Snugli Front Carrier Review

The front Snugli is a structured baby carrier that looks like a backpack worn on the front. This baby carrier allows you to wear your baby facing you in a tummy-to-tummy hold, or facing away from you so baby can see the world. The Front Snugli can be used for babies as small as 7 lbs, and as large as 26 lbs.

The front of this Snugli carrier opens up to load or unload baby using one-handed buckles. The shoulder straps are padded, and you can pull on the lower ends of the straps to tighten the carrier fit.

The Front Snugli is available in six patterns. It costs about $40.

I had a Snugli carrier years ago for my oldest daughter. While it was reasonably comfortable, it had what seemed like miles of twisty straps that made it hard to put on and even harder to carry around in a diaper bag. I was always tucking an errant strap into my bag. After wearing it for a long time, the straps usually started digging into my shoulders.

I was so excited to try out the modern version of the Snugli, because it looked to me like the manufacturer addressed the things that bothered me about it before. I'm happy to report that they did, and quite well.

The padded shoulder straps are very comfortable, even if you're going to wear it for a long while. The carrier itself doesn't weigh much, either, which is very nice for a structured baby carrier. I love how easy it is to use this carrier. You just slip the Front Snugli over your head and put your arms through the straps. Add baby to the front, and you're done! The straps cross at the back of the carrier to distribute weight nicely, but they are held together in such a way that allows them to move a bit to adjust to your body. The connector for these straps makes sure you don't have to un-twist or re-route straps when you want to put the carrier on. There are buckles at the base of the straps, too, in case you want to just un-clip to take the carrier off.

There are also buckles low on the front of the carrier so you can open the baby compartment out all the way if you want to. I find that it's easy enough to get my son into the carrier by just opening the one-handed buckles at the top, though.

You can fold down the front of the carrier without un-doing any buckles. My son likes to look around when he's awake, so the easy fold-down front is great for him. When he falls asleep, I can just flip the front back up and he has head support for nap time.

Snugli has released some really cool patterns for their baby carriers lately. They're very fashionable while they're being functional! Several neutral options are available, as well as some with bold pops of color and trendy patterns.

The basic Front Snugli is the base model of the Snugli line. If you want more features, you can upgrade to a vented front carrier with better air flow, a Front & Back Snugli with lumbar support and a higher weight range, or a Front, Back & Hip Snugli that offers more versatility. It's nice that the company accommodates those who want a very basic carrier.

With this baby carrier, you have only two options for babywearing - facing you or facing out. Other baby carriers offer more versatility.

The weight range only goes to 26 lbs. That should accommodate most babies to about a year, but again, other baby carriers offer more. If you plan to use the Snugli for a long time, you may want to upgrade to one of the other models that has a higher weight limit and the lumbar strap to help carry a heavier baby.

The structure of this baby carrier makes it hard to fold up to carry in a diaper bag. This baby carrier is not one that you can easily breastfeed in. You'll probably need to take baby out of the carrier for meals.

Disclosure: Review samples were provided by the manufacturer. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.