Have babe, will travel with chic next-gen carriers.

East Van new mom Alison Cross wasn't about to let baby Coco tame her travel bug or dampen her yoga fetish. The 35-year-old costume designer, however, couldn't see herself shoving a stroller the size of a shopping cart over the dirt roads of Laos, or wearing a pastel-bunny-covered sling to salute the sun. So she teamed up with Emily Carr industrial-design grad Paula Violi to came up with a 21st-century take on an ancient idea: the Baby Buddha Together Sling. It's made with stretch fabric, comes in three modular parts, and looks like a comfy wrap shirt when it's on. No baby fuss, no baby muss.

"When I was pregnant, I knew I didn't want to look like the stroller moms looked," says Cross, who gives the impression of an artsy Julie Andrews. "They're frustrated. They don't fit through doors. Pushing a stroller voids any sexy outfit you might wear, because you look like you're pushing a plastic mountain."

Cross, who says she's travelled comfortably to 10 Asian and European countries wearing her sling, is at the forefront of a Canadian sling revolution. Babywearing, a term coined by pediatric guru William Sears, promises less crying, more interaction, and faster social learning than leaving the kid in a stroller or car seat.

In looks, slings have come a long way. In Chinatown and Richmond, traditional Chinese tie-on slings are well-used by grandmothers and still for sale. But Canada is also a hotbed for innovation; just witness Vancouver's Maya Wrap, Abbotsford's Pillowslip, Cranbrook's Nurtured Cub, Winnipeg's Peapod, Ontario's CXD Baby and Heart to Heart, and New Brunswick's Little Star. Langley's the Baby Sling Shop (www.thebabyslingshop.com) even offers its version of Tupperware parties in the Fraser Valley.

Wearing up to 16 kilos of baby places obvious strains on the body. Richmond-based chiropractor Heather McLeod has been seeing moms with back pain for 25 years. Slings, she said, can be fine, but they can also damage the neck and back. The trick is to find the right one. "Try them on in the store," McLeod advises. "If they feel right, have thick straps, and support you and the baby, they're probably okay."

McLeod notes that she sees more new moms with back problems now than when she did when she started her practice. She attributes this more to parents waiting to have kids than to the use of slings themselves.

Sales of the Baby Buddha have been so good that Cross and Violi have capped the number of stores they sell to. (See www.babybuddha.ca.) This fall, though, they're planning to take it across Canada. They're also developing a sustainable hemp/organic cotton/Lycra fabric, which will be manufactured cooperatively in a village in China. Their little baby's growing up so fast!