Our NT$170,000 Custom Stroller: From a Mother's Day Gift to Finally Going Outside

A Mother’s Day Gift: The Custom Stroller Is Almost Here

The best Mother’s Day gift I got this year was news that the custom positioning stroller — delayed by the pandemic until the end of June — was arriving early, next Friday.

One of my dreams has always been to take my son out into the world: to show him how big it is, to wheel him in his custom stroller to a special-needs preschool. All we’ve been waiting for is this set of wheels, and we can finally set off.

This stroller is made in Italy and costs NT$170,000 (roughly US$5,500). Why so expensive? It’s imported and fully custom-built — the X-shaped chest harness is designed to hold a child with low muscle tone securely in place, and the headrest matters just as much. Our physical therapist told us that without proper head support, a child like my son risks serious damage to his cervical spine.

The custom stroller also keeps him correctly positioned, which prevents the muscle atrophy that comes from being seated wrong. We test-sat him in stroller after stroller, domestic and imported — fit matters as much as function, and it turns out mobility equipment for children with physical disabilities is far more developed overseas.

Once it arrives, I’ll share the unboxing.

Home After 30 Days in the Hospital — and the Stroller Arrived Too

The stroller was delayed again and again, and in the meantime my son ended up hospitalized with an infection. By the time he was finally discharged, the stroller and wheelchair had both arrived too.

After 30 days in the hospital, my son finally came home just before the Dragon Boat Festival, and our family was together again. I’m so grateful — to whatever’s watching over us, to the medical team, to everyone who kept cheering us on.

This whole experience showed me the different faces of life. There’s so much we’re powerless over — there’s no cure for this rare disease — and yet there’s also so much we can do: home visits from the medical team, the custom stroller, hiring home care nurses and a caregiver.

It’s a life that looks different from most, but it’s still full of the same love — from his parents, his sister, and the rest of our family.

The custom wheelchair arrived at home this Monday too. What exactly makes a NT$170,000 stroller worth it? I’ll write up a proper unboxing post soon.

My son sat in his new stroller, happily playing with his toys.

Unboxing Day: Finally Taking My Son to the Park

Taking that first step out the front door turned out to be a long, hard-won battle. The park was maybe 500 meters away, and for the longest time, we just couldn’t make ourselves go.

The custom stroller took two or three months because of the pandemic. Once it arrived, my son’s condition flared up with periodic autonomic dysfunction, so we still couldn’t go out. Then we had to wait for a ramp to be installed at our front door. And then there was the family’s strong pushback — the fear that going outside meant risking infection…

Over the Mid-Autumn Festival long weekend, my son’s sister, his nurse, and I finally set out on our expedition — to the park, and to the supermarket.

My son was over the moon. It was one of the very few times in his life he’d been out to actually see the world. At the very least, we’d crossed the threshold — both the one at our front door, and the one in our heads.

Beyond the custom stroller, I have to give a huge shoutout to a Korean-made cooling gel cushion for the stroller, sold under the name Jello. My son’s autonomic dysfunction makes him extra sensitive to heat, so sitting in the stroller for long stretches was rough on him. This cushion, though — gel-filled, jelly-like to the touch — stays cool for hours. We walked for a full hour under blazing sun, and the cushion was still cool when I checked it. He was comfortable through a full 1.5-hour outing and didn’t seem tired at all. That cushion was an absolute lifesaver.