Selecting a Baby Stroller
So many options, but the smart buy is the purchase made with research!
By: Rebecca Bahlmann
There are a myriad of options when it comes to buying a
stroller. Since, as recent immigrants from New York we do not own a car and
also don’t need to, I was a little suspicious of the “Travel system” as it
just seemed like a lot of work to push a stroller and a car seat attached to
it, just in case I might need the car seat for a taxi journey. If you live
in a city without a car, the car seat has a different function and rests at
home most of the time.
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Kolcraft
Universal Infant
Car Seat Carrier
Cost: $45 [BUY] |
Cosco (Safety 1st)
Infant Car Seat,
Milano
Cost: $59 [BUY] |
= stylish classic looking compact stroller travel
system.
 I also found myself developing an allergy towards blue
plastic. In the end, and not wanting to buy the infamous
Bugaboo Frog, for
price reasons, I opted for the
Kolcraft car seat adaptor and a car seat.
Together they function as a compact light weight and stylish ensemble. The
basket underneath is very large and easily accessible, perfect for
groceries. If it starts to rain, snow, or if I need to hop into a taxi, I can undo
the strap that holds the car seat on it, collapse the Kolcraft and board the
cab without disturbing my sleeping baby. It is also nice and easy to
maneuver around, even with one hand, it’s light and narrow enough to fit
through the smallest of doorways which is important if you like to frequent
Starbucks! Note, width is something few people consider when buying a
stroller yet it is one of the most important things (especially if you live
in the city). I highly
recommend this stroller.
It’s disadvantage is, that your baby will probably
outgrow it within a couple years, at which point we plan to buy a very light weight
stroller one can take anywhere.
But for $45 it is very reasonable and – you will be
stopped in the street by curious mothers wanting to know what sort of
stroller it is – even our pediatrician wanted to know. With shipping both
together came to about $140. To go with it, I chose the
Cosco Infant Car
Seat (now the same seat is available from Safety 1st), Milano ($59) with a very handsome tartan pattern. To me this
combination looked both high tech but had a classic charm I could not find
much in other strollers or car seats even.
So far, it’s great and my baby dutifully sleeps in it,
although I know that newborns all fall asleep in strollers.
ADDENDUM to stroller article:
It is now 7 months later and we LOVE this stroller
still. It has been to London twice, Denver 3 times, Iowa twice, Seattle, Boston, New
York. we use it every day and pack much more into the basket than is
allowed (the basket is HUGE). Typically we will load 4 full grocery bags of vegetables in it and
it’s fine.
It is also narrow enough to fit through our old front
doors of this historical building. It goes round corners well and navigates
down the most narrow isles in grocery store or delis. Also, having
flown many times, the car seat is very light (compared to others we looked
at) and the base makes placing it in a car a "snap". It is also quite
easy to remove the cover and wash it for those unexpected spills, etc.
We take it to Restaurants and keep it next to our
table. When baby gets ready to go to sleep for the night, we cover the car
seat with a raincoat (to make it dark) and rock her – she falls asleep and we eat in peace.
We
always make sure that there is an air hole of course… so far it has been
great, we cannot imagine anything better. We did replace the stroller part
and have washed the car seat material a couple times, but beyond that the
combination still works quite well. Around 1 year old, the baby doesn't want
to be in the car seat anymore so we are looking into buying a new stroller
for just inter-city travel. The problem is with this type of stroller, there
isn't any car seat, so if you get stuck in the rain or snow, your ONLY
option is to plow through it to get home.
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