Grow is, just as its name suggests, a fully adjustable carrier. Its age/size recommendation is probably something even the manufacturer is not really sure about yet – if you look at their website, they state different recommendation in case of different colour variants of the carrier – in one case it is “from 3 months of age/60-62 cm up to 98 cm”, in another case “from 2 months/58 cm up to 98 cm”. On Moisha’s Facebook Page, the carrier is recommended from 2 months of age/58 cm up to 92-98 cm” (as to the date of 9th February 2020, but just a few days before the FB recommendation said “up to 92 cm”). I understand and commend on the effort not to being stuck in their “own truth” and changing the specification of the carrier according to the users’ impressions and experience. However, I am quite sure that this must be a bit confusing for potential customers if they find three slightly different official recommendations.
To be honest, I do not really understand Moisha’s tendency to narrow the size recommendation (I am quite sure that on the date the carrier was officially released the recommendation was “from 2 months of age/58 cm up to 98 cm”). I personally adjusted the carrier on a tiny baby that measured exactly 58 cm and it already fit just fine – and on the other hand I saw a nearly-98-cm toddler in it and it was not small at all. I think that Moisha can stick with the original recommendation without any compromises.
It is obvious that the manufacturer gave it a lot of though when developing this carrier and that they had in mind that they should offer “something more”, or better said “the best” of carriers – something that should fit an “average” customer the best. Do want a soft waist belt like in Lenka 4ever but you are not a fan of adjusting of the back panel by strings? Here comes Moisha with its Velcro system, just like in Kavka or new versions of Moyo carriers. Do you want banana shaped shoulder straps with rails like in Kavka, with the wonderful magnetic buckle like in Sestrice but you do not like a hard waist belt? Again, you can choose Moisha. I also loved some details (for some these might be irrelevant details but in my case they put my user comfort to a whole different level) like the bidirectional buckles on the shoulder straps, plastic loops on the ends of the straps that adjust the height of the back panel or the upper strap on the shoulder straps directed backwards. Basically, there is not much I have to reproach about the construction of the carrier, only some details.
To be clear, I have not suddenly become a fan of soft waist belts – such waist belts are not built for me or for my relatively big and heavy wearie and my opinion did not change even with Moisha. A proper toddler carrier of my taste should have a solid, hard waist belt, but of course, this is not something that Moisha Grow aspires to be. It is simply a fully adjustable carrier “from the beginning” and I suppose no one would buy it for a 3-years-old. With Emilka’s 13 kg, the waist belt did not feel comfortable even when wearing her on my back, even though the shoulder straps are adequately padded, ergonomically shaped and overall very comfortable. Let me explain why the chest buckle on rails is so ingenious in my opinion – in case of wearing in the front, sometimes it is quite difficult to fasten the chest buckle low enough, in a position comfortable enough for longer wearing. If the buckle is on rails, you can fasten it comfortably just behind your neck and pull it lower with the straps hanging down – no need of manipulation with the shoulder straps or asking help from another person. Personally, my joints are quite elastic and I can fasten the chest buckle basically in any position on my back; however, I came to realize how great the rails are when I started to wear Emilka exclusively on my back. The “usual” chest buckles are attached to the shoulder straps by strap “rings” around their padding and in any case, the padding get more or less deformed while wearing the carrier. This is something that is very uncomfortable for me and presses on my chest when wearing my daughter on my back. Logically, nothing like this happens in case of the chest buckle on rails. The only thing I would reproach about Moisha’s chest buckle is that it seems a little bit too loose on the rails (probably because the rails are not lined with textile, like in case of Kavka, for example). On the other hand, the magnetic buckle in a wonderful thing with which I am totally in love with since trying the Sestrice carrier!
The position of the wearie is fine – at least of my own wearie; in case of smaller children I could imagine that the knees could be a bit higher – but this is something that is, diplomatically said, arguable if it is necessary and also it is tolerated/not commented on in case of many other much better established carrier brands than Moisha. Therefore, I am probably in no position to criticize this. As you can see in the photos, while wearing on the back, it is possible the position the wearie very high – which, I must say, surprised me quite a bit, since Grow is a carrier with a soft waist belt.
However, there is one thing I need to comment on – when wearing on the back, there is no place to attach the hood if your wearie falls asleep. Well, to be true, the IS a place to attach it – the hooks on the shoulder straps. But in case of wearing on the back, if you have the upper straps fastened to the maximum, the hooks are in too low position and you cannot use the to attach the hood. I do understand why it was not possible to place the hooks “higher” – because of the rails. Moisha should probably inspire in other carriers with rails – Sestrice carrier has studs to attach the hood, Kavka has loops attached to the rails themselves and Mirkine onbuhimos (oh yes, the only onbuhimos I know about that have rails!) have a simple button on the shoulder straps. I really missed this in case of Moisha because this is basically our everyday situation, that Emilka falls asleep on my back.
It is quite a pity, this “hooks and hood” detail, because otherwise, Moisha Grow is a very well constructed carrier in its category of fully adjustable carriers that I would gladly recommend to parents who are choosing their first carrier. Only if the attachment of the hood was different, I would probably sound more excited in the end of this review. However, I hope that Moisha will think about it and find some other solution in their future Grow carriers. But – all in all, I am almost surprised how good this carrier is, taken it is a “first try” of this babywearing brand.