Introduction:
In the first year of life, the spine is very susceptible to various types of overload. During this period, it is extremely important to ensure optimal conditions for the physiological formation of curvature of the spine.

Aim:
The aim of the work is to present optimal ways of carrying infants, recommended by the authors.

Material and methods:
Using the keywords: ‘carrying children,’ ‘stacking babies,’ ‘moving babies,’ ‘carrying an infant,’ ‘stacking infants,’ ‘moving infants‘ the following databases were searched: ScienceDirect, Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus and ClinicalKey. Works published after 1990 were searched. The presented text describes the authors’ own experience gained throughout over 30 years of clinical work.

Results and discussion:
In the first year of life, manner of carrying a child should be adapted to the stage of its psychomotor development. During the first 4 months of life, the baby’s spine needs full support. Between 4 and 8 months of age, it is acceptable to carry the child vertically with relief from the spine. In the period when the child acquires ability to independently assume a sitting position and is able to control positioning of the torso in space, his body weight may rest on the tubers ischiale.

Conclusions:
(1) Proper way of carrying babies is important in the prevention of developmental coordination disorder in infants in the first year of life. (2) Periodical check-up of carrying position proper for a given stage of a child’s development is recommended.