The Suki Baby Trend: What Touring Rockstars Forget to Tell You

I was standing in Terminal B at DFW airport, dripping sweat onto my carry-on bag, trying to figure out which of the fourteen plastic clips on my baby carrier was currently digging a trench into my left rib. I had a fussy four-month-old strapped to my chest, a diaper bag sliding down my shoulder, and less than ten minutes to make my connection. Right at that exact moment of absolute parenting rock bottom, my sister texted me an article about Suki Waterhouse taking her newborn on a 27-date concert tour. I stared at the photo of this gorgeous, glowing woman living her absolute best suki baby lifestyle, then looked down at my own shirt, which was heavily decorated with what I hoped was just spit-up. I'm just gonna be real with you: the internet makes having a baby on the go look like a high-fashion editorial, but the reality is mostly just trying not to cry in an airport bathroom.

This whole idea of the effortlessly mobile, touring-the-world baby has been living in my head rent-free ever since. It actually reminded me of this old viral blog post I read ages ago by a parenting writer named Suki Wessling, who famously ranted about how modern baby gear is overcomplicated and how we're all stressing out over the wrong things. When I had my oldest—who's basically my living, breathing cautionary tale at this point—I bought completely into the hype. I thought I needed the most tactical, expensive gear on the market and that I had to do everything by the book to travel safely. Now that I’m three kids deep into this rodeo, running an Etsy shop from my kitchen table in rural Texas while trying to keep these tiny humans alive, my philosophy looks a whole lot different. What I believed back then and what I know now are two entirely different things.

The great plastic buckle conspiracy

Let's talk about the carrier situation first, because Suki Wessling was dead right when she complained about how ridiculous these things have gotten. With my first baby, I bought this $180 structured carrier that literally looked like I was gearing up to parachute out of a military aircraft. It had a lumbar support board, crisscrossing nylon straps, and these heavy-duty plastic buckles that required a master's degree in engineering to clasp behind your own back. I used to stand in the parking lot of the grocery store for ten minutes just trying to get the baby loaded in without dropping him on the asphalt. The worst part was that my mother would watch me struggle with all these straps and tell me that in her day, they just carried us on their hips while chain-smoking and cooking dinner. I usually roll my eyes at her survival-of-the-fittest parenting stories, but honestly, she wasn't entirely wrong about the gear being too much.

I ended up ditching the tactical vest entirely after a very sobering conversation with our pediatrician, Dr. Miller. She drew this slightly wonky diagram on the crinkly exam table paper to explain how a baby's hips need to look like an 'M' when you wear them. I'm pretty sure she said their hip socket cartilage is super soft in those early months, which means if their little legs just dangle straight down like they're in a parachute harness, the joint can literally slide out of place and cause hip dysplasia. She also rattled off this thing called the TICKS rule, which basically just means you need to keep them tight against you, make sure you can see their face so they don't suffocate, keep them high enough to kiss, and make sure their chin isn't slumped on their chest cutting off their airway. Try maintaining a perfect 'M' shape and keeping a baby's chin up while wrestling with thick canvas and plastic snaps. It's miserable.

You're honestly so much better off just tossing those bulky contraptions and grabbing a simple ring sling or a soft wrap made out of breathable fabric, because the heat is the real issue anyway. When you strap a hot little furnace of a baby to your own sweaty chest, especially down here in the Texas heat, you both end up miserable. That's why I'm incredibly picky about what my baby wears under a carrier now. I absolutely swear by the Flutter Sleeve Organic Cotton Baby Bodysuit from Kianao. It’s got this precious little ruffle that makes it look like an actual outfit instead of just underwear, but more importantly, it's 95% organic cotton. It actually lets their skin breathe so they don't get that awful red heat rash where their tummy presses against yours. I'll be totally honest, sometimes those cute flutter sleeves get a little scrunched up when you're tying a wrap over them, but you just pull them flat once the baby is settled. The 5% elastane in the fabric means it stretches around their diaper without losing its shape, which is a blessing when you're doing parking-lot diaper changes.

Taking a baby on an airplane without losing your religion

Which brings me back to the whole Suki baby travel fantasy. If you see a pop star getting off a plane with a baby in her arms, just know she probably has a nanny carrying the car seat out of frame. Here's what I genuinely believed with my first kid: I thought that since airlines graciously let you bring a baby under two as a "lap infant" for free, it must be the safest and smartest way to travel. Why on earth would I spend $400 on an extra seat when my baby just wants to nurse and sleep on my chest anyway?

Then we hit severe turbulence over Denver when my oldest was eight months old. The plane dropped what felt like a hundred feet in two seconds, my stomach ended up in my throat, and I realized with absolute horror that my arms weren't physically strong enough to hold onto a squirming twenty-pound baby against the force of gravity. Dr. Miller completely validated my panic at our next appointment, telling me that the absolute safest way for a baby to fly is strapped into their own FAA-approved car seat in their own airplane seat. She said something about how anything not strapped down becomes a projectile, which gave me nightmares for a week. Yeah, buying that extra ticket hurts the budget, y'all. It really does. But the peace of mind of knowing your baby is locked into a five-point harness while you drink your tiny ginger ale is worth skipping the Starbucks drive-thru for a few months.

The other nightmare of flying is the ear-popping. My grandma always swore that rubbing whiskey on their gums was the cure-all for travel fussiness, which, bless her heart, we absolutely don't do anymore. Babies don't know how to pop their ears, so you've to keep them swallowing or chewing during takeoff and landing. I used to try to time my nursing perfectly, but flight delays always ruined it. Now, I keep the Panda Teether literally tied to my bag. It's made of food-grade silicone with this little bamboo-looking handle that they can actually grip on their own. The different textures are great for them to gnaw on when the cabin pressure changes. I'll say, because I'm keeping it real, if you don't attach it to a pacifier clip, your baby is absolutely going to chuck it onto the disgusting airplane floor right when you need it most. But as long as you tether it to their shirt, it's a lifesaver for travel anxiety.

Looking for more ways to make traveling with a tiny human slightly less chaotic? You can check out Kianao's full collection of sustainable baby essentials that seriously hold up to the realities of modern parenting.

Shoelaces are a problem for future me

Part of that old Suki Wessling rant was about how parents today are delaying fine motor milestones because we put our kids in velcro shoes instead of making them learn to tie shoelaces. Let me just address this quickly: if anyone expects my four-year-old to master the bunny ears technique while we're running twenty minutes late for preschool drop-off, they've lost their mind, and we're a velcro family until further notice.

But the shoe debate really misses the bigger point entirely. Dr. Miller told me that babies shouldn't even really be wearing shoes most of the time anyway. Apparently, being barefoot is the absolute best thing for them when they're learning to pull up and walk. I guess there are thousands of nerve endings in their little feet that need to feel the ground so their brain can figure out balance and proprioception—which is just a fancy medical word I definitely had to Google, but it basically means knowing where your body is in space. When you cram their soft, developing foot arches into stiff, heavy mini-sneakers just because they look cute for Instagram, you're really making it harder for them to learn how to walk naturally.

This means they need tons of barefoot floor time, which is why I stopped buying those awful plastic activity centers that trap them in a little bouncy seat. Instead, we do a lot of time on the living room rug with the Wooden Baby Gym. It's a wooden A-frame with these really sweet, subtle hanging toys like a little fabric elephant and some wooden rings. It doesn't play obnoxious electronic music or flash strobe lights into their retinas, it just encourages them to reach up, grab, and roll over while their bare toes grip the floor. Full disclosure: it's wonderfully sturdy for babies, but if you've a chaotic toddler running around like I do, you definitely have to watch to make sure they don't try to sit on top of the frame like it's a piece of playground equipment.

honestly, whether you're taking your baby on a world tour or just trying to survive a trip to Target, you don't need a million complicated gadgets. You just need a few good, safe things that make your life easier and don't require an instruction manual to operate.

If you're ready to swap the overcomplicated plastic gear for beautiful, natural essentials that honestly work, go grab that organic flutter bodysuit and play gym for your own peace of mind.

The Messy Truth About Travel and Gear (FAQs)

How do you keep a baby's ears from popping on a plane?
Honestly, you just have to keep their jaw moving during takeoff and the initial descent. I try to nurse or offer a bottle if the timing works out, but babies are unpredictable and sometimes they just refuse to eat. That's why I always have a highly textured silicone teether clipped to their shirt. If they're aggressively chewing on a teething toy, it works the exact same muscles and helps relieve that awful pressure build-up.

Are structured carriers really bad for babies?
Not necessarily all of them, but they can be if you're not paying attention to how the baby sits. If your baby is just dangling by their crotch with their legs pointing straight down, that's terrible for their hip joints. You want their knees pulled up higher than their bottom so they look like a little frog. I just find that soft wraps and ring slings make it way easier to get that proper 'M' shape without having to adjust fifty different rigid straps.

Is it really worth paying for an airplane seat for an infant?
I know nobody wants to hear this because airline tickets are outrageously expensive, but yes, it's. I used to do the free lap-infant thing to save money, but after hitting bad turbulence, I realized I physically couldn't hold onto my baby if the plane dropped suddenly. Putting them in their FAA-approved car seat in their own space is the only way I can fly now without having a low-grade panic attack.

What should a baby wear in a baby wrap?
Less than you think! Remember that your body heat is basically acting like a giant radiator against them, plus the wrap itself counts as at least one layer of clothing. I usually just put them in a sleeveless organic cotton bodysuit. You want natural fibers that breathe so the sweat doesn't pool against their sensitive skin and cause a gnarly heat rash.

Why does everyone say babies should be barefoot?
Because their feet are basically sensory antennas trying to send messages to their brain about how to balance. When you put thick, stiff shoes on a baby who's learning to stand or walk, you're muffling all those signals. Let them grip the carpet or the grass with their bare toes—it helps develop their arches and strengthens their ankles way better than any expensive "first walker" shoe could.