A Guide to Buying a Baby Stroller

Written by: Peter Harrison

Category: General

Published: July 7, 2024

A baby stroller is one of the most important pieces of equipment you’ll own as a parent. Not only does it help you get your child from place to place when they can’t walk or can only walk a short distance, but it also keeps them safe, secure, and within view at all times. But with so many styles of strollers available on the market, knowing what you need can be hard to determine. Luckily, we’ve put together this article to assist you in finding the perfect stroller for your family’s needs and budget.

The history of strollers is a journey of fits and starts, with the biggest turn coming near the end of World War I. With the onset of this new peace and the baby boom, manufacturers started to make some major changes. They widened the baskets on prams, made them deeper, and lowered the frames. These changes helped parents feel more comfortable with their children being out in public.

In the early 1700s, an inventor named William Kent created a shell-shaped basket on wheels that was meant to be pulled by a goat or small pony. The design was a hit with the rich, but the poor had difficulty affording such a luxury item. The cradle-like container, which acted more like a cage than a stroller, was not a great fit for the baby and was soon replaced with a frame with sturdier, rounded edges that was meant to be pushed by a human being.

Strollers became much more popular in the 1800s, and American inventor Benjamin Potter Crandall created a version that used two-wheels for pushing. He marketed his creation in England as the “perambulator,” and it became the most popular stroller in the country after Queen Victoria publicly purchased three of them.

After the era of the perambulator, baby stroller grew even more in popularity as a convenient way to transport children around town. Owen Maclaren, an aeronautical engineer, took complaints about traveling with a heavy pram to heart, and based his next-generation stroller on the technology that was being developed for aircraft. Maclaren’s aluminum-framed design was lighter and easier to maneuver than prams at that time.

As your baby grows, so will your needs for a stroller. You may want to take longer expeditions with them, visiting museums and other family-friendly venues that are farther from your home. In these cases, you’ll need to bring more items with you, including a diaper bag, extra clothing, snacks, drinks, and toys. Your stroller should be able to accommodate this additional luggage, and it’s helpful if the product has plenty of storage space as well.

Another thing to consider is whether you’ll be using the stroller on stairs or escalators. It’s best to avoid these obstacles altogether if possible, but if you must, experts advise that you take the baby out of the stroller before attempting the ascent or descent. This will prevent your baby from falling or getting hurt, and it’ll keep you safer as well.