Carrier Review: Wrapsody DuO

I had the pleasure of trying out our lending library’s Wrapsody DuO the past few months. My son was approximately 27 lbs and 22 months old during my tests, so I found a few other kiddos to play with for land tests. I used my son for water wearing.

This wrap is made of 100% knit polyester, of which 55% is recycled! The material blocks a lot of sunlight, it's the equivalent of UPF 45. It's stretchy like a swimsuit, so only suitable for front carries and with children up to 25 lbs for land use, up to 35 lbs for water use. Short periods of land wearing (ie. to and from the pool) are ok with the heavier kiddos, but it's not really comfortable and you will feel a sag. The wrap comes in two sizes: regular and long. The link to sizing is here. I used a regular.

Upon tying, I found that the middle marker on this particular wrap was not exactly center, but that was easily remedied. It was just as easy to get the child in as any stretchy wrap I have ever used, though I was nervous about the knot staying due to the slick feel of the material. The knots held: I never felt any slippage, nor were they difficult to undo.

Carrying around my friend’s 20 lb, 6 month old son at the splash pad, we were able to get into the water sprays without me fearing I’d lose my grip on his slippery, pudgy body. The wrap never really lost its tension over the 20 minutes we played and I did not feel the need to re-tie, which was a great relief. The wrap dried on us as we walked back to the car and was fully dry to put away within 5 minutes of leaving the water on a 90F day with almost no humidity. We were, however, not soaked, just damp. Even prior to getting into the water sprays, I was impressed by how cool it was, despite the dark color. It wicked away any sweat we had and kept us cool.

On a trip to Puerto Peñasco, Mexico (Rocky Point), I took this along, happy to finally find some water warm enough to take my son in. We had tried in a pool, but apparently 75F water was too cold for him and he lifted his feet up and started trying to climb out of the wrap until I agreed we would get out.

At the beach, I kept the wrap tied around my waist and it did not feel too bulky or cumbersome. It was simple to wrap, even with a light wind. The water was warm enough for him, but he was not a fan of the waves buffeting us from time to time. That aside, he was very happy to be wrapped to me in such a turbulent situation. He loved the closeness that he doesn’t feel in a water ring sling. He burrowed his head into me when the big waves hit and looked around happily during the calmer ones. We were able to go out until the water got to our mid-backs. The wrap kept him safely tied to me where he could not get pulled out to sea by a rough wave, just nearly dunked momentarily.

The only down-side to this use was that he wanted to get down immediately after getting out, and with his size, I would have had to support his weight until he did to remain comfortable. This meant a very wet wrap being removed. MUCH less than ideal. I missed the dry wrap from the splash pad as this was a cold, wet, somewhat sandy mess to haul back to camp. It took a while to dry with the mild humidity, but not too bad, maybe 5-10 minutes.

I’m sure that a pool use would have been much more ideal with the lack of semi-unpredictable waves which made us not go deep enough to really feel the weightlessness this wrap could have offered.

I loved this wrap, though it was slightly less than ideal for my toddler. I’d recommend it for pool and splash pad use, not so much for beach, though it will do in a pinch.