Our third baby is 6 months old now. Our middle son is 3 years, so before the youngest was born, we’d just become accustomed to not lugging a pram around. As soon as the little one was born we remembered just how much of a faff prams can be!! They take up so much space and we spend a lot time walking at National Trust locations, which often means less-than-pram-friendly surfaces. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve lugged a pram through a leafy woodland area cursing at myself.
So we decided early on that we would buy a toddler hiking carrier that would last the little one a couple of years. Eventually, after a lot of research, we decided on the LittleLife Freedom S4 child carrier:
Our Review in Summary

Want the quick version? We absolutely LOVE it. We’ve only used it a few times as our son is only recently big enough to sit in it. But it has been a complete game-changer for us. Here’ what we love and what we’d change:
We LOVE:
- It really is easy to get baby in and out and to get it onto your shoulders without anyone else helping
- Comes with a sunshade which conveniently sits in the back pocket of the carrier
- It’s lightweight and, though quite some size, takes up much, much less space than a pram
- You can buy some decent accessories for it. We invested in a rain cover straight away
- Really flexible in terms of the height of the adult who can use it and the age of the baby you can get in. Now, I’m not sure how I’ll personally manage lugging a 3 year old around though. I’m 5 foot 2 and my husband is 6 foot tall so for us, one that is this versatile is essential
- Has stirrups you can easily tuck away, which (as baby gets taller and becomes a toddler) will be really useful
- Baby can sleep in the LittleLife Freedom S4 carrier. It has a detachable face pad right in front of the little one that supports their face if they fall asleep (as our baby does!)
- Small pockets on the waistband so you can get to things like cahs or cards very easily
We would like to see:
- More storage would be good. We managed to get nappies, wipes, a bottle and a change of clothes in, to be fair. But it was a bit of a squeeze which, in turn, makes it trickier to get things in and out
We’ve answered a few questions we had ourselves about the LittleLife Freedom S4 below.
Can baby sleep in the Freedom S4?
This was a big concern for us. And in short, yes. Here’s our youngest having a little sleep in ours today.

There’s a detachable face pad (you can see him dribbling on it above). It’s lovely and soft and velcro attached, so you can take it off and wash it very easily.

Our baby sleeps quite a lot if he’s outside in the pram. I don’t think he sleeps for as long in the carrier as he does in the pram (he can sleep for an hour in a row in the pram but probably only half hour in the carrier). But he does sleep and appears to be comfortable.
How long can baby sit in it?
Our baby has sat in it for an hour and a half at a time. We usually stop every 90 minutes or so to get him out for a bit, but we’ve done two such stints back to back with absolutely no problems at all.
How does the Freedom S4 Compare to Other LittleLife Carriers?
Here’s a list of the carriers available with some comparison metrics:












Would we recommend it?
Absolutely.