Okkatots Baby Carrier System: The Word "System" Should Clue You In

Okkatots Baby Carrier

I was excited to buy the Okkatots Baby Carrier System because I loved the idea of the removable pouch. I liked that you could remove your baby from the carrier without taking off the entire thing, making it easy to wear/un-wear the baby with minimum hassle.

But then, after getting it, I realized: There are lots of carriers that allow you to take the baby out without taking off the whole carrier (like most stretchy wraps). And with a lot fewer clips and hassle.

The Okkatots "Pouch"

And here's where I get to my main point (and my main complaint): Talk about a "system"! With the addition of the optional hip belt, there were a total of ELEVEN clips on this carrier. ELEVEN! It took forever to get the whole thing assembled, and if you wanted to take the baby/pouch off, you'd have to unbuckle SIX clips in hard-to-reach places (like under the baby's thighs, very close to your body) in an order that didn't really make sense.

There is one very important pro, though, that I must mention: The Okkatots carrier is COMFORTABLE. There is nice thick (but not bulky) padding on both the parent part of the carrier and on the baby part. The Bjorn-style crisscross in back with the optional hip belt help distrubute the baby's weight extremely evenly. When the baby is really small, you don't even need the hip harness and the carrier is comfortable.

But even with the important comfort factor, the clips were just too much for me. I sold my Okkatots carrier just 2 weeks after getting it. For a soft-structured carrier, I prefer my Beco Butterfly, though I am finding more and more that my carrier of choice is my wrap (I have the Israeli Simply Good wrap).

Other Okkatots highlights:

• The Okkatots carrier is a front carrier that supports a baby facing inward and outward.
• It comes with a removable bib so your baby doesn't drool all over the carrier.
• It comes in tan with black trim and black with tan trim.
• Here's a really nice feature: While sitting down (for safety reasons), you can unlatch a few of the (many) clips and you can extend your baby away from you, while still keeping her attached at the bottom of the pouch. You can talk/sing/tickle your baby and have fun, without completely detaching her from the carrier. It's also great if you're bottlefeeding.
• The straps are positioned that you can breastfeed your baby while wearing her. I was able to manage this just fine. 

So after writing this, I've almost convinced myself that it's a great carrier. And honestly, if I didn't already have a bunch of other carriers, I probably would've kept it, gotten used to all the clips, and really liked it. But I found it annoying and didn't really need it anyways.