How to Pick a Stroller that is Right For You

Why Get a Stroller?

Most parents feel a natural urge to buy every little thing a baby might need. A stroller is no doubt on the list, but do you need one?

The answer is maybe not, at least not in the first year. Here's why…

The purpose of any stroller is to make it easier to transport your baby while you walk. At its purest, it is an alternative to carrying your baby in your arms or on your hip. However, your baby will almost always prefer to be held instead of riding.

This article provides the background information you need to choose the best stroller for you. It is related to and intended to complement our comprehensive side-by-side review of the top-rated full-size strollers.

A good alternative, especially in the first six months, is wearing your baby in one of the best baby carriers. Infants love the snug hold of being carried on your chest, and toddlers often like to be carried on your back. The best carriers distribute weight so well that you can wear your baby for hours, leaving your hands free to perform other tasks. While strolling is very convenient, a baby carrier offers a practical alternative, and baby carriers are a lot less expensive and take up a lot less space. The other bonus is, carried babies tend to be less fussy than babies sitting in a stroller.

Health Benefits of Wearing Your Baby

It is also worth noting that too much time in a car seat, baby bouncer, or favorite baby swing can contribute to plagiocephaly, or flattening of the back of baby's head. What does this have to do with strolling? In the first six months, most parents use their car seat for strolling, connecting it with a car seat adapter to the frame of a stroller. Pediatricians consider it relatively acceptable for a baby to spend 1.5 to 4 hours per day in a combination of the best infant car seat, a favorite baby bouncer, or the best baby swing. However, if your little one spends more than 4 hours in these devices, especially in the first few months when their skull is soft, they will have a higher risk of developing a flattened area in the back of the head. Using a baby carrier in a parent-facing chest position can help by taking pressure off the back of the head, and in combination with supervised tummy time, can help you avoid flattening the head.

Strolling is Easy

 

For most of us, even the most hard-core fans of baby carriers, the convenience of strolling makes a stroller an essential tool that will get daily use for years. The main advantages are:

• Easier on you — pushing your baby on a stroll might be less work for you than carrying, even with a quality baby carrier.
• Soothing for baby — a gentle stroll, like a drive in the car, is a tried and true technique for soothing a baby, which in turn could mean more sleep for you.
• Safety — strolling provides a safe environment for your baby, with a sunshade, a protective frame, and a safety harness. Wearing your baby is lovely in many ways, but you need to be careful not to bump into things and take care when bending over to avoid spilling your baby out. Remember, you should never drink a hot liquid like coffee or tea, over a baby in a carrier. It is much easier to keep a baby out of harm's way and enjoy your hot coffee with your little one safely off to the side (never put a hot drink in the cup holder, where there is a risk of it spilling on baby).
• Carry all your stuff — ample storage enables you to comfortably take all the things you and Baby might need while out walking, such as the best diaper bag, extra clothes, one of our favorite baby bottles, snacks, toys, and personal items.
• Do some light shopping — for things like shopping, having both hands free is a must. While you can pull off shopping with a baby carrier, it can be awkward at times. While storage is somewhat limited, picking up a bag of groceries or laundry can be convenient when out for a walk.
• Get some exercise — getting back into shape is a challenge with a baby needing constant attention, but strolling provides one way to combine quality time with exercise. A brisk walk can be invigorating for you and joyful for your baby. But, if you want to go jogging, you'll need to get one of the best jogging stroller that includes additional suspension systems to protect your baby from dangerous jarring impacts while running, and you shouldn't go jogging until the baby has more head/neck control (8+ months depending on the jogger).

 

 

Lightweight/Travel Stroller

 

Great for travel, lightweight strollers, sometimes referred to as umbrella or travel strollers like those found in our best travel stroller review. These options have a smaller folded shape, and are light and more compact, usually weighing between 8-17 lbs. But, they cut some corners compared to full-size strollers. Most don't offer car seat adapters and aren't usable until your baby is at least six months old. They also use smaller wheels, and this makes them less maneuverable and more difficult to push on rough surfaces.

 

 

Mostly in Your Neighborhood?

 

A lot of people concentrate their walks in their neighborhood, at least initially. When strolling out your door, a more substantial product is not a problem (in fact, its additional storage and performance can make it great). However, they make up for their higher weight and larger size with better everyday performance. A few extra pounds and added dimension are not that big of a deal if you are mostly strolling around the neighborhood.

 

Frequently Driving Before Strolling?

 

If you think you will frequently drive or use public transportation before strolling, a larger folded size may become annoying. If you travel frequently, you might want to consider a lightweight travel stroller to augment or replace a full-size product. It can be very convenient to have both a lightweight product when on the road and a standard size for use in your neighborhood. But you'll need to consider whether the convenience justifies the additional expense. A rare few can double as a travel and full-size choice without sacrificing too much.

Maneuverability Matters

 

Every day that you stroll, the maneuverability performance of your stroller will be noticeable, and it degrades as your baby gets heavier. During the period you'll do the most strolling, ages six months to three years, your baby will grow from an average of 16 to 32 lbs. The extra weight of your growing baby and the pile of gear you'll need to bring will increasingly impact maneuverability. Almost all products are easy to maneuver when empty.

Trying out products in a store can be misleading, especially if you push them empty over a smoothly polished floor, as most people do. Our tests found significant differences in maneuverability between competing products, especially when fully loaded. And we pushed them all over various terrain and with varying weights in the seat.

 

Test Drive One-handed and with 25 Pounds of Weight

 

To properly test a product in a store, we recommend that you put 25 lbs of weight in the seat, simulating an average 1.5-year-old and a diaper bag; now try to maneuver it with one hand. We're not kidding. When you load them with the weight, you can feel the differences, and one-handed steering will help you appreciate subtle differences between products.

 

Conclusion

There are so many options to meet your strolling needs that it can be overwhelming trying to narrow them down to find the best stroller for your family. After testing more than 90 strollers across categories since 2012, we feel uniquely qualified to help you decide the most important performance metrics and features. If you stick to the basics, you can find the right option for you. We think there are several possibilities in our award winners and top scorers. While we pick winners with real families in mind (after all, we have kids), they may not meet your specific needs, which is where the comparison feature in our Best in Class review comes in handy. With this comparison tool and our insider details, you can determine which stroller meets the needs of your family and budget.