Child Carrier for 4 Year Old Boy?

keep the hikes short. stop and rest if he gets tired. piggyback for 50 feet or so every now and then if you must.
but i'd really put a stop to the carrying.
khairete
S.

WHAT DOES BEING A SINGLE DAD HAVE TO DO WITH THIS QUESTION?!?!?!

Work up to the hike. He is FAR TO OLD to be carried around like a baby.

I am not lazy either and wish I could be carried, but it is not going to happen.

He is too big/ old to be carried any longer. Just tell him, sorry son, you are to big to carry, but we can sit and rest here for 3 minutes.

At some point, you just have to admit, that time is over.
It is not worth your back. I promise, you do not want to start having a back problem. They are life long problems.

We spent a week in Yellowstone this summer. I looked into a carrier for our three year old, since we knew that even just seeing the sights would be a great deal of walking. I heard about the Kelty. It got great reviews for younger children. It holds up to 50lbs. But we read that it could be rather difficult to get the child on when you were by yourself. And some kids didn't like being confined. And knowing our daughter, she'd be upset with an obstructed view. And I liked the idea of the Piggyback Rider. It holds children up to 60 lbs. There is a bar to stand on and they ride on your back. Since they are standing up they can see over your head. It looks like something that may work in your situation, if your hikes are on the shorter end. After much debate, we just toughed it out with our hiker. We just learned we had to skip any hikes over two miles and to be patient. Good luck!

At 4 he is kind of old for being schlepped around. An occassional picking up is fine but having a carrier for a perfectly healthy 4 year old is just not the move in my opinion and believe me I picked up and carried my only born child for a long time but it was only short lengths.

In my family we are walkers. We walk everywhere and the kids learn at an early age to push past their being tired and press on. Perhaps taking a few breaks on the hike will help refresh his tired legs and then you can continue with more walking/hiking. Time to encourage little man to grow up just a little more and stand on his own two feet. It doesn't mean you love him any less it just means things are shifting which they should.

my daughter likes to be carried but while hiking she somehow finds abnormal amounts of energy while looking for animals and such. i dont have an answer for you but I agree with everyone else. Do hikes that are a few miles long and go off course, walk in the water instead of beside it, have lunch on a clif or beside a waterfall with your feet in the water, look for snakes when he gets tired...they are all things i do to avoid carrying my daughter and even with her overly dramatic self and love for being carried it works until the last 10 minutes of the few hour long hike

You can do a lot with a kid that age -- and I mean go pretty far -- as long as you plan for breaks. My kids (7 and 4) have always accompanied us on hikes. On 4th of July, I said "Want to go to the top of memorial hill?" and they enthusiastically said yes. It wasn't until we were nearly at the bottom on our way down that we found it was one mile each way. My 4 year old rode on my shoulders for a bit of the distance, my back for a little bit too, but for most of it she walked or RAN. Yep, even at the end my kids were still ready to run and run and run. So plan for breaks, let him ride on your back (if you have a day pack, then have him wear the day pack when you carry him) for short distances, and try to make it about the fun and not the distance.

Personally, I would keep the walks and hikes very short at first, and then gradually build-up his endurance. If he needs to rest, you guys can take a break, but IMO he's getting to be too much of a "big kid" to be carried - and it's okay to tell him that. We had to say that to my younger stepson all the time at that age, when we went to places with a lot of walking, like the zoo.

I rented a Kelty backpack hiker when I was at the Grand Canyon. It was great. At the time, I used the one for a littler guy, but I believe they make one for the older kiddos too.
I liked that it had structure and room for water,e tc. so I didn't have my son AND another pack for things we needed for the hike itself.
Good luck.

I have the Kelty and have loved it but not for a child that age. It's almost impractical at that point. Plan your hike to have lot's of little breaks and don't plan long hikes. honestly when they can walk...they can walk. we only used the carrier when we were coming across steep area's and felt it would be safer to have them in the carrier.

At 4 my son was 42" tall and 42 lbs.
He was too big for carriers and slings and too heavy to ride seated up on our shoulders.
We could give him piggy back rides for awhile.
You could also do a fireman carry, but it's not very comfortable.

I want one of these sooo bad!!
http://piggybackrider.com/

I think it sounds perfect or a child your sons age, and it would probably be fun too!

Remember, once he gets the idea that being carried by you at some point during a hike is a normal part of hiking, he will expect it. Not all the time, of course, but he will begin to expect it when hiking with you. Please don't set that expecation for him. Go gradually. If a hike is so long that he is wanting to be carried -- it's too long for him, even if you are an avid hiker and would like to go on.

Yes, there are devices to make it possible to carry him, but that doesn't mean it's a good idea to use them.

Be sure that hikes focus a LOT on what he can see, hear, touch, smell, etc. in the woods, not on how far or how long you keep going. A succesful hike with a child this age might be a very short distance but a long time spent turning over rocks seeking bugs, or listening hard in total silence for birds, or learning to be patient and still enough to spot an animal in the undergrowth. Add in a picnic lunch and give him a cheap little camera to use to take his very own photos. Drive closer to the spots you want him to see, rather than trying to hike it on foot yet.

Hi S.! I have had little experience with hiking backpacks, but there is a website (childcarriers.com) that has a wide assortment of carriers. There is a separate section just for hiking backpacks too. Another suggestion is to visit a larger outdoor shop and try them out with your son in the store to see how they fit. Good luck and happy hiking!

Ergo - I was able to carry my 50lb boy on my back with it pretty comfortably.

http://store.ergobaby.com/

I would look into hiking backpacks specifically; however, the Ergo carrier can work for older kids too. You can wear it on your back (also on your front for younger babies) and it's pretty comfy. Not sure how well it would work on a hike, but you should see if you can try one out.