I would like to get some advice/opinions on the Teutonia stroller that our German neighbors recommended. I was almost set on the Bugaboo Cameleon until I compared it to the Teutonia. The Bugaboo is super light but the Teutonia comes with so many more compartments and space and frills for a similar price.
Anyway, we are looking mainly at the Teutonia Cosmo with a soft or hard shelled carry-cot that fits on top of the fully reclined seat. We dont have a car and my husband loves the woods/hiking/mountains. So I can see us using it off-road a lot. We are willing to invest in a stroller since it will be used so much and plus we dont need a car seat or to fold it up and will probably use the carry-cot at home instead of a bassinet since we are very limited on space.
Does anyone have an opinion on using the Teutonia in Switzerland? And if you have one, where did you buy it? I dont need all the extra options that a lot of the ones in the stores have. So I was thinking about ordering it but does this cost more? The only great store I know about so far is Bebehaus.
general recommendations:
carry cots/prams are not suitable as beds - especially the 'capsule' variety - they are too cramped, hot, and wrong for their spine - your baby needs a firm flat mattress - also, beds with padded sides (bumpers, cushioned parts) are not appropriate because they are a suffocation risk.Fine for short periods of time when you need to transport a child 'from here to there' but not for long periods of unsupervised sleeping...
Personally, I don't like the 'modern' pram varieties with 'bucket' seating that tilts - a friend has a baby with slow development and we tried to put the child in an upright and physically comfortable position and we couldn't do it - straight upright was too forward and he slumped his head, and tilted backwards he was too reclined and just slumped his head backwards...
The child's spine in these 'tilting' seats is the same, whether the child is reclined up upright - as someone with a weak back, I worry myself about whether babies are getting good posture from being in a 'fixed' position for 2, 3 or even 4 years (I see many children of that age still using prams around town)...
So, does the Teutonia an 'adjustable' seat or a 'bucket' seat ?
Also, I'd not bother with the bassinet...you'll hardly use it - by 2-3 months they can sit (propped with support) and see out...and that's better than lying prone (on their backs) for hours...boooooring!
The Teutonia stroller seat has a multiple position seat recline. I would be more interested in that than the carseat that gets moved from car to pram - my back would die if I had to lift a bucket with a baby in it, in and out of the car many times a day - and the 'experts' will tell you that carseats are designed for safety in the car, not for a baby to be lying in for hours and hours...
Aaaahhhh.... welcome to the world of well-meaning and useful personal opinion on baby-rearing
Here's the model discussed - if I wasn't so budget conscious... I'd buy one...
http://www.teutonia.de/produkte/cosmo.html
I bought a tuetonia Y2K back when I had my first baby and used it again for our second. It was very expensive but a fantastic buy. We are outdoor people & that pram has been pushed up mountains & pushed through forests on the trails. I also used it when roller blading by the lake in Zurich. We had the soft sided basinet with ours & we did use it for the babies sleeping in when we were travelling to save taking a travel cot with us, it worked fine as the base was firm and the sides low enough not to be a risk overnight. The big downside with the pram is that it was very heavy so taking it on & off of the trams with high steps was a challenge so I walked everywhere. The pram has now been passed onto another EF member & as far as Iknow still going strong.
We have the Teutonia Fun - that looks almost identical - and are very satisfied with it. It is good for walking while still being compact.
Thanks for the advice!
Did you order it or just pick it out from a store?
We have a Teutonia Lambda and love it. We also bought the hard shell carry cot which does have a firm flat base and was great when the wee one fell asleep we just unclipped it, brought it inside and left her sleeping. I'm sure babies have slept in worse things overnight too.
We don't have a car either so the extra space is great. It's incredible how many groceries fit under it.
We purchased ours from this website in Germany and saved a couple of hundred CHF inkl. import tax and delivery. They take their time though so order early where ever you order it from.
On the down side it is a bit heavy. It's not a problem for us as we can wheel it down to the basement but it would be a different story if we were lugging it up stairs every day.
13kg is a heavy stroller to push, especially as your baby gets heavier. I had an all terrain stroller (TFK) that I ditched for an umbrella fold lightweight one as soon as my son could sit. Getting around the shops, through doors and checkouts, and getting into lifts and trains was a real pain with a big stroller. If you walk a lot in the mountains, I would use a carrier instead.
That's a fair comment...my stroller for my third child is a very basic model, the most basic one that would lay back enough to have a newborn sleep in it - I made him a special mattress for it so that he was comfortable and didn't look quite so small...the main choice was weight - I got the lightest that I could because I needed to lift it up/down stairs, into the boot of the car...and up/down trams too...
Oh, another consideration if you use a lot of public transport, is the width - my cheap and practical stroller actually fits down the aisle on trains, trams and buses, so at a pinch I can make a fast getaway...kind of helpful when the tram doors malfunction or you need to get to the toilets on the intercity...
I have a Teutonia Spirit and I'm quite satisfied. It's very good to go up and down the stairs, to go "Wandern" (it has big wheels), to get bus, tram and train.
One reason that I didn't chose the TFK was the size. For me, Teutonia is not too small (robust enough to go off-road) and not too big for go into supermarkets, for example. If you'll need someday to put it in the car, Teutonia can fit in a small car and TFK not. I don't know about Bugaboo.
I bought this on Baby Wehrli, it was the better price for this stroller (I can not say the same for other things...). But, for sure, if can go to the border, to Germany, this will be a lot more cheaper.
But before splashing out on a carrier, borrow one and see if you can actually carry the thing with both the baby and baby paraphernalia inside.
I know a lot of people (both male and female) who either can't physically lift the carrier with baby on to their shoulders or can't carry it for more than a few hundreds yards without massive discomfort (especially uphill).
I agree with the cheap, lightweight stroller for around town though!
I would really recommend going to a store that has a large choice. Try them all out and you may come away with something completely different. If you just choose online, you can't tell how it handles, if it's adjustable according to your needs, the weight, etc. etc. I went to babyhaus wehrli planning to buy a Quinny Buzz, but came away with a Chicco 4me, which was fantastic (and 30% off!).
They also have Teutonia at MacBaby (which has discounts every Friday and Saturday). It's near Bahnhof Altstetten. Still, these systems are all shockingly expensive.
I agree that a lightweight stroller is better for around town-especially if you need to ride a bus during busier hours (people will not really move for your huge stroller) and getting through the aisles (none of the larger strollers will fit-it used to drive me crazy with ours!). I like the low end MacLauren strollers for this purpose (even though they had a safety issue with fingers being caught in the folding mechanism-they include a safety fix for this for every stroller). Plus, they're way cheaper!
Also, yes, the backpack carriers for kids are pretty heavy, especially once the kid starts putting on the kilos. It's a good father's day present (ahem).
However, the carriers for small babies (wraps like the Moby or Hoppediz, and carriers like the Ergo or babybjorn) are very easy and way more handy than a huge stroller. I used to wear a Moby pretty much all day with our daughter until she was three months old, and switched to an Ergo until she was about 6 months, at which point she didn't need the bassinet for her stroller anymore. Two carriers + cheaper stroller is still FAR less expensive than a fancy, heavy stroller. Plus, all the midwives know how to do the wrap thing and they'll happily show you.
Having said this, I understand the desire for a shiny new stroller with all the accessories. We got one. And, it did serve a very valuable purpose as the only way to get our daughter to take a nap for months, and we did use the bassinet as a travel cot for her first few months (get the hard sided bassinet). One of my colleagues got a teutonia, and they were really happy with it.