Nine reasons not to carry your baby facing out

http://www.bobafamily.com/blog/2011/10/11/nine-reasons-not-to-carry-your-baby-facing-out/

I personally hate hate hate the Ergo. I don't know why, but it just feels miserable on me. I have a bjorn active which I like and I have a beco, but I don't remember which model. There's two, and one allows forward facing and the other doesn't. I have the one that doesn't, but for my 1 yr old, I've put him forward facing anyway...sort of standing, but I was hanging on to him, and it was Ok. It pacified his need to see something other than my chest. It wouldn't be a good long term solution though.

I have the Ergo and have been happy with it. I've never tried the Beco, though.

We have the Beco Gemini and LOVE it! We can do front, back, and side carry with it and didn't need an insert for the infant stage like the Ergo. Way more comfortable than the Bjorn (for us) and fit my DH better than the Ergo. You really need to try them on because one may be a lot more comfortable than the others.

Agree with the pp -- I didn't get to try the Beco, but hearing about it now and being able to have your baby face out, I definitely would have gone with this over the Ergo. From about 7 months on, my baby had no interest in being carried in the Ergo, so I feel like it was kind of a waste, and it's not exactly an inexpensive carrier. Would love to have something where we can face out, but I don't think it's a good investment at this point (he's almost 9 months). Just my two cents!

They have beco carriers and the ergo carrier at Abbyslane in Manassas. They also offer 30 day trials for both.

PP here - to clarify, I ultimately bought the Ergo.

They let me try on the Ergo at BBB. I also tried the Bjorn there. Maybe check with them and ask. I ultimately bought one and am happy with it, but from what I understand the Beco allows you to have the baby facing out. If I could have done it over again I would have bought the Beco (or something similar) that allowed DS to face out. These days he's having none of the facing toward me stuff - he wants to look around and see everything.

We have a Beco Butterfly carrier, which has been great. I have long-standing lower back issues and did a lot of research/trying on before deciding on the Beco. It was the most comfortable while providing the best support. DD has been comfortable too, it seems, and has used it (with the infant insert) since she was about 2 months. I never found a place where I could try on everything I was interested in at the same place but that was four years ago.

Any thoughts on Beco vs Ergo carriers? Is there a local place where I can try both and buy?