Choosing a Baby Stroller

Video Transcript

"Buying a stroller is a very exciting part of being a parent, but it's really easy to get carried away. Some strollers cost anywhere from around a hundred dollars all the way up to nine hundred or more, so doing your research is a must. I'm Joie with Baby Earth and we're going to talk about buying strollers. So the first thing you want to keep in mind is safety. Safety always comes first before style, before what's cool out there, safety. So you want to look for a stroller that is stable. So always give it a shake, make sure that it's not going to tip over easy, and depending on where you're driving your stroller, are you going to the park, or are you just staying on sidewalks, are you taking it on the beach? Maybe you want to take it on trails, keep all of that in mind. Make sure you get a stroller that can handle where you want to go and it's not going to tip over. Think about what you're going to put on the stroller. This stroller here comes with cup holders and a lot of people like to hook their diaper bags on it. So you might want to do a little test on put your diaper bag around it, fill it with stuff and make sure that it's not going to tip over wherever you're going. Now one of the most important things is also to look for a stroller that has a five point harness. This will keep baby safe and strapped in. And there's some great travel systems out there. So you can have an infant seat like this which keeps the infant secure, it's got the headrest, five point harness, but also as baby grows, you take off the infant seat. This is also a car seat by the way, but you take off the car seat/infant seat and you can put a regular stroller seat on it and it becomes a regular stroller. Another thing you want to keep in mind is the wheels. Where are you going? Are you going to go somewhere where you're going to get a flat tire? I'd say it's safe to stick with foam tires that way you'll never get a flat. So one like this, or just pay attention to what terrain you're going to go to. I would keep that in mind. Next, the height handle. I'm a little bit shorter, so I would look for a stroller for myself that adjusts. And especially, depending on who's going to be driving it, how tall are they, how hard is it for them to push and maneuver the stroller? So whoever is going to be driving it should probably test it out. And you want to be able to have a comfortable grip on it. Now when you walk with a stroller, you want to make sure that your feet don't hit anything. So you can walk free. And if you want to jog with it, that it's easy to move. It's not going hit you. Last, you want to make sure that you can fold the stroller easy and that it fits in your car. So if you're going to be taking the stroller somewhere, make sure you can fold it, put it in the car, it fits in the car easy and you can take it out and open it. And you're going to have baby crying on the side, so I would do a test run before you purchase it. That's the skinny on strollers. I'm Joie with Baby Earth."