By Jan Murray

Strollers and prams are like cars, they can be built for comfort, speed, versatility, newborns or older babies. Before you purchase a stroller or pram consider what you will be using one for and when you are likely to use it.  

Will it be used for walking the streets, carrying twins through the house, browsing through a shopping centre, jogging along tracks, walking through country paddocks and dirt roads or travelling on and off aeroplanes? Will it be used for a newborn or will you be using a sling in the first few months? 

It is well worth the extra money to purchase a pram with a handle which changes from a back wheeling position to forward wheeling position. Facing outwards leaves babies wide open to well meaning strangers who poke and stick their faces in the pram as you walk along. This can be very unsettling for a newborn when neither Mum nor Dad is in view. It is often four months before babies will settle facing outwards to the world.

Three wheelers are great for jogging, double wheelers are great for rough terrain but both can be difficult to manoeuvre in a shopping centre.

Some prams double up as car restraints making transferring easy. Again, work out when you would use a stroller or pram and then look around, get sales advice and test them out. 

Read more on the day to day needs of a newborn baby in Jan's lovely book ‘Mum, Baby & Toddler - together we learn’

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This article was brought to you by Jan Murray, Private Child Health Consultant who is an internationally renowned expert in her field. Jan encourages parents in the area of infant sleep, nutrition, activities and family balance. She publishes regular ezine and blog articles to provide free parenting tips, tools and resources to educate and support those caring for young babies and children. For more online resources visit http://www.settlepetal.com