pull the hood out of the pocket. Put the carrier on and secure baby like normal, just make sure the hood is not tangled up in the body panel.
When you are ready to secure the hood, reach behind your back and find one of the dangling tie strings. It should be somewhere near baby's bottom. Pull that string straight up towards baby's head. Now the string on the other side should be up by your shoulders where you can easily grab it with your other hand.
Hold both strings straight up above your head. Position the rectangle over baby's head and then bring the fabric forward towards your collar bones. You can scrunch up the rectangle to expose more tie string or to custom fit your child's head shape.
Now look at your shoulders, you should see a half loop on straps. Tie the strings around the loop to secure the hood in place. We suggest either a bow tie or slip knot to be able to release the hood quickly if needed.
Check out our instructional video for more help: