Comments on: Baby Gear: Strollers We Like

By: RumorQueen

RumorQueen — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 15:02:28 +0000

I agree that if you are spending an hour or more a day with the child in the stroller then facing you would be very important. A very big deal.

But for those who, like me, spend maybe an hour or two a week with the child in the stroller on most weeks, I don’t think that facing me vs facing out is that big of a deal.

By: willowflower

willowflower — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 13:59:13 +0000

I have two Peg Perego Aria strollers (one single, one double) and I love them. They have some flaws but they are very light weight and that was the feature that was most important to me. I got my first one cheap at Marshalls and the second one was a discontinued color, so it was on sale and fairly inexpensive, too.

By: tearoses1

tearoses1 — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 03:52:19 +0000

ladies! please check out the stroller you want on ebay before you buy. i got all my maclarens *brand new in the box* for nearly half the price you’d pay through amazon or another regular retail outlet.

By: tassiegirl

tassiegirl — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 22:11:07 +0000

*pulls herself up off the floor* almost a thousand bucks for A STROLLER!!!! Oh my goodness….

By: kes44p

kes44p — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 19:19:14 +0000

I agree totally with Frustrated (and not just because she’s a friend of mine!)
In the UK having your child face you is standard whilst they’re very little but it’s expected that they will ‘face out’ when they transfer from the infant carrier stage (9-12 months old?) My daughter came home at under 9 months. I was adamant that she needed to face me for longer than the usual 9-12 month age limit.
I started with a Mutsy 4 rider light – a beast of a pushchair but worth it for her comfort – it was important to me that she could lie relatively flat (rather than have a seat where the angle changed but the back didn’t recline). Bulky and heavy but worth it for her comfort – I also really liked the fact that the changing bag attachs to the back of the seat unit, leaving the under buggy storage bit for shopping, I still needed to buy hooks to hang from the handle bars too! We used the Mutsy for 12 months or so.
Shortly after we came home the Bugaboo Bee was launched. Much smaller and lighter. We’ve used it more and longer than the Mutsy, though we’ve given it up this year (after 18 months use) as the seat unit is rather narrow for my chunky daughter (now 2 and a half). The only problem with the Bee when facing me is that there’s no where for her to rest her feet.
Now we mainly use the umbrella fold pushchair that we bought in China. It broke on the 3rd day but I was brave enough to return it, it’s still usable but you have to fiddle with the frame when putting it up. I paid more than I expected in China for it and didn’t really appreciate it until I tried to replace it and discovered that it was a very good umbrella fold – reclines etc.
Which would I recommend? All of them have their uses, all of them will be kept for Little Sis! (And yes, we used a sling too, but my daughter was chunky and so it didn’t last as long for us as it does for some. For slings – I LOVED the Walking Rock Farm!)

By: frustrated

frustrated — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:07:48 +0000

I’ve an 8 year old and a nearly 3 year old who came home at 11 months.

Absolutely agree about the need for different strollers for different situations. We always use an umbrella for flying after an airline killed off an expensive one with our oldest child. We too still use our China pram although its been left at gma’s house so we don’t need to bring one over.

However, if you are in an urban area or simply walk the dog alot, don’t underestimate the power of the facing you pram not only for attachment but also language development. It can be worth the hefty investment. I found this worked much better for me although I did use a sling for 6 months but then she got too big!

My daughter spoke English v. quickly and now has an amazing vocabulary for a 2 3/4 year old (as noted by her nursery too). She doesn’t want to face out and asks for it to be turned back so she can talk to me! We walk with the pram for 2-3 hours a day as we live in a city and have a huge labrador and I thoroughly attribute her talking skills to the facing me pram. Best investment EVER!

And yes it was the Bugaboo Bee!

By: RumorQueen

RumorQueen — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:21:18 +0000

Agreed Sophie_Mom – like I said, if you have a set amount of funds for baby gear then save your money on the strollers and high chairs and splurge on the car seat, where you really do want the best (safest) that money can buy.

By: sophie_mom

sophie_mom — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:16:35 +0000

$1,000 for a stroller? Wow, I’m lucky we got our double stroller free from our neighbors. Can’t remember the brand name, but it wasn’t Perego. My Graco stroller (single stroller) I bought on sale for $40. It was discontinued because they switched the design on the fabric.

By: RumorQueen

RumorQueen — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:15:16 +0000

Here is a direct link to the article ARW is talking about: I think that having one face you could be better for attachment, but I don't think having a forward facing stroller has a negative affect on the vast majority of babies. I think wearing your child at first is a much better option than the stroller, but at some point you'll move to the stroller, and I see nothing wrong with kids seeing where they are going instead of where they have been.

By: arw

arw — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:02:31 +0000

I can’t recall if it was posted in the ChAT forum, but there was an article on the possible negative effects of forward facing strollers. Not sure if I buy it. I posted it here:

http://adopttalkcanada.com/forum/index.php?topic=115.0