Travel Baby

If you get the wrong baby stroller for your personal lifestyle it could prove to be a costly mistake. Good baby strollers are quite an expensive purchase especially if you start looking at the initial investment for your newborn as one total outlay. Not only do you have to buy a baby stroller but there are all the other things you need such as a safety car seat, a crib and all the other nursery furniture, clothes, toys and nursery safety items such as a baby monitor, it all adds up.

The best bet is to make sure you get your baby purchases right first time, even if the cost of the baby stroller you really want is a bit more than you had originally intended to spend. A few dollars extra at the start is far better than having to fork out for another baby stroller when you find you have made the wrong choice.

As with everything baby, safety must come at the top of your stroller list. It’s advisable to buy a new baby stroller so that you can easily check that your baby stroller meets all the required safety standards.

A good baby stroller will have a five point harness but as a minimum you want a crotch strap to prevent your baby from slipping out from under the safety belt and the breaking system is important if you don’t want to find your baby making a run for it!

You will spend many hours pushing your baby stroller so check out the height of the handles, adjustable is best so that both mum and dad can comfortably push the baby stroller.

I don’t think you need reminding that babies make a lot of mess so only buy a baby stroller with washable fabric unless of course you can afford to consider your stroller as disposable.

Don’t forget that your baby won’t travel as light as you do, everywhere you go your changing bag, formula milk (if you are bottle feeding) and other necessary bits and pieces will follow, and somehow you have to carry the shopping as well, so make sure your stroller is sturdy enough to carry a bag or two on the handles and has plenty of storage underneath.

Where ever you go you need to be able to store your baby stroller, in the house, in the car or on the train so check out how easily your baby stroller folds away and if you are regularly out and about on public transport checking out lightweight strollers might be a good idea.

Standard strollers are generally more versatile. They are larger so offer your baby far more room and are designed with greater baby comfort in mind. Standard strollers also tend to have far more storage but it all comes at a cost, more weight and more bulk.

For the more active parents there is always the jogging stroller but this does tend to be for those that can stretch to a second stroller. Jogging strollers have all-terrain suspension systems and work well on most surfaces but they don’t fold as well as other strollers and they are not recommended for newborn babies.

For the regular traveller there is always the option of the complete travel system which incorporates the baby stroller and safety car seat all in one.

At the end of the day beyond the critical safety features which baby stroller you choose is totally down to lifestyle and personal choice. If you want to minimise the restrictions a newborn has on your life go for the stroller that best meets your everyday needs.

By: Terry Ross

If a child is using either a toddler only seat, or a ‘convertible’ infant/toddler seat, its time to transition the child into a booster seat when he or she has outgrown the existing seat restraints (usually at about 40 pounds), but is not yet ready for just seat belts (the minimum height recommended for a child to start using just seat belts is 4′9″). These seats can typically accommodate a child from 30 to 100 pounds (usually 4 to 8 years of age). Child car seat manufacturers are bound by very strict guidelines, and you may be surprised to find that some of the more expensive seats don’t provide any better level of protection than those which are more moderately priced.

Many State laws require children to be in a safety seat only up to age 4 or so, and many parents assume that children who are older than this will be safely restrained by just an adult safety belt. This, however, is not the case. An automobile’s seat belt system is designed for use by adults, not small children, and it usually will not fit a child properly. A booster seat is designed to improve the fit of the vehicle’s safety belt system across the child’s body, for greater comfort and safety. (These seats should never be positioned in front of an air bag, as deployment of the bag can cause serious (even fatal) injuries to a child.)

Booster seats are available with either a “high back” or a “low back”. High back seats should always be used in cars without headrests, or with low seats, both to provide the child with a comfortable place to rest his or her head, and to provide protection against “whiplash” in an accident. Low back seats are generally cheaper than high back seats, and are easier to move from car to car, but should only be used in cars with headrests and high seat backs.

High back seats are often available with a 5 point harness (when car seats are not being used with a harness, they are considered being used in the “belt positioning” mode). Using a harness is generally the safest way to restrain a child, and it is recommended that, if a harness is used, it be used until the child outgrows it (usually at about 40 pounds). There are also ‘convertible’ toddler/booster seats available. These seats can be used for children from the time they are ready to start using a toddler car seat until they are ready to start using just the car seats belts.

Booster seats are designed to raise the child up so that the lap and shoulder seat belts fit properly. Belt positioning seats must always be used with a car’s lap and shoulder belt (never with a lap only belt). The car seat will raise a child so the lap belt goes over the child’s pelvis and hips (instead of his or her abdomen), and the shoulder belt crosses the middle of the child’s chest and shoulder (the seat may have a clip that can be adjusted to ensure that the shoulder belt does not cross the child’s face or neck).

By: Tom Littlepage