The BEST Strollers,Infant Car Seats & Cribs

When I say best I don’t mean by brand/syle/luxury but by quality, usability, saftey, convertibility that is able to adjust to the stages of child growth atleast for a few years into toddlerhood. Has anyone here been in the market for these items and what is the price?

I have been searching a little this weekend and wanted to ask the professionals here on the boards that could possibly give me a broader look into the area. I have to get going because the summer is just around the corner when my little one would arrive! There is soo much for me to do like renovations in the house, nursery and other few things. I welcome all suggestions. We are really into the organic products of all, so if you have ideas there I am open to that as well.

thanks guys and gals
:slight_smile:

Here are some popular things found on Amazon.com:

Safety 1st Acella Sport Travel System
Graco SafeSeat nfant Car Seat in Quinn
DaVinci Kalani Convertible Baby Crib

Peg Perego/Bugaboo/Britax has good stuff as well.

Definately watch out for car seats that are difficult to buckle. My girlfriend get this really nice, well designed set of stroller, play pen, car seat etc from Combi, we really like it, except the clasp on the car seat is near impossible to buckle because there are no grip areas. There is a difference between child safe and poor user exp. Make sure you try them before you buy one, and assume that the child doesn’t want to sit in the chair AT ALL like ours. so you should be able to buck the chair with one hand with no effort. because youll be lucky if you have one hand once the baby comes. Thats my huge complaint about baby items.

Not quite what you are currently looking for but check this infant stuff from a friend of mine in Hong Kong. Inspirational and makes you wonder why the majors can’t do stuff like this.

the best for many reasons:
the way it folds and locks
the materials and colors
multi function setups grow with your child
double seat setups for twins or near age siblings
quality of parts, bearingsm, wheels and powder coatings and foam

I like ours alot, our twins like it too, it goes where we go, does what it should, no complaints.

As for car seats, buy a second hand one, or a hand me down, they cost too much new for the amount of time they are used.

Cribs are more personal, lots of eco or urban designs out there.

I used this guide when I bought a car seat a couple years ago:

http://www.nhtsa.gov/portal/site/nhtsa/template.MAXIMIZE/menuitem.9f8c7d6359e0e9bbbf30811060008a0c/?javax.portlet.tpst=4427b997caacf504a8bdba101891ef9a_ws_MX&javax.portlet.prp_4427b997caacf504a8bdba101891ef9a_viewID=detail_view&itemID=c57b24b3b0d55110VgnVCM1000002fd17898RCRD&viewType=standard&detailViewURL=/portal/site/nhtsa/template.MAXIMIZE/menuitem.9f8c7d6359e0e9bbbf30811060008a0c/?javax.portlet.tpst=4427b997caacf504a8

I abandoned “coolness” in favor of safety (at the request of the pregnant wife).

PS: All baby car seats suck. Most people struggle with connecting them to the car seat and fail. There is a real opportunity for design improvement. The problems is there are so many different car seat designs to accommodate that inevitably the baby seat design accommodates none.

I used the Graco travel system for both of my kids.

http://www.gracobaby.com/products/category.asp?N=400+10417

It steers like a dream with one hand (more important than you think). The folding of it is amazing. It has lots of storage, including cup holders (again, more important than you think). The infant seat - car seat system is awesome.

We got an Eddie Bauer car seat for my daughter when my son was born. She constantly tells us how she wants her Graco seat back b/c its more comfortable.

I can’t say anything bad about this system.

Thanks for the links.
very cool stuff.

Anybody into the $1K strollers? Are they that good?
What do you guys think about the Bugaboo/Peg Perego/Quinny brands of the world?

Even Ferrari is getting into the mix!

This is a product I and a friend have developed. When my daughter was a baby I used a homemade denim version of a pack like this. I liked it so much I though it needed to be developed into a product for sale.

Send me a message and I can get you a code for 20% discount from the website.

It’s more comfortable than any other pack because the baby’s weight is carried on your hips. The baby bjorn front pack puts all the weight on your shoulders.

Also the Belle is more compact and folds down so it’s easy to travel with.

http://bellebabycarriers.com/

If you have any other questions about it let me know.

Actually, we just checked out a bugaboo at babies r us this weekend, I wasn’t impressed as I thought I would be, the materials are very similiar and some of the features are cool, but I think much of the design time went to cool features rather than cool experiences.

the manufacturing isn’t super tight either. You would think it would be for the price tag.

One nice thing however is the pnumatic tires. If you like to walk at all, expecially outside, go for the pnumatic tires. I love our stroller, the combi, but Steph has had to dissuade me from switching out the tires multiple times. Those plastic ones just dont cut it if you ask me.

Also, if we’re doing shameless plugs ( :smiley: ) check out my girlfriends Etsy.com site, the Eli Monster. She has been selling cloth diapers after she started making them for our son, Eli, I’m actually surprised at how many she sells. She’s coming out with a racing diaper that I designed, as well some some new graphics, that I designed as well. If I could quit this damn drafting job and design diapers all day I would do it faster than you can say AutoCAD!

[quote=“lebeau”]This is a product I and a friend have developed. When my daughter was a baby I used a homemade denim version of a pack like this. I liked it so much I though it needed to be developed into a product for sale.

Send me a message and I can get you a code for 20% discount from the website.

It’s more comfortable than any other pack because the baby’s weight is carried on your hips. The baby bjorn front pack puts all the weight on your shoulders.

Also the Belle is more compact and folds down so it’s easy to travel with.

http://bellebabycarriers.com/

If you have any other questions about it let me know.[/quote]






I will definitely keep that in mind. THX

It’s nice to hear some of you Industrial design/entrepreneurs having ideas that are being marketed based from problems of existing products.

It is a shameless plug. Everyone please buy one of these and tell all your friends to buy one. I get royalties!

the discount code is mark20

Hi,

Have you checked out the UPPAbaby Vista?

Great design, hundreds less than some other premium stroller, and the construction quality is excellent.

They’re also striving to be a green-aware company.

Hope that helps.

Eric

My son is almost 3.5 now. He recently moved up to a larger car seat. We purchased the new Recaro seat. It is so right on. Best LATCH integrated system (meaning they though about how the user will put force on the straps ).

They are tough, yet plush. It looks to be the safest by far with shoulder and side head restraints that dwarf the competition.

Frog- I have a frog and I love it. We put so many miles on it and it was great. The new price points are not as good. The frog was cheaper.

funny timing on this thread. my wife and i just started shopping for baby gear the other weekend.

after looking at the uber high end stuff from bugaboo and stokke and realizing it was a little much we settled on:

what won us over was the extreme ease of latching and unlatching the carrier from the stroller and the car seat platform.
we also looked at maxi cosi’s:

which was amazing in how small it collapsed, but ultimately was a bit of a pain to use.

So, its been a few months now… any responses/thoughts to your purchases regarding Car Seats/Strollers now that you’ve had a chance to use them?

I am interested in the Chicco set up asango mentioned, but I’d like to hear what other options other people have chosen recently.

my wife is due in three days, but no baby yet. We did get the stroller set. Put it together and it seems solid. Still haven’t properly installed the car seat (gotta do that tonight!)

There are lot of bad designs and poor builds in this category. Before you buy, I would check to see who’s got a product recall going.

And I agree, there is a lot area for design here, but maybe its Catch-22. The only people who would design a good one are the designers who are having a child. But having child may leave little time for design.

:)ensen.

Hehe…you have noooooo idea what you’re in for :smiley:

To escape injury in an accident, you will need to pick a seat suitable for the child’s age and weight. They come in three main categories: infant, infant & toddler convertible and booster seats. Once you have purchased a seat make sure to follow the directions for proper installation.
http://www.dependable-car-seats.com/shop-by-type/infant-car-seats.html