Baby strollers safety

Choosing Safe Baby Products: Strollers (for Parents)

Reviewed by: Kate M. Cronan, MD

en español Elección de productos seguros para bebés: Coches de bebés

Strollers come in a variety of sizes and styles. When you're searching for that perfect stroller that's light and portable, keep safety in mind too.

What to look for:

Check for a stroller that was made for your child's age, height, and weight. Newborns need to be able to lie almost flat in strollers, since they can't hold up their heads.
Check the stroller for reliable restraining belts. The safest design is a 5-point harness: shoulder straps, a strap between the legs, and waist belts that connect together.
If the stroller has a handrest (grab bar) at the front of the seat, make sure the opening between the grab bar and the seat can be closed when the stroller is used in the reclined position.
The best brakes lock back wheels by engaging mechanisms in the wheels themselves rather than relying on pressure on the tires. Some strollers have brakes for one wheel, others have brakes for two wheels. Whatever brakes the stroller has, check for ones that are easy to use.
The stroller should be free from parts that can pinch a child's fingers or pose a choking hazard.
Check out the stroller for stability. The wheel base should be wide and the seat should be low in the frame. The stroller should resist tipping backward when you press lightly down on the handles.
If there is a basket for carrying packages, it should be low on the back of the stroller and in front of the rear wheels.
The leg openings should be small enough to prevent an infant from slipping through.
You should be able to steer the stroller in a straight line when pushing with one hand.
The handlebars should be at your waist level or slightly lower.
Looking for a stroller designed to hold more than one child? Tandem models (where kids sit one behind the other) are generally easier to steer than the kind where kids sit side by side. They're also more stable and fold more compactly. If you choose one where kids will sit side by side, make sure it has only one footrest. If there are two separate foot rests, a child's foot could get stuck between them.

SAFETY NOTES:

Never leave your child child unattended in a stroller.
Always use the safety harness when your child is in the stroller.
Don't use a pillow or blanket as a mattress in a stroller. If a newborn has too much room in the stroller, place tightly rolled baby blankets around the baby to help keep him or her still.
Always put on the brakes when the stroller is not moving.
Never hang purses or diaper bags on the handles of a stroller. A baby could get tangled in the straps and be strangled, or the weight of the bags could tip the stroller over.
To avoid trapping your baby's head, close the opening between the grab bar and the seat when using the stroller in the reclined position.
Fold and unfold the stroller away from children to avoid pinching your child's fingers.
If you buy a new stroller, register it with the manufacturer so they can contact you if there is a safety problem later.

Reviewed by: Kate M. Cronan, MD

Date reviewed: January 2018

How to Choose a Safe Baby Stroller

Safety & Prevention

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When choosing a stroller for your baby, you'll want one that's convenient, comfortable and—most importantly—safe. Here are some tips on features to look for and precautions that can help keep your child safe.

If you string toys across your stroller, fasten them securely so they can't fall on your baby. Be sure to remove these toys as soon as the baby can sit or rise up on all fours.
Baby strollers should have easy-to-operate brakes. Use the brake whenever you are stopped, and be sure your child can't reach the release lever. A brake that locks two wheels rather than just one provides an extra measure of safety.
Select a baby stroller with a wide base, so it won't tip over.
Children's fingers can become caught in the hinges that fold the stroller. Keep your child at a safe distance when you open and close it. Securely lock open the stroller before putting your child in. Check that your baby's fingers cannot reach the stroller wheels.
Don't hang bags or other items from the handles of your baby's stroller—they can make it tip backward. If the stroller has a basket for carrying things, be sure it is placed low and near the rear wheels.
The stroller should have a five-point harness (with straps over both shoulders, hips and between the legs) that should be used whenever your child goes for a ride. For infants, use rolled-up baby blankets on either side of the seat if needed to prevent slouching.
Never leave your child unattended in a stroller. If they fall asleep in their stroller, make sure you can see them at all times.
If you purchase a side-by-side twin stroller, the footrest should extend all the way across both sitting areas. A child's foot can become trapped between separate footrests.
There are also strollers that allow an older child to sit or stand in the rear. Be mindful of weight guidelines and especially careful that the child in the back doesn't become overly active and tip the stroller.

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A Safer Generation of Strollers (CPSC)

Last Updated: 8/11/2022

Source: Adapted from Caring for Your Baby and Young Child: Birth to Age Five 7th edition (Copyright © 2019 American Academy of Pediatrics)

The information contained on this Web site should not be used as a substitute for the medical care and advice of your pediatrician. There may be variations in treatment that your pediatrician may recommend based on individual facts and circumstances.

Everything you wanted to know about the safety of prams

"Manual wheeled device for rolling and walking small children." This is how the omniscient Wikipedia deciphers the term "baby stroller". She then immediately begins to develop the topic: “The position of the child in the stroller (sitting or lying down) depends on its type and the age of the child ...”. But that's okay. Let's talk about something else today.

In fact, many simply cannot imagine parental everyday life without a pram. Other mothers and fathers, on the contrary, strive to free their children from these first “vehicles” as soon as possible, trying to give the child the opportunity to both explore the world in direct contact with the environment and develop properly physically. But even such parents do without wheelchairs in very rare cases.

Here is what Ekaterina Gordeeva, the mother of the “rubber girl” Varya Gordeeva, tells, for example, from the TV show “Best of All!” on Channel One:

Our son went at 9 months old, our daughter - at the age of one, on her birthday. I tried to walk with them more, to drive by the hand. As the child turned a year and a half, she sold the stroller - and went only on foot. My daughter had a children's bike with three wheels and a handle. My son didn’t have it - he was running around on foot. I really liked the transforming stroller that my daughter had. Polish, it seems. With good dampers. Very comfortably. My son had a normal one. Uncomfortable. Walking light strollers were not used at all. And when I see a three-year-old child in a stroller, it just shocks me. At the age of three, our son was already rollerblading!

But be that as it may, the choice of a baby stroller in the life of almost any parent at some point becomes an incredibly burning issue. And here it is highly undesirable to make a mistake.

Of course, there can be a lot of criteria by which moms and dads are going to choose a stroller for their baby, and each of them can seem incredibly important. But we will now take as a basis for the story the most important thing - the safety of the baby. More important than this, in fact, nothing can be after all.

Read on our blog: "How to safely transport a child home from the hospital"

On a global scale, the necessary parameters of baby strollers in this regard are specifically defined by the Technical Regulations of the Customs Union "On the safety of products intended for children and adolescents" (TRTS 007/2011). It would seem that everything is provided for there - both the requirements for stability on an inclined and horizontal surface, and the mandatory presence of a brake and locking system, and the indispensable absence of sharp corners, parts, assemblies, and materials from which these products can be made . .. - and so on , etc. But does this mean that a stroller purchased in the distribution network, which, in theory, meets all the foreseen aspects, is absolutely safe for its main users? Ideally, this is exactly how it should be, in fact. However, in practice, as everyone knows, different options are possible ...

Therefore, since every loving parent cannot help but worry about the safety of their beloved child, let's talk about what, first of all, you need to pay attention to when purchasing such a rather specific product as a baby stroller.

What to look out for

What criteria must be taken into account here? Of course, you can’t approach the purchase of this product with a tip. It is highly desirable to study the market in advance, get acquainted with all the varieties of this type of product, evaluate all their advantages and disadvantages.

But when we have already dealt with such moments as a suitable price range, the time of year when the stroller will be used for the most part, the method of transporting the product from the living quarters to the street (the elevator is one thing, the stairs are completely different), then it's time to decide what do you expect from the upcoming acquisition in terms of security.

Of course, every buyer wants his child to feel as comfortable as possible in the stroller. But here, apart from yourself, no one will help your offspring. It is necessary to independently and personally examine the product and evaluate the following points - bottom rigidity and wheel size, locks for their various positions and the presence of shock absorbers, the presence of additional protection against bad weather and a basket that allows you to store various children's accessories, the convenience of adjusting the tilt and height of the handle, the problematic removal of a children's mattress, the possibility of compact folding stroller . If you approach this issue with all seriousness, the chances of choosing the most comfortable and safe product for your baby will increase significantly.

What else? The following aspects must be taken into account without fail: the baby must be located on a comfortable and flat surface, and therefore the bottom must be sufficiently rigid. It is advisable to choose a stroller higher - elementary: in such a child less dust will get from the road. If the handles are high enough, the mother will have faster access to the child. The more the body is closed, the better the protection from the sun and bad weather. Well, the presence of a soft suspension in the stroller is able to plunge even an incredibly capricious child into a state of calm and tranquility.

With the procedure for acquiring a baby stroller, especially if it is done for the first time, there is no hurry. Here you need to independently think over every little thing. It is necessary to remember all the time that the baby himself simply does not know how to explain what is wrong in this or that stroller.

When buying a stroller, for example, , you need to figure out in advance in what area you are going to use it and, accordingly, be sure to take into account its features. But, in any case, the wider, say, the wheels of a stroller, the safer: after all, this factor directly reduces the likelihood that the product may roll over. So, if you are seriously worried about your offspring, initially choose a stroller whose wheels are wide enough.

However, this aspect is not the only one that deserves your close attention when it comes to wheels. The ideal solution is molded rubber. Without cameras. Otherwise, you will need to think about protection against punctures. Here you can improve the product yourself - for this you need to use an anti-puncture gel pumped directly into the chambers. However, it is necessary to take into account the fact that not all such gels are equally effective. But here, perhaps, it would be better to turn to specialists for help. For people related to cycling, for example, they are real experts in this matter.

An expert, the general director of the service for renting things for the younger generation Toyrent.ru Alexey Graudyn , also expressed his opinion on the safety of baby strollers:

It is not so easy to give an expert opinion on baby carriages. The main safety factor there is, after all, the attention of parents. And you should always buckle up your child. Likes-does not like - it is necessary to fasten. Accordingly, the belts should be comfortable for the baby. A stroller must be stable.

And I would like to emphasize these very correct words. No matter how perfect a baby stroller is, it will not be absolutely safe for the child if the parents do not pay enough attention to their child staying there.

Everything about how to care for a child, about his health and development, we tell and show in the video course “The baby was born. What's next?"

Baby stroller safety // Look

19October 2017, 12:30

Leading programs - Alla Volokhina and Konstantin Korolkov .

Choosing a pram. It should be safe and anatomical for a child, light enough for mom and grandmother, especially if there is no elevator in the house.

Expert of the program - head of the expert direction of "Roskontrol" Andrey Vladimirovich Mosov .

What should ideally be modern strollers with cradles for newborns?

A. Mosov: As a rule, parents choose the first stroller for their child very carefully. The choice is made from a variety of models. And they don't skimp on it. If possible, then buy not the cheapest stroller. But often this stroller serves the family for a very short time, because the child grows up very quickly and ceases to need such a stroller.

Therefore, in my opinion, there is not much to choose here. Of course, I want to choose a beautiful and expensive model of a stroller, but you will have to part with it very soon, so it’s better to save money and then choose a better model of a stroller for a child in which he will already sit. This stroller can be used for more than two years. Sometimes even three-year-olds use such strollers.

Carrycots often have a very low seating position. This is a very important point, because many adults do not think that at their height the air is completely different than at the height at which the stroller is located, especially low. When you walk along the road with such a stroller, your child will breathe all the exhaust gases of cars. It seems to me that when choosing a stroller with a cradle, you must definitely choose a taller stroller. So?

A. Mosov: It is better to choose a classic model with the correct height, which has developed over decades. And, of course, the stroller must be chosen according to the season. It depends on when your child was born. It may happen that this stroller will serve you for six months or a little more. Therefore, if it is winter, then the stroller should be warm enough. If it is summer, then, on the contrary, a lighter model should be purchased. And what should it be in height: high or low? If it is too high, the center of gravity of the stroller will be higher and it may tip over.

When it comes to wheelchair tipping, everyone wants to have a stroller as light as possible. Still, there is, probably, some critical critical weight so that the stroller would be light, but also stable? Because the child can start to get up in the stroller.

A. Mosov: If we are not talking about some ultra-modern nanomaterials - ultra-light and super-expensive, then everything is clear here. The lighter the stroller is, the more comfortable it is, but the less durable it is and the less it will last . If you have a ramp at the entrance and an elevator in the house, then you really shouldn’t chase after models that are too light. The height of the side of the cradle is also important so that the child cannot fall out of it.

In principle, all strollers undergo mandatory certification, and compliance with product safety requirements must also be checked during this process. Therefore, when buying a stroller, the seller must show you this certificate, or at least tell you its number, so that you can use it to find a certificate on the Internet in an open registry and make sure that this particular stroller model has been certified.

A very important feature of the stroller is its cross-country ability. Now on the market there are both four-wheeled strollers and three-wheeled strollers. Which of them is more maneuverable and reliable? What should be the desired diameter of the wheels on the stroller?

A. Mosov: The tricycle could be lighter. There are models even for sports. Parents roller-skate and carry a stroller in front of them. But for normal use, of course, it is better to choose a four-wheeled model, and that the wheels have the same track, because in winter you will feel the benefits of this. If the snow is not removed in a timely manner, then, as a rule, a track is rolled onto four identical wheels. The same ramps on any staircase usually have a fixed gauge, and any stroller with a non-standard gauge or with three wheels, or if it has wheels with different gauges, will be inconvenient.

As for the wheel size , the larger wheels are more comfortable anyway. But this will always be at the expense of compactness. If you need to put the stroller in the trunk of a car, you may have problems with large wheels. And so big wheels are both more convenient and more reliable. And again, it is better to choose a stroller so that all four wheels are of the same type. Because the wheels wear out differently, and they can always be rearranged, swapped. Again, the wheels are the first to fail, so it is better to choose a model with standard wheels, a replacement for which can be bought at any children's goods store.

And the most important thing when you buy a stroller is you have to smell it . Each person has such a unique chemical analyzer as the nose, which detects very, very small concentrations of harmful substances. Therefore, the stroller, especially in the cradle, in a confined space, in principle, should not have any smell. It does not have to be an unpleasant odor, different plastics emit different harmful substances.