Stroller Or Travel System: Pick The Best For Your Baby 

A stroller or a travel system? Pretty close to picking between them, especially when you are a new parent. As I was a corporate job holder working on a busy schedule, I was bewildered to see the common characteristics while buying for Lily. 

So, what should I pick? A stroller and a car seat or a travel system? I had to go through many research and personal review sessions to pick the best for my baby. So, how to pick? 

Stroller Or Travel System: What’s The Difference?

By the name, you may have already presumed that it’s something handy with your baby for traveling, but is that presumption accurate? Then what is a stroller? Let’s dig into them one by one.

Stroller: A Brief With Pros And Cons

A stroller is a frame with wheels designed for the transportation of your child. It’s like a vehicle suitable for the best comfort and security for your child. This means you can take your baby to the shopping, walking, and even using it, you can maximize your workout. 

As we know, everything that comes with merit also possesses some demerits, and so are the strollers. Let’s check them out.

Things I Do Like

• Light and compact: It’s quite light in weight, and its compact design makes handling very easy; thus you get less tired.
• Safety: Manufacturers follow all the guidelines by AAP and other research journals to keep your baby safe. A five-point harness provides great safety support to your child, along with other measurements.
• Versatility: Strollers come to you in various types such as umbrella, jogging, beach, full-sized, etc. serving multiple types of needs for both the baby and guardians.
• Durability: Strollers are a kind of one-time investment. You can re-use it, even donate or resell it, as long as the date doesn’t expire and not involved in an accident or severely damaged. 
• Extra Carrier: Some strollers come with extra space to carry necessary baby items along. This reduces extra pressure on your back for carrying those staff in a backpack.

Things Could Be Better

• Price: Strollers don’t come that easy, especially for those families with a yearly income of 12+ grand or less. Besides, the more facilities you want from the stroller the price will get higher. This means it can cost your monthly breakfast budget.
• Usability: You can use a stroller as long as your baby fits in it. As babies tend to grow quickly, You’ll get hardly an average time frame of 1 and a half years. So you need to be prepared in advance for the next one for your baby.
• Psychological Effect: It happens often that working parents put their child in a stroller and then get busy with their work. Whereas children tend to think of being abandoned in some cases as newborns love to snuggle their mothers
• Baby Growth Delay: If you put your baby in a stroller for more than an hour, it can delay the physical and mental growth of your baby. So, whenever you put him/her in the stroller, you have to keep an eye on both the baby and the clock.
• Required Space: You may think at first that it will not take that much space, but you are wrong. It’s generally large, which requires more space in the house.

Travel System: A Brief With Pros And Cons

Travel systems are a combination of an infant car seat and a stroller. This means if you buy a travel system, you will get the service of both a car seat and a stroller in one structure. A smart catch for budget, right?

These travel systems typically include stroller facilities inside of them for general use, but at the same time, you can use them as car seats without adding or subtracting any part of them. 

So, are these all the facilities of a travel system, and aren’t there any drawbacks? Let’s check them out.

Things I Liked Most

• Availability: Travel systems are widely available in the market with so many options. This means you can buy either a stroller and a car seat separately or a travel system equipped with desired configurations.
• Configuration: A travel system can come with various types of configuration styles, which also affects the price range, of course. For instance, you can have a cup holder and storage space. Some models provide very handy facilities too.
• Budget: As you know already, travel systems come like a 2-in-1 service provider, which means you can have double service at the price of a single item. This saves you quite a few bucks; otherwise, you would have to get the same services separately. 
• Compatibility: This tool is designed to work seamlessly, where you can get assurance that your car seat and stroller on the same frame are completely secure to go for a ride at once. 
• Weight Limit: The maximum weight a travel system can bear is 55 lbs, which starts from 40 lbs. This means you can bear your child in it, even if he/she weighs more than regular up to the maximum limit.

Things Could Be Better

• Weight: As it is a combined service, the overall figure of the frame gets bigger. So, the weight of the structure is quite heavy to move with ease. So if you plan to move with one hand carrying other staff with the other, you better not pick this.
• Quality: A few components of travel systems sometimes come faulty, which may be a common case for other products. But for a compact structure like this, it can bring some unexpected results. For instance, a faulty harness strap or broken pushing bar.
• Durability: Companies always try to provide products at a cheap price, but sometimes, this process costs the quality of the components. And we all know that better quality products mean longer service life. 
• Safety: Sometimes, the adjusters of the five-point harness system stay behind and underneath the baby, which discourages the parents from fixing it. This is a pretty big security issue, and you don’t want it, of course. 

Stroller Or Travel System: Which One To Pick And How?

A stroller or a travel system? This is what you have been looking for so long. Again, some may search for an answer for a travel system or separate stroller and car seat. But there is no common answer that will fit into everyone’s shoes. 

Long story short, there is no specific answer, but there are some tricks that I followed for my child to determine. They are following

• Lifestyle: If you are a busy parent like me, running on a busy schedule, going everywhere with your baby, then you better go for a travel system as it holds plenty of services, including a necessary item-carrying facility. 
• Transportation type: It means if you normally use the bus or a walk for transportation, you better not go for a price travel system just because it provides extra facilities.
• Budget: If you are already fond of the convertible car seat, which supports you for a longer period of your growing baby, or if you are a bit short on budget and can use any of the stroller or car seat services, then you better go this way.

Do you wanna know what I would pick? Take a guess. And if you wanna try something new regardless of your budget, baby jogger can give you a hand.

If You Pick A Stroller

If you find a stroller better than a travel system, it’s time to choose the best stroller for your loved one. So, how do you choose a stroller?

Like always, I prefer to choose items based on some basic factors that help me to find the best based on my overall circumstances. For strollers, I would have followed below:

• Budget: As a middle-class family member, you already know the importance of a budget, and it’s hard to override it. So before you choose a stroller type, please consider your budget first and then the facilities.
• Family Plan: If you like to break the ideal family size and want to have more than one baby, then you should go for a model that can support more children over time.
• Extra facilities: if you want to have some extra benefits such as a cup holder, easy folding, extra item carrier, etc, then you should go through all the available types of strollers in search of all the desired facilities. 
• Lifestyle: Here comes the million-dollar factor. How long do you plan to use the stroller? Is it for daily use or just an occasional outing? Do you travel via public transport or private car/truck? Do you use the lift or stairs to reach your home?

So these are the very common factors that I found helpful in buying a suitable stroller.

If You Pick A Travel System

Just like choosing a stroller, I would have analyzed the same basic factors to choose a travel system. They are budget, lifestyle, family plan, and extra facilities. Most of all, I’d ensure the best comfort and safety for your child. 

Frequently Asked Questions 

1. What Is A Travel System Stroller?

Travel system strollers are a kind of pushchair that allows you to replace the seat with a car seat. Some models also support carrycots, which are a big comfort for newborns’ sleep.

2. What’s The Difference Between A Stroller And A Travel System Stroller?

A stroller is designed to serve a specific job, whereas a travel system stroller can serve your baby a regular stroller seat along with many more facilities, such as a car seat with a base.

3. Is It Safe For Newborns to Use a Car Seat in a Stroller?

Newborns are very sensitive physically; their head and neck control is very weak; in such conditions, if you want to use a car seat in a stroller, then you need to make sure it is an infant car seat. Even after that, you need to keep an eye on her constantly. 

Wrapping Up

So far, we have discussed all the major facts to help you decide between a stroller or a travel system. Long story short, it’s all up to you and your overall circumstances to decide between them. Budget, lifestyle, family plan, and extra facilities – these four basic factors are enough to help you decide. Good luck.