ezvanetree

I'm having a baby end November and am interested in strollers that will work in the snow. I have done a good serch on the web but found little information (which surprised me) so I thought I would turn to this forum cause everyone here knows all there is to know. Okay, obviously I need big wheels (how big?? Over 10 inches??). I won't be jogging with the stroller but do plan on walking to the store etc and I'm told the area we are in gets about 12-15 feet of snow over the winter. Anyone who can recommend one they used happily in the winter?

My other question, which isn't Canada specific but I just can't figure this one out, is: do I want on of those strollers/infant bucket/carseat things or do I want to just leave the car seat in the car, get the baby out and put it in a stroller suitable for infants. I can see the advantage of the combo stroller but I just looked at one in Zellars--they're huge! and weigh 35pounds! In all reality, how handy is the combo thing? Getting it in and out of the car must be difficult. And I will have to be taking the car seat/bucket part in and out of the car, snapping it onto the stroller, then taking it off, putting it back in the car etc. Seems easier to just move the baby back and forth, but what do I know??

What have other people found to work for them?? Any particular brands to recommend/avoid? Your help in matter is greatly appreciated!! As I say, I did look on the web for advice and reviews, but found little other than product websites, so if you know of a good site, that would be helpful too. Thanks!!

willmore

Think skates instead of wheels......

Calgal

She's not kidding! There are mini ski's you can attach to your stroller for winter

Forget where I saw them now - was ages ago, but they do exist.


35lbs is nothing for a stroller, surely? If I was doing it over again, I would definitely go for the combo. If baby is sleeping and you take them out of the car seat to the stroller, they can be disturbed. If the seat goes straight to the stroller, easy peasy!

Sorry, but can't help with the details - I'm too old

ezvanetree

Those skiing strollers are suppose to be difficult to use if you are using them for getting from A to B. They are really for x-country skiers--you toe the kid behind. Yes, they do exist, which is about the only useful thing I learned on my web search!

willmore

Too bad I dont have the pics of the strollers that my parents used in Winnipeg. My dad was very handy and used both skate blades and skis' on them and they worked like a charm from what I remember my parents telling me.

IainK can probably help as he has two very young kids!

willmore

We didn't have the money to buy skiing strollers (or they may not have even existed in 1975 when I was born or earlier for my brother and sister)so as I said in my last message my dad improvised!

dingbat

With regard to the snow question - my regular old Graco works fine on compact snow, but this is BC. Combo's - yes, they're easier than shifting a sleeping baby. I used the move the car seat out and clip it onto the stroller for quick trips. Longer walks - I would take the baby out and lay flat inside a bassinet thing you can get for newborns. The bassinet straps into the flattened seat with a newborn harness so that it looks and acts like a carrycot. Only problem is they don't sell them in Canada.... I got mine in England in a little shop in Petts Wood.

safecell

Don't know if this is what you are looking for but should put you on the right track https://secure.nicheretail.com/Chari...gar-1-2006.pro Good luck searching.

iaink

We have a trike style one, but its not a true jogging one. I wouldnt get one again with hindsite, the 4 wheels at the corners style is more manouverable, and the front wheels make tracks for the back ones. Avoid steel wheels if you can...bicycle spokes etc. They will rust, there is a lot of salt out there, plastic wheels would be my choice.!

The true jogger style ones with bike size wheels are fine if you intend to jog, but they are designed to go in a straight line, so manouverability on shopping trips, and the long length of them can make them a pain to get around with. plus it will take up way too much room in the car.

I wouldnt spend the extra money on anything fancy or designer, its just going to be puked / peed on or worse anyway. $350 for just the jogger is a lot of money if you ask me, kids are expensive enough without that, unless you are a fanatical runner. Ours is a Graco from Sears, I think they revised the design away from the rather unmanouverable (and large) three wheel design to a 4 double wheel one. Its on its second kid. No problems with it, save the three wheels.

Keep the kid in the child seat, once you get them bundled up warm, you dont want to get them out again. There are cozy covers designed to go in and stay in the child seat part, like a sleeping bag with a hole for the seat belt. Thats the way to go, along with a snow suit. Trust me, once a baby is happy, you will do anything to avoid disturbing it. In my opinion the combo thing is an essential, and you will lug the seat around rather than get the kid in and out. The seat part snaps in and out easily, there is a base that stays strapped into the car that the seat latches onto.

Dont need HUGE wheels, but the bigger the better, and anything less than 6 inches will be pretty useless. In reality you will adapt to going where there is not too much snow and where it has been cleared, and the new kid will take over your life and the way you think about these things

There may be 12-15 feet cumulative, but i suspect it wont all fall at once, and will be cleared fairly efficiently, so dont worry! 35lbs? The kid will weight that in a couple of years and you will get used to lugging them around pretty fast!

it's a good idea when the kid is a bit older and sitting up to get a lightweight scissor type stroler too for when junior gets too tired to walk round the mall, but you dont want a trunk full of stroller, but for a new baby the combo type is perfect.

Good Luck

Judy in Calgary

I think the best thing would be to ask the people in the town in which you live how they cope.

Conditions vary so much across Canada. I think dingbat lives in the Lower Mainland / Fraser Valley area. Obviously she encounters much less snow than you will. I live in Calgary, where it can get cold, but where we get less snow than you.

If I remember correctly, you were going to be relocating to Trail, BC. If that's where you have in fact moved, it's a rather hilly town from my recollection. The hills might be another factor that require their own solution.

For what Internet research is worth, this article seems to suggest that the stroller to which safecell provided a link is on the right track because it has big wheels.

Although we didn't have to content with the amount of snow that you'll be dealing with, we still found we needed two strollers -- a big, sturdy one and a small, lightweight one that folded up like an umbrella. Each had its own applications.

Good luck with your search.

Edited to add that, while I was typing my message, iaink posted his. I defer to his suggestions, because he's currently in the eye of the storm, so to speak.

Piff Poff

Wrap up baby and tie to a sled.......there you go problem solved!

willmore

That's the ticket. Get a sled that you could use for tobaggoning(?), which has a safety belt and back support....work like a charm in Winnipeg!

ezvanetree

Hmmm, I was thinking of the three wheel kind but I will go back to the four wheels as what you say makes sense. I appreciate also what you say about not disturbing the baby moving it from car seat etc.--no one wants to wake a sleeping baby, I know that by instinct. But I have read on a dutch site that only in North America do they use these things cause it isn't considered great to have babies in the folded position (as in the car seat attachment) for very long. Babies are better off flat, they said on this site. I guess it depends on how often the baby is getting into the car. Often, like to day care every day, and the combo thing is a good bet, I would think, but if only once or so a week, moving baby to a car seat might not be a big deal.

So many things to think about! And this is just the damn stroller!!

Yes, alright, 35 pounds isn't that big of a deal, but every review I have seen so far mentions what a pain it is to have a heavy bulky stroller. But again, if it is only in the car once a week or so....

Those Chariot things look frightening, I must say. Seems a bit more off road than I was thinking.

Purley

If you are going to be anywhere near Saskatchewan - forget it! I have never seen anyone pushing a stroller in the snow. From my observation, in the winter with tiny babies, they put them in those car seats that have a handle and when they get to the mall they put the seat in the shopping cart. For older kids, I don't know what they do. I guess they sit them in the shopping cart and if there are no carts, they get a stroller that the mall rents out or gives out or something.

I would think it would be nigh on impossible to push a stroller in the snow. Maybe if you went to Walmart or the mall where they had removed the snow, you could push it, but otherwise its lumpy and bumpy and some soft snow and some packed down. I think you would get stuck pretty quick.

iaink

Its not like they are folded double, and they have just spent 9 wet months in a faetal position, so I doubt it does any harm at all. Only old style prams are trully flat, and a new born spends most of its time flat on its back asleep anyway, so a break from that is probably welcome relief, I know our kids were both comfortable, it was a (the?) surefire way to get them to sleep, strap em in, drive for a bit.

The combi thing is not at all like the awful non supportive sling back strollers of the 70s. The back is fully supported, the kid is strapped in flat, and only the legs wave about, and within 6 months there legs are too long to fit in anyway and they wont lay flat anyway, they want to know whats going on!

The worst part of car seat thing here is that at 8 momnths they have outgrown the baby seat, there legs are all over the back seat (they are of course rear facing), but you cant turn them around forward facing till they are a year old, at which point travel becomes a lot less fraught as they are comfortable again with their legs dangling over the end of the seat.

As long as its only a couple of inches, and its not stupidly cold or windy, we will go for a walk with the stroler in the snow, and we arent the only ones round here. Once past the small baby stage and able to sit up well, #1 offspring loved to be towed on the sled, but you need the "right kind of snow" for that.