Out And About Prams
Baby Pushchairs - Advice for Finding the Best One for You and Your Child
Many brands sell baby pushchairs, buggies, strollers and prams, and searching for the right one for your baby can be a daunting task. If you’re about to have your first child you probably won’t have gone through this process before so it can feel quite difficult, as there so many brands and styles to choose between.
To help you here are some tips about what to look for and what to think about when choosing the perfect baby pushchair
• Functionality
Firstly you need to think about whether you need a pushchair, a buggy, a pram, a stroller or a complete travel system. This decision is based on the age of your child (a newborn needs to lie flat), how you travel (do you need a car seat that can be transfered to your pushchair frame), when and where you’ll be using it (every day, around town, on holiday, etc). For every day use you might need a complete travel system but on holiday you might only want a lightweight stroller for example.
• Kids
The second decision is based on how many children you have and their individual ages, and whether you are planning to expand your family in the near future. So will you need a tandem or a twin pushchair, or the option to add another seat or a ride-on board at some stage? If you already have two children you have to decide whether you want them to sit alongside each other, one in front of the other or whether you want one child to ride on a board that attaches to the baby pushchair.
• Budget
It is important to think about how much money you want to spend and look at which brands are within your budget, as prices can vary vastly. You can get some very good quality, affordable baby pushchairs going right up to very expensive designer brands. It’s worth looking around to find offers and sales on if you have a particular brand in mind that you’d like. Remember that if you do your research well and get the right pushchair now it is an investment for your baby for the next few years of their life, and longer maybe if you have another child.
• Weight
You need to think about the weight you’ll have to push around, how strong or fit are you, will you be lifting and carrying a pushchair on your own? Do you travel on public transport, or in a car, or both? Where do you live, is it easily accessable, are there many stairs to carry a pushchair up and down? When you look at the weight of a pushchair or a pram remember that it's less the weight of your baby so take that into consideration wehn thinking about how heavy it will be to push around!
• Manoeuvrability
It’s really important to consider how easy it is to manoeuvre a baby pushchair and to think about where you’ll need to manoeuvre it. Will you be zipping around town, through doors, in and out of shops, cafes and other tight spaces? If so you probably want a swivel front wheel, but a lockable one for using over rougher terrain. If you plan on off-roading, on the beach or in the countryside, think about the suspension as well as the manoeuvrability of the wheels.
• Compactness
When you're looking at pushchairs in a shop they will most likely be unfolded so remember to try folding them to see how easy they are to fold, and how compact they are when folded. Have a think about how and where you'll store it at home and how easily it will fit in your car? Check whether it's easy to unfold and fold one handed, and whether it has quick release wheels if you need to take them off to fit it in the car easily? If you’re looking online make sure you check out the dimensions of the pushchair when it’s folded as well as unfolded.
• Style
Although the functional features are the most important things to think about it is also important to decide on the style you like and the colours you prefer. Styles of pushchairs also vary based on what usage or terrain they’re aimed at, e.g. 3-wheeler buggies are often considered to be more sporty and have larger, pneumatic wheels for bumpy ground. But there are now all sorts of styles available, in 3-wheelers and 4-wheelers, from contemporary to classic, minimalist to chunky, pretty to funky, etc.
• Extras
You might decide that you just want a basic pushchair without any extras to start with but it's worth checking whether you can add extras to it at a later date if you want to? Is it possible to attach a car seat or a carry cot to the chassis so you can move baby from car to pushchair without disturbance? Can the pushchair be adapted by adding an extra seat or a ride-on board if you have another child? Some pushchair brands have a whole range of mathcing accessories that can be bought separately, which is great to know as you can then adapt your pushchair as circumstances change without having to buy a new one. Some baby pushchairs also come with more accessories than others, but most come with a matching rain cover, sun hood and a bag or basket of some kind. Lots have a range of matching accessories that you can buy separately, for example parasols, sun shades, footmuffs, blankets, insect nets and weather shields. Always check what's included in the price and what you might have to buy as optional extras.
Comfort for Baby
Possibly one of the most important elements to consider is how comfortable the seat is going to be for your baby. Have a look if it has several recline positions, including a lie flat position for new babies as not all pushchairs have this option and are not suitable from birth. Have a look for features like an adjustable footrest, adjustable straps, a headrest, pads for smaller babies, etc. Some baby pushchairs have seats that face forward, some face backwards and some are interchangeable so you should think about which way you'd like your baby to face or whether you want the option to change this as your baby gets older.
• Parent Comfort
Your comfort is also an important thing to think about. What sort of terrain will you be covering and for what length of time will you pushing the pushchair on a regular basis. Look for pushchairs with an adjustable handle height if you are tall as some handles are too low. Check out how the brake works, is it a foot operated for a hands free operation while you are dealing with lots of other things at the same time? Is it easy to push with one hand while holding the hand of another child with your spare hand? Is it easy to fold with one hand?
There may be other considerations to think about depending on your personal circumstances and needs but if you research thoroughly and take the time to choose you should end up with the right pushchair for you and your baby. Use the tips here as a starting point for your search, write a list of the things you need and then compare similar baby pushchairs made by different brands before reaching a final decision.
Gavaskar throws toys out of the pram! (Cricket)
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This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 4th, 2011 at 9:55 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.