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Baby transport
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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It has been suggested that Child carrier be merged into this article or section. (Discuss) |
For transportation of a baby or toddler there are special vehicles, special car seats, and devices for carrying.
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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.
They can be three or four wheelers.
A baby carriage (in North American English), perambulator (in British English, perambulator is usually shortened to pram) 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.
- Further information: Stroller history
A stroller (North American English) or pushchair (British English) 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. Buggy is now the usual term in the UK; 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.
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 50kg and recommended use for children up to the age of 4 years.
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 are legally required in many countries to safely transport children up to the age of 2 or more years in cars and other vehicles.
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.
- 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
- ^ United Nations Treaty No. 4789. Agreement concerning the adoption of uniform conditions and reciprocal recognition of approval for motor vehicle equipment and parts. Regulation No. 44. Uniform provisions concerning the approval of restraining devices for child occupants of power-driven vehicles (“child restraints”)]. [This is the original (now out of date) February 1981 annex to a March 1958 treaty.]
- ^ Regulation No 44 of the Economic Commission for Europe of the United Nations (UN/ECE) — Uniform provisions concerning the approval of restraining devices for child occupants of power driven vehicles (‘child restraint systems’).
- ^ International Standard ISO 13216. Anchorages in vehicles and attachments to anchorages for child restraint systems. International Organization for Standardization, Geneva.
