This week Daddy Troy helps you get to know your strollers. Like any baby product baby strollers can be a tricky business, especially when your babies safety is in the balance. Umbrella Strollers are cheap, light weight, and easily transportable but some are better than others. Dadlabs helps you make the call. Dadlabs Ep. 284 Gear Daddy.

 

Daddy Troy: Welcome back to Gear Daddy. I’m your host Daddy Troy. You know last week we looked at the off road Urban Jungle Stroller. This week we are going to the opposite end of the spectrum. We are going to talk about the top 10 things to look for when you buy an umbrella stroller.
And umbrella stroller is the lightest and most compact of all strollers. They can be left in the car for everyday use. Their small profile makes them ideal for traveling. And they are also very, very cheap. One of these will cost you about $15 at a big box store.
Today I am going to list the top 10 things to look for when you go to buy one of these umbrella strollers. But you can put your pens away because we have a printable list at DadLabs.com episode 284. So let’s get started.
The first thing we are going to look at are the wheels. Now you will notice on these strollers these wheels are not inflatable they are usually just pieces of plastic. And therefore they are the first things that are going to go. And you will notice the wheels on this particular stroller are actually thicker, a little more durable and cushiony than the ones on this stroller over here that are thinner and might be more apt to wear out first. Now unlike higher end strollers these strollers right here don’t have an extension. So tall dads would actually have a problem with how low to the ground these are. You are always bending over to push it. If you can find one that has extension, go for it.
And in order to stop the strollers from rolling with your kid in it or to keep another kid from pushing it a lot of strollers come with a braking mechanism. As you can see right here you use your foot to depress it and it brakes. And then the stroller doesn’t move. Now these are cheap plastic. And so you want to make sure you get sturdy cheap plastic so that the stroller won’t move. It is a safety mechanism.
And speaking of safety the American Academy of Pediatrics has published a report that says about 13,000 kid each year are taken to the emergency room for a stroller related accident. Now about 75% of those come from kids falling out of the stroller. So you can guess what the most important part of he stroller is going to be-it’s going to be the buckle. Now as a parent you are always going to be buckling your kid in even though you might be tempted not to. And you want to make sure that the buckle is both sturdy and one that you can easily use, not all buckles are created equally.
Another 11% of injuries come from the stroller tipping over. Sometimes from the parent putting a bag, just like a shopping bag on the back of the stroller and there it goes. So you never want to do that. Now some strollers not very many of these umbrella strollers come with some sort of storage mechanism underneath. That gives a low center of gravity. Its’ within the base of support and therefore keeps it from tipping over. Those are a little harder to find but worth it if you planning on storing some stuff while you’re out on a stroll.
The small footprint of an umbrella stroller allows you to navigate really crowded areas. You will also notice that the front wheels turn a lot so that makes it really easy to move around. But if you ever find yourself on a straightaway and you just want to keep going straight find a stroller that allows the front wheels to be locked into place. And this becomes especially useful the older the stroller gets. The wheels become slightly unbalanced; the whole thing is a little wonky. If these are locked down it will go straight. And when you are going straight it won’t wobble back and forth on you.
Umbrella strollers are not designed for comfort. They are actually pretty uncomfortable and your kid wont spend a whole lot of time in it but nonetheless you still want to make sure that at least when your kid sits in it he or she finds it somewhat comfortable. So take your kid along with you pop it out and put the kid in it. Now remember you as the adult make the final decision but at least you can look at your kid in it and see if it’s too small or too big for your kid or if it might pinch the kid somewhere.

The reason these are called umbrella strollers is number one because they kind of look like it when they are collapsed. And number two they collapse. So you want to look at the collapsing mechanism. It’s usually on the back. There are a variety of different types. This one in particular you stick your foot underneath, you pull out and boom the whole thing just collapses. Now be careful and don’t do this with your hands because you risk getting pinched. Which brings up my final safety point that the AP Report said that one of the injuries that kids get is really small but it is also pinching with strollers. So be careful with that. If you watched my episode last week you know that one of my big pet peeves is sun and rain protection on strollers. Now with these lower end strollers you seldom get really good sun or rain protection. You look at this stroller right here, there actually isn’t any on this one. And you look at this stroller right here there actually isn’t any on this on either. That thing doesn’t actually do that much in terms of sun and or rain.
Now if you are going to have one of these sun or rain shades find one that the whole thing tilts on it’s axis. Notice that this one is locked in place. All you can do is bring it forward and it stops. If the whole thing could actually tilt forward then you could change it with the angle of the sun and maybe leave the sun off your baby’s face.
And finally number ten when you go to collapse the stroller and throw it in the trunk you need to some sort of mechanism to by which to keep it as one unit. This particular stroller right here has a piece of plastic such that when I collapse it, you simply clasp and shut. Well that’s it this week for Gear Daddy. Remember all 10 points are listed at DadLabs.com episode 284. We’ll see you next time.