Strollers

A bassinet, a full recline or an umbrella fold:

the first choice is how flat the baby can lie. A full-size stroller for a newborn either reclines all the way or takes a bassinet that clips onto the frame. A travel system goes another way: an infant seat from car seats for babies clicks straight onto the stroller, so the seat goes from car to frame in one move. The umbrella fold is light and cheap but only half reclines, so it is a second stroller for after the baby sits up. Compact travel folds sit in between, closing with one hand into a bundle small enough for a flight.

Jogging strollers, and three-wheelers that only look like them:

a real jogger has a front wheel that locks straight, a wrist strap, a hand brake on the bar and air tires. Its makers say not to run with it until the baby sits up well on its own, and never with a car seat or bassinet attached. Plenty of three-wheel strollers copy the shape with a front wheel that only swivels; they are fine for a stroll down the Sunday route and wobble at running pace.

Double strollers, tandem or side by side:

a tandem puts one seat behind the other and goes through any door a single stroller does, while a side-by-side lets both children see out but needs a wide doorway and a wide sidewalk. A sit-and-stand, with a platform at the back for the older child, is the lighter answer when that child only needs the odd rest. Plenty of parents of two skip the double altogether, carry the younger one in a baby carrier and push the older one.

What a jogger loses after its first owner:

a three-wheel jogger with a locking front wheel starts around Q3,500 new, and a used one with tires that hold air and a brake that still bites goes for about Q1,200 to Q1,800. A good jogger’s frame outlasts several children. What the second owner is really paying for in advance is tires, tubes, a brake cable and a canopy that has spent its life in the sun, so a well-kept one on fresh tires sits at the top of that band and one left flat in a garage sits well below it.

A used stroller, hinge by hinge:

strollers break at the fold joints, so start there. Open and close it and listen for a clean click at every lock; a hinge that needs a shove, or hairline cracks in its plastic housing, is the beginning of the end. A frame that flexes with weight in the seat only gets worse. On a jogger, let go of the bar on a flat stretch and watch whether it drifts to one side, which is a tracking adjustment if you are lucky and a bent fork if you are not. Unzip the seat padding to look for mildew and press the canopy, since sun-baked fabric goes brittle and splits along the folds. Find the sticker on the frame with the model and manufacture date and search it for recalls, because fold hinges have been recalled before. The expensive compact folds are the ones most copied: a cheap one with no sticker and a rough fold is best left alone.

What to show when a stroller changes hands:

photograph the frame sticker, then every piece that goes with it: bassinet, rain cover, bumper bar, car-seat adapters. Adapters only fit certain seats, and a buyer with a car seat already at home will ask which ones they are getting. Mention the diaper bag hooks if you have them, say plainly if the canopy has faded or a wheel squeaks, and add a short video of the one-handed fold. Someone coming up from Puerto Barrios or over from Santa Lucía Cotzumalguapa has given a whole day to it, so have the tires hard and let them push it round the block with a bag of rice in the seat.