Traveling with a child is both a rewarding and nerve-wracking experience. Strollers are essential if you’re a parent and love walking with your baby to the mall or the park. It’s crucial for keeping your child safe while also boosting your mobility.
Deciding the transition time for their kids to sit in a stroller without a booster perplexes many parents. The question of when can baby sit in stroller without car seat has no single answer.
However, we will introduce you to the various factors that can help make this decision easier, which include –
- Body growth
- Bone strengthening
- Height and weight
- Preference of the baby
Keep on reading to know more about how to make this transition a smooth one.
How Should I Know If My Baby Needs a Stroller?
Whether your little one will require a baby stroller will depend heavily on your lifestyle and surroundings. If they are very young, you may also require booster seats for them to sit upright.
Although it’s a car seat attachment, they also work effectively with a stroller seat. If you’re wondering whether your baby requires a stroller, consider the following criteria.
Place of Residence
Using a lightweight stroller is a must if you live close to or within a town. They are quite efficient for moving around the city pavement. Furthermore, if you rely on public transportation, get one with a five-point harness for additional safety.
Meanwhile, if you have a car, the combination of a stroller and a car seat is economically practical. You can fold it and place it in your car while your child lounges comfortably on the infant car seat.
On the other hand, you can shift your baby to the product when covering short distances.
Family Type
Manufacturers now provide a lot of variety in terms of the infant stroller. If you have two or more babies, some models let you accommodate more than one child.
Check your child’s height and weight to understand which variant will suit your needs the best. Furthermore, it’s also vital that you focus on the manufacturer’s instructions to make the most out of your product.
Although your older child might be able to sit comfortably in a regular stroller seat, your younger one might require an infant car seat for sitting upright.
Lastly, many models come with attachments to conveniently handle multiple kids while using them. Try getting one compatible with a storage basket to keep necessities like a diaper bag in it.
Daily Routine
Do you find yourself stepping out of the house regularly to run errands? In that case, a stroller will help you immensely as active parents. You can easily roam around malls and cities while your baby can safely sit in front of you on it.
If you enjoy exercising every day, then you can consider getting a jogging stroller, as its wheels are enough to handle more incredible speeds and the weight of your kid simultaneously.
Furthermore, its safety harness is relatively stronger to keep the baby safe while you exercise.
Transitioning Your Baby into Strollers Without a Car Seat
Every baby develops differently. Therefore, there is no concrete time for you to remove the infant car seat and let them use it as it is. However, if you keep a lookout for the things mentioned below, you can conduct a smooth transition.
Growth of the Child
Car seats are usually necessary for umbrella strollers and their variants when your baby does not have proper neck control and requires extra security. Children at six months old typically have good head control, which lets them sit in a stroller without support.
However, there’s no way of predicting if your child will gain strength and body density similar to average estimates. Therefore, it’s best to measure their weight and height.
If their growth is optimum, they can sit on most strollers comfortably. You can also consider putting your baby in a travel system if they are over thirty pounds.
Exercise Patience
Unlike skills like speaking, crawling, and walking, a child doesn’t develop the ability to sit erect on an umbrella stroller by training. They will develop this skill by themself, and there’s no set time for that. Therefore, do not rush the process.
Keep an infant-only car seat at hand while your baby grows and slowly develops their spine. Young babies moving their heads by themselves is a good sign that it’s time for them to sit by themselves in a good stroller seat.
Child’s Weight
Although you can easily use a travel system for moving around with newborn babies, it isn’t a long-term solution. A baby outgrows its need for such a device when its weight increases.
You must start using car seats as an alternative so that the baby’s head can get more space for them to sleep comfortably.
A full-size stroller usually gives a child enough space to lounge comfortably when they hit their initial growth sprout. Weight increase is a good indicator that the baby is growing.
Purchase a model with an aluminum frame so that it can support its increasing weight.
Movement Habits
Busy parents often don’t notice the above factors to understand that their child can use one stroller alone. However, even they won’t be able to miss out on their child learning how to sit by themselves.
It’s a clear sign that their spine is completely developed and no longer requires car seats. Being able to sit by themselves means that the baby can now support its head.
In such a scenario, it’s time to abstain from using infant car seats and start sitting the baby on a stroller. They will love the extra space, and you can experience the joys of stroller shopping.
Conclusion
Younger infants often get cranky while traveling over extended periods due to the cramped space of a car seat. Therefore, it’s best to monitor your child’s growth and the baby’s age to know when it’s time to switch from a car seat to a front-facing stroller.
One thing to remember is to select the right stroller for your child. Pick one that is certainly more spacious than a car seat. If you’re unsure about which model to pick, we recommend going for jogging strollers.
Just keep the factors we mentioned here in mind, and you, too, will know when can baby sit in stroller without car seat!
Last Updated on April 27, 2023 by Danny Reid
