I wonder if any of you are happy to share your experience with running with a baby. I have a 9 week old and am in no rush to start running with him in the baby jogger, but I would like to find out when we might expect to get out and run together. I bought the BOB Ironman jog stroller and have heard and read varying opinions on when it might be safest to start running with him. Thanks for any input.
I’m not a mom or a doctor, but I read on Alicia Parr’s blog about a head-thing that made it possible to run with a really really little Remy 
You could send her a note: http://aliciaparr.com/
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I, too, have the Bob Ironman stroller. If I recall, I think I was told not to take the baby in it until 6 months b/c of the head-wobble thing, but maybe this new contraption mentioned will eliminate that issue. I LOVED running with my oldest…we went out all the time. The Bob was so easy to handle and so light. I had the cover that protects from bad weather and would just zip my daughter into a bunting on cold days and throw the cover on.
I have the Bob Ironman double stroller as well, but haven’t enjoyed running with it nearly as much. It is SO much heavier to run with 2 kids (not to mention that one is now older and weighs more than 20 lbs, plus has an opinion about weather or not she wants to go for a run!:)!) Enjoy your time running with your baby…I have so many great memories of it!
I have the BOB stroller. Started running with my baby when she was 12 weeks old. I put a ton of blankets around her head to help prop it up an never had a problem.
I waited 6 weeks, then ran with them in the jogger (laying flat, mine reclined) with the head support. I was ancy.
They’re 5, 6 & 8 now, and pretty smart 
I don’t think I hurt them any!
I enjoy running with my son in the baby jogger, but I wanted to err on the side of caution (not that those of you who took yours out earlier weren’t). I waited 9 months before I took him out, but check with the american academy of pediatrics.
It depends on the stroller. Back when mine were small, the only option was Baby Jogger, which required waiting till they coudl hold their heads up. They also sell a soft terry head support thingie you can use (or rolled up towels I guess). I went running the very first day the pedi told me it was OK.
I am not sure what the BOB has, besides a great rep for durability…but whether or not it’s good for newborns I don’t know. I have seen people jogging nowadays with tiny infants who are laying flat. I went through four jogging strollers, a bike trailer and a tandem attachment. I trained for several marathons pushing the double. I amortized (sp?) the cost of babysitting at $15/hour and decided it was a better investment to just buy whatever stroller fit my changing needs, and I just went with it.
FYI, we went in all weather including zero degrees. The super-fitted plastic cover is awesome.
good luck , congrats, and Enjoy!! If you lived near me I’d meet you for a run and push the stroller for you
Thank you to everyone who responded! I feel better about getting out there sooner, rather than later!
Hi Eileen,
Got your email! Figured I’d chime in on the thread itself.
Anyway, I went to REI and bought a stroller insert something like this.
The photo doesn’t show any shoulder straps, but mine has those similar to how a car seat hooks up. In looking on the REI online store, it appears there are several different similar options. I don’t see the exact brand that I got, but I wish I’d looked online first because some of those look a lot less expensive that what I got and probably just as good!
Anyway, I started jogging with my baby at around 3 weeks, I think. At first, I even tucked an additional towel around his head to make sure he was secure. Regarding how early you would start, use your instincts. My Remy was born pretty big (9lb 3oz) and with a stronger than average neck according to all the medical professionals that saw him, so that weighed into my decision. He was easily over 11 lbs by the time I took him out for a jog. The other part is that there is no minimum age that I’ve heard for walking with a baby in a stroller, and, let’s be honest with ourselves, how much faster than walking pace are we really jogging so soon post partum anyway? If I’m any indication – not VERY. Also, I went with the idea that if something was hurting him, he would cry. Only crying in the stroller I got was once when we tried to start a walk when he had a wet diaper and another time when he got really hungry towards the end of another walk. Never has he cried during a jog.
If you’re anxious to get running with your baby, try out one of those inserts and put him/her in it, take a close look at how secure your baby looks, and try a walk first if you feel ready and see how it goes. The first time we put Remy in with the insert was about a week and a half along and it just didn’t seem like the time to do it yet, so we didn’t. He just looked too small and “un ready”. If you have a really tiny baby, you may want to wait longer than I did.
Keep in mind that I’m not a medical professional or certified physical trainer, so my advice isn’t any kind of official anything. I am a big proponent of using your instincts, so that’s what I recommend. As a mother, I’m certain you won’t do anything that you feel would be harmful to your child and the right time is going to be different for each baby and mother based on size and strength of the infant.
Thanks Alicia. We look forward to running this week!
I was very cautious, and didn’t have any of those insert things, so it was about 7 months. I also know some of the strollers have a way of putting the car seat right into the stroller. Probably very safe, but very heavy.
Anyway, my pediatrician said the biggest factor is usually the terrain. If it’s smooth road/sidewalk it’s all good, but if you’re on a bumpy trail or broken sidewalk it’s not good for their neck. I’m still pretty cautious about going very slowly/easily over things like curbs, RR tracks, uneven pavement, etc.
I ran with my son in the jogger at 3 weeks. His infant car seat head attachment came out and we attached it to the straps of the baby jogger and it worked great. Our jogger also had capability to lay back though, if yours doesn’t you may have to wait a little longer…
Out if curiosity, would a ‘group’ run with baby joggers be something that would have ever interested any of you Mum’s?
I’m having a rather large lifetsyle change, former banker to semi-pro triathlete (hopefully) and tri coach/personal trainer/lifestyle ‘coach’, and one of the areas that is just not looked after well enough is the Mums and toddlers/infants stage.
Thanks
I think it would be difficult to coordinate. Babies are all about schedules and you run based on the nap schedule!!
Thanks. One forgets about those issues, my youngest is now 9.
We started using our BOB when the little guy was about 5 weeks old. We did the towel roll-up thing to minimize any head bobbing and we used the recline feature on the jogger. It works very well and he seems to like it. The movement and the white noise of the wheels puts him to sleep before we hit the end of our street. On the colder days we use a contraption called a Baby Nano Bag http://www.lilaguide.com/reviews/nano-bag-496121.aspx. It has strap cutouts in the back and keeps him toasty warm.
It is pretty funny to see him anticipate the routine of running in the morning. He is pretty chill when we are strapping him in now…at first he was a little sketched out but after a few weeks he digs it. Another added benefit is the resistance training from pushing the weight. Definately notice a postive difference when running solo.
6 weeks, using a head support. At 2.5 he still loves to “run” with mom.
I have the BOB Revolution and have been running with it since my daughter was 6 weeks old. I bought the car seat attachment and just put my carseat in the stroller. My carseat had so much padding around the head that there was NO WAY her head was going to move. My Pediatrician gave me the OK as long as I used the carseat. It is the only stroller I have ever used…LOVE IT!!!
My wife and I have a 2 week old baby girl, Sydney, that I would love to get out running with. We have the BOB Revolution with the car seat. I assume most of the people responding above did not have the car seat attachment. Logically, I can see much difference between a car seat in a car and a car seat in a BOB stroller on smooth bike paths…am I missing something?
I have one of the BOB’s with the carseat attachment too. Works great, but I don’t know that I would have taken my little guy out at 2 weeks for a run, smooth roads, neck support or not. I just think they are still pretty mushy at 2 weeks and I just wasn’t comfortable doing it. We probably started walking with him in it at 3-4 weeks, running came much later (because it just hurt to run post birth, but probably would have felt comfortable doing it by 2 months if I could have physically ran). He just turned 6 months on tuesday, and falls asleep in it whether we are running or walking. I still have him in the car seat, with no plans to take him out of it and put him in the body of the jogger for a while yet - he’s a strong kid, but slow on the weight gain, so no problem keeping him in the car seat. Plus, I can keep my eye on him as he is rear facing, thus facing me, so I can make funny faces and talk to him. I am very cautious though - where I live most of the roads are dirt, gravel, washboarded, the bike path is crap and unpaved, so I tend to walk on the paved roads when I can since it’s a smoother ride. It’s amazing how wobbly his head can still be when on the bumpy surfaces when he is asleep.
I think you’ll know if you go out and you don’t like what you see - you’ll stop running pretty quick. Have fun with her - before you know it she’ll be six months old and trying to crawl!!