Red Dot award-winning baby carrier-cum-rocking cradle

The Suki carrier has a soft but tough structure that allows the parent to convert it into a rocking cradle with little to no change in the baby's position.

Baby carriers are now experiencing a surge in popularity, as many parents have adapted to the practice of "babywearing", which entails keeping a child close and connected to the parent during daily activities through a variety of baby carriers, slings or wraps.

Babywearing, in spite of its many reported benefits, also has its drawbacks, particularly in terms of convenience on the parent's part. One such problem being that when the child falls asleep, the process of removing him from the carrier then laying him down, is physically tedious for the parent, and could wake up the baby.

In response to this, Germany-based designer Daniela Gardewag created the Suki carrier, which can be converted into a rocker and cradle. Its structure was inspired by the cradleboards used by the Native Americans to carry their children on their backs.

The soft-structured Suki has a bamboo belt that can be expanded to form the cradle's backbone, which allows the child to be propped in a sitting or lying down position. Its crescent shape also enables the carrier to be rocked back and forth.

When not in use, the bamboo belt can be rolled up then kept in the carrier's bottom pocket. The top part of the Suki can also be folded to form a protective cap for the child.

According to Gardewag, the multifunction carrier is suitable for infants eight months old and below. Suki derived its name from a Lakota word that translates to "to be loved by somebody". Its recent prototype won the Red Dot award for Design Concept.