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For transportation of a baby or toddler there are special vehicles, special car seats, and devices for carrying.
Carrying the child
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A child carrier or baby carrier is a device used to carry an infant or small child.
This can be on the body of an adult, or separately.
On-the-body carriers are designed in various forms such as baby slings, backpack carriers, and soft front or hip carriers, with varying materials and degrees of rigidity, decoration, support and confinement of the child.
Child Carriers
A child carrier (also called a baby carrier) is a device used to carry an infant or small child. This can be on the body of an adult, or separately. On-the-body carriers are designed in various forms such as slings, backpack carriers, and soft front or hip carriers, with varying materials and degrees of rigidity, decoration, support and confinement of the child. Slings, soft front carriers, and "carrycots" are typically used for infants who lack the ability to sit or to hold their head up. Frame backpack carriers (a modification of the frame backpack), hip carriers, slings, mei tais and a variety of other soft carriers are used for older children.
History
Although the carrying of children on the body using devices is a relatively recent phenomenon in the West, the practice has been established in many cultures for centuries. Images of children being carried in slings can be seen in Egyptian artwork dating back to the time of the Pharaohs, and have been used in many indigenous cultures. Devices for carrying children, not on the body, take the form of "carrycots", although many cultures have produced portable cradles, cradleboards, baskets, travois and other devices for making young infants easier to pick up and set down quickly. The modern car seat infant carrier is a relative latecomer.
On-the-body baby carrying in the west started being known in the 60's with the advent of the structured soft pack in the mid 1960's. Around the same time, the frame backpack quickly became a popular way to carry older babies and toddlers. In the early 70's, in Germany, the wrap was reintroduced. In 1986, the ring sling was invented and popularized. In the early 1990s, the modern pouch carrier was created in Hawaii. While the Chinese mei tai has been around in one form or another for centuries, it did not become popular in the west until it was modernized with padding and other adjustments. It first became popular and well known in mid-2003.
Pushable vehicles
An 'Odder' brand perambulator.
They can be three or four wheelers.
Carriages and prams
A baby carriage (in North American English), perambulator or pram (in British English) or carrycot is generally used for newborn babies and have the infant lying down facing the pusher.
Prams have been widely used in the UK since the Victorian era. As they developed through the years suspension was added, making the ride smoother for both the baby and the person pushing it. In the 1970s, however, the trend was more towards a more basic version, not fully sprung, and with a detachable body known as a carrycot. Now prams are very rarely used, being large and expensive when compared with buggies (see below). One of the longer lived and better known brands in the UK is Silver Cross, first manufactured in Guiseley, near Leeds, in 1877, though this factory has now closed.
Strollers and pushchairs
- Further information: Stroller history
A stroller (North American English) or push chair (British English, also sometimes buggy) has the child (generally up to three years old) in a sitting position, usually facing forwards, instead of facing the pusher.
Strollers for multiple infants include the twin (side-by-side) and the tandem configurations.
Pushchair was the popularly used term in the UK between its invention and the early 1980s, when a more compact design known as a buggy became the trend, popularised by the conveniently collapsible aluminium framed Maclaren buggy designed and patented by the British aeronautical designer Owen Maclaren in 1965. Pushchair is the usual term in the UK, but is becoming increasingly replaced by buggy; in American English, buggy is synonymous with baby carriage. Newer versions can be configured to carry a baby lying down like a low pram and then be reconfigured to carry the child in the forward-facing position.
There are a variety of twin pushchairs now manufactured, some designed for babies of a similar age (such as twins) and some for those with a small age gap. Some brands that manufacture twin strollers are Maclaren, Peg Perego, Baby Jogger, and phil&teds.
Triple pushchairs are a fairly recent addition, due to the number of multiple births being on the increase. Safety guidelines for standard pushchairs apply. Most triple buggies have a weight limit of 50 kg and recommended use for children up to the age of 4 years.
Travel systems or 3-in-1
Travel systems typically is a set consisting of a chassis with a detachable baby seat and/or carrycot. Thus a travel system can be switched between a pushchair and a pram.
Another benefit of a travel system is that the detached chassis (generally an umbrella closing chassis) when folded will usually be smaller than other types, to transport it in a car trunk or boot.
Also, the baby seat will snap into a base meant to stay in an automobile, becoming a carseat. This allows undisturbed movement of the baby from the car to the stroller, reducing the chance of waking a sleeping baby.
Suitable from birth to around 3 years (excepting the baby carseat that generally is a Group 0 + ; see baby car seat).
Infant car seats
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Infant car seats are legally required in many countries to safely transport children up to the age of 2 or more years in cars and other vehicles.
Standards
The main international standard for baby and child car seats was set by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN ECE) and its current (2004) version is colloquially known as “Regulation ECE R44-04”.[1][2]
It distinguishes five “mass groups” of child restraints:
- Group 0 for children weighing less than 10 kg
- Group 0+ for children weighing less than 13 kg
- Group I for children weighing 9–18 kg
- Group II for children weighing 15–25 kg
- Group III for children weighing 22–36 kg
Some manufacturers offer seats that combine several of these groups, e.g. 9–36 kg.
The standard also distinguishes between many types of child restraints, such as
- forward-facing/rearward facing types
- for which type of vehicle the system is designed
In 1990, the International Organization for Standardization launched the ISOFIX standard[3], in an attempt to provide a standard for fixing car seats into different makes of car. The U.S. version of this system is called LATCH. While some manufacturers have started selling ISOFIX-compliant baby car seats, there has been a long delay in agreeing the technical specifications. The current version of the standard was published in 1999 and has yet to become widely used.
Complements
- Bag clips and changing bags.
- A buggy board is used to transport other child, attached to the buggy (stroller) .
- Footmuff.
- Insect net
- Parasol
- Raincover
- Stroller or pram net Bag basket or tray
- Stroller toybar
See also
Notes
References
- van Hout, I.C. (1993). Beloved Burdens. Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen.
- Fontanel, Beatrice (October 1, 1998). Babies Celebrated, Harry N Abrams. pp. 250 pages. ISBN 0-8109-4012-4.
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