New parent question (pram and car content)

Mrs S and I are expecting our first child in December and have started looking at items like prams/travel systems/buggies/whatever you want to call them and we’re struggling a little bit. We’re struggling to find one that fits into the boot of her ford fiesta. Not a tiny car bit obviously nnot a huge car either.

We went to Mamas and Papas and mothercare yesterday and only found 1 that would fit into the boot without taking a wheel off. The one that fitted in was the Mamas and Papas Urbo. We’re a bit worried about the tyres on it and whether or not the slim non-pneumatic tyres will be up to being taken off road onto the rough man made tracks you get at nature reserves and country parks. Anyone have any ideas?

Also, does anyone have any ideas on buggies that will fold small enough to go into the boot of a fiesta complete? It’s mostly the width that we’re struggling to get to fit. Also it would be ideal if it folded one handed.

Any help or tips would be gratefully received.

Lola up 3 in one. Folds with one hand, we got the m and p car seat (needs adaptors tho) to go with it as it gets better reviews. Tyres are solid and not the biggest although ok for the stuff we did folds one handed although not with carry cot or car seat in it and folding mechanism eats into the underwear storage area a bit.
We’re using a different pram now but based in Glasgow if you like nearby and wanna try it in the boot of your car? Guessing the shops should let u do this before you buy anything tho.
Couldn’t believe the prices at first though.. Crazy stuff!

thanks for the offer althepal but i live in Nottingham so Glasgow is a bit of a trek. M&Ps did let us try theirs in the boot so we know the Urbo fits it’s just whether it can take the ‘rough stuff’ that we’ll probably take it on about once a week or so.

Out of interest – what car do you have that fits the sola and what pram are you using now?

What exactly is the problem with taking the wheels off?

well, it’s fine when its a brand new pram from the shop in the warmth of July but what about after a muddy wet walk in January, i’m not sure my wife will want to get her hands muddy also.

What exactly is the problem with taking the wheels off?

It is a massive, massive faff.

Having had two 3 wheelers I’d go for one with pneumatic tyres. Also, if you have to pop a wheel off the rears are much easier to remove than the fronts in our experience.

A Mothercare Urban Detour will do the job, but I’m not sure if it is still available.

We eventually bought 2 prams, one for the car and around town, a Mclaren foldy job, and one for walking into town and around and about, a Phil and Teds. Luckily we have a focus and the P&T’s fitted into the boot ok. As you’ve got a Fiesta the seats fold, should be able to get and with only one child should be able to fit pram in there?

The M&Ps Sola or Glide both have the same chasis and the rear wheels pop off no problem and takes about 5secs in total. the display models wheel didnt click back into place first time everytime so that doesn’t really bode well for longterm reliability.

We have discussed putting the rear seat down to get it in that way or removing the parcel shelf and standing it on its side rather than laying flat – could be an option i guess.

Taking the wheels off is a doddle takes a few seconds, keep a pair of Marigolds in the boot too so you wife don’t break a nail.

Yup – we have two prams, keeping the small one in the car boot.

Get something smallish for town, and a baby sling of some kind for walking. Much more comfortable, and very good for the baby sleeping in it. Means you can do proper walks, you can walk when it is cold without worrying so much about whether the baby is cold, you don’t have to worry about stiles, rocks or whatever, in every way it is just a better thing (For us at least).

We had a ‘Moby wrap’ sling for the first 3 or 4 months, it was brilliant until she got very wriggly and threatened to escape it, and then we got a different one, a ‘Connecta’, which was also really comfy, but she can’t escape it.

I’ve got a running / bike trailer push chair (Croozer), and a three wheeled buggy with pneumatic tyres (Quinny), and I’d always go for the sling (or a rucksack once they are a toddler) for any off road walking.

I’ve done a bit of running with a push chair, which is the only time that having pneumatic tyres and three wheels is actually worth it – if you want to run with it, I’d wait until the baby is slightly older (like 3 months) and get something you can use with the bike too, you know you want to!

We have a Maclaren for town, it is nice enough, small wheels, but that doesn’t really matter except off road. The one we have is from 3 months, but there are ones for littler babies. It is not too bad on our cobbled road, which frankly is a lot more bumpy than most paths you’d get in most nature reserves (I’d still use a sling for walks though).

Joe

after a muddy wet walk in January, i’m not sure my wife will want to get her hands muddy also.

Also, in my experience, 3 wheelers (or any pram for that matter) are pretty rubbish in anywhere that gets much mud. My massive running buggy is okay, but otherwise a sling will be a million times better.

We used a Quinny Buzz 3 . Maxi cosi car seat and the buzz chassis lasted us until six months.went to mothercare an got them to demo all the travel combos of buggy and car seats and then bought all our stuff on line. Got the easy fix car seat holder of kiddiecare for £30 cheaper than mothercare and maxi cosi seat from amazon for 40 cheaper . We got a buzz 3 on eBay for 130. Chassis had slight marks but all the seat bits were still in Plastic. But you can buy just the chassis for about 60 and just use the car seat if your not out for to long . The ebayer sells childrens returned goods but I can’t remember the name , wife may remember.

I’m told that avoiding dog eggs is much harder with a 3-wheeler…

Avoiding dog eggs isn’t too bad with a 3 wheeler, but any pram makes it impossible for a grandmother to avoid them – worth having a pram to keep at grandmas if she plays any part in childcare in my opinion!

Hmmm, we ended up with 3 prams. In laws very kindly bought us a Silver Cross 3D pram system – baby seat, pram & buggy in one. Other half had a Pug 206 at the time and it fitted in the boot no problem. Quite a good pram apart from when I pushed it, my feet hit the rear wheels. OK off road, but not brilliant.

We also got an out’n’about 3 wheeler. Much easier for me to push, great offroad, only went in the 206 with the front wheel off. No problem as it has a QR, and fitted in my car fine. Only suitable for 6M +. Broke it eventually.

Last pram was a Maclaren when little man got a bit bigger. Small, light, cheap, strong, ok off road. The biz, but not suitable for tinys.

I think the Silver Cross was about £450 new. Had to go back to them at one point ‘cos it wasn’t folding properly. Sold it recently for £100 on Ebay. The out’n’about was £150 – now sitting in oil store as it’s broke. The Maclaren was around £80 and we gave it to my little boy’s nursery – it’s still going strong.

8 month year old here…

Ignored everyone’s advice to not bother with a travel system (iCandy Apple). Clicking car seat into wheels was admittedly useful but meant heavy pram attachment went all but unused – used a baby carrier most of the time.

Finally went in the stroller attachment which is bulky and fills a good chunk of a C-Max’s boot. He’s just as happy in his grandparent’s cheap M&P folding stroller.

If I was doing it again (thankfully the iCandy has at least lasted really well and should do another kid), I think I’d probably go with something like a Micralight fastfold but ignore the pram. Car seat attachment was a blessing at times and the fastfold does look at be a good compromise between cheap rattly thing and big fancy travel system stroller.

Back to the OP – are you wanting a travel system or just a pram? You need to decide what you want then we can help more.

I live up north. I had big plans for huge walks with baby number one but wife stopped me buying the mega outdoor pram… and she was right! Baby due in December – go Papoose/Sling until well into next year for the outdoorsy stuff, keep the wee toot cuddled up nice and close where they should be.

Any pram will do for towny stuff. Reconsider in the spring if your using the town pram for offroad excursions – chances are the first pram you buy will have things you don’t like anyway so buying expensive ones is daft… travel system look clever but you’ll end up with multiple prams and pushchairs no matter how much you try to avoid it.

I think the Silver Cross was about £450 new

We bought ours (the 3D) second hand for about £50, including the car seat. I’ve no idea why people buy these new!

One tip for stopping your feet hitting the back wheels is to pull the arms out as far as they go, as this puts you further back behind the pram.

Start with a sling, a nice all fabric wrap style one is best. Slings are way way better for the baby.

Then when you have an idea of the stuff you actually do with your kid, decide if you want a pushchair. You may want to then get a small town pushchair and continue to use the sling for ‘off-road’ stuff.

We had a chunky ‘off-road’ type pushchair, it didn’t get much use. It’s just too much faff when you want to walk.

Travel systems are also rubbish imo. So your kid’s asleep after a car journey – so what? If it’s tired, it’ll fall asleep again in a pushchair or sling. If not, then it’ll be awake. If your kid is comorted and/or stimulated the right amout it’ll be ok, regardless. This is what you have to make sure.

Travel systems are also rubbish imo.

Yup, and it’s not a great idea to leave your baby in the car seat for hours on end. We just lift junior out and put her in the pram – as you say, when she’s tired she barely stirs, and pushing the pram usually sends her back to sleep anyway.

including the car seat. I’ve no idea why people buy these new!

Buying car seats second hand is not the greatest idea.

Whoops post in wrong thread!

Buying car seats second hand is not the greatest idea.

It is if you know the previous owner. Anyway, if you don’t – buy the pram second-hand and a new car seat, you’re still quids in.

I think we’re after a travel system as I can genuinely see us using the infant car seat and pushchair attachments plus my wife wants one of the lay-flat carry cot things too. whens it’s older a smaller pushchair will be good to save space in the car etc.

I think we’re after a travel system as I can genuinely see us using the infant car seat and pushchair attachments plus my wife wants one of the lay-flat carry cot things too.

We thought the same. In practice, we leave the car seat in the car and just lift her out and put her in the pram, so she can lay flat. It’s no big deal, and seems less faff to me.

Phil & Ted lies very flat. That cocoon thing is only good for a few months, they soon out grow them. The wheels come off with a press of the centre button, so just grip the spokes, no need to touch the tyre. You could keep a Rhino tub in the boot for them to go in if muddy. Thats assuming a Phil & Ted wont go in with wheels on.

We bought a travel system (M&P Pliko) for number 1. He was born in November so the pram was good for insulation and comfort when walking any distance into town for example. Off road it was rubbish – it barely survived a regular 3 mile walk along the canal towpath. We soon got tired of reconfiguring it into pram mode when we were out in the car so just clicked the car seat onto the pushchair. The car seat was pretty heavy, the missus struggled with it once the eldest was about 8 months.

When number 2 was on his way (only 13 months between them) we got rid of the lot as we needed a double, and got a Phil and Ted’s Explorer (new version of Sport). He went in a borrowed cocoon for the first month or so, then in the car seat on top. He’s now big enough to go into either of the seats. We ended up with a Maxi Cosi cabrio car seat as it was nice and light.

We never really used a sling much, although we do have one, but in your situation I’d probably go for one of those over a pram if your wife will allow it. Prams are great but the amount of time you actually need one (3 months?) makes them a bit expensive. If she does want one see if you can borrow one, or go second hand.

I also wouldn’t bother with an all in one pram/pushchair/etc combo, they’re a bit like hybrid bikes – good on paper but in practice don’t really do anything that well.

I’d also recommend future proofing your purchase as much as possible. For example if you’re planning on having another reasonably soon get something like a Phil and Teds that will take a double kit. We paid about £500 for the all singing all dancing M&P kit for number one then sold it on ebay for about £100 (12 months old!) before dropping another £700 on the P&T kit. A very painful lesson!

Prams are great but the amount of time you actually need one (3 months?) makes them a bit expensive.

Depends a lot on the baby. If you’ve got a small, lie still baby that is happy with a pram/carry cot attachment, they can get six months good use out of the pram. If you have a wriggle maniac like we have it is less worth it. We basically didn’t use the carry cot after about 2 or 3 weeks, once she started moving around too much in it, because they’re not strapped in, the can wriggle themselves around to wherever they want. We also found the carry cot useless anywhere with hills (we live on a hill in Derbyshire, so that was annoying), as the baby falls down to the bottom.

We did find the pushchair bit that a maxi-cosi car seat fits into useful – the car seat at least held her still enough to be comfortable, and it means you only need to take a frame in the car, as you’ll already have the car seat. In practice though, we’ve never used the pushchair bit of our quinny much, so whilst we have quinny frame + carry cot + pushchair seat + car seat, we’d really have been find with just any old frame that a maxi cosi car seat would stick into. Other pushchairs are way more convenient for the pushchair bit once they’re however old they need to be for that, and the carry cot was useless.

Also, at least on our Quinny, it is a slight pain converting it from the various different configurations, taking out car seat bits, putting on the pushchair seat, or putting on the carry cot. Plus the pushchair seat alone is probably as big and heavy as a standalone pushchair.

put her in the pram, so she can lay flat. It’s no big deal, and seems less faff to me.

As they get older the car seat tends to be used more on the pushchair in our experience anyway.

Oh and another thing to bear in mind – massive weight difference between a travel system and a pushchair, which makes a difference if you have to push it up hills – our travel system weighs >15kg, whereas the pushchair is about 5kg. Even with a 11kg 1 year old in it, that is a big difference in how much weight you have to push up the hill.

tonyd gives good advice; if you might have another within 2.5 years get one that can have bits added to fit a second child in.

Like many new parents we got a travel system (maxi cost mura)2 years ago when the first one arrived. It was good as we did a lot of walks from home with the dog and a lot of walks round the counrty park with slight off road tracks. Our new son could go in the cot bit at first and then in the seat when he was 6 or 7 months. It got used twice a day for 2 years so we had good use out of it.

We also had a second hand silver cross fold up job that we used for going to Spain (Wife is from spain) and some trips to shops.

Number 2 arrived 2 months ago and we bought a second hand Phil and teds. We really only use this one now, #2 in cacoon laying flat and #1 in the seat on the top ready for action. Sometimes we use the maxi cosi wheels and car seat if we are going somewhere where #1 will not be in a push chair. The Phil and teds is great for off road – we did a pretty rocky walk in the lakes and it managed fine – it’s also easy to lift over styles (with child removed).

If I was to start again i’d get a second hand Phil and Teds and second hand folding thing. I’d also get a new car seat and cacoon. So that would cost about £300 and be very future proof.

I reckon a Chariot bike trailer is a far better pushchair for two optionally different aged kids than a Phil and Ted double decker. Plus it’s a bike trailer too.

Thank god all that is now behind us 🙂

I could have bought a nice bike with all the prams and associated guff we went through – and never really needed. Luckily, most of it was hand me downs or second hand, but even so, I still get a migraine thinking about it!

My advice would be to use some sort of front mounted carrier when they are really small and them get them into a chap simple buggy as soon as you can.

I’ve been looking at the Phil&Teds things that you can add a second seat to and am wondering are 3-wheelers stable or is there a chance of the pushchair falling over if we’re not paying full attention to where we’re pushing it?

Also, is buying secondhand iffy with regards to germs etc? That’s the one thing putting me off going down that route.

Geoffj – are you suggesting a papoose or sling when they are young all the time until they can sit up in a stand alone pushchair and then use just that? Interesting – never thought of that. would their head/neck be ok in a papoose when they are new born?

Geoffj – are you suggesting a papoose or sling when they are young all the time until they can sit up in a stand alone pushchair and then use just that? Interesting – never thought of that. would their head/neck be ok in a papoose when they are new born?

This is good from birth.
http://www.mobywrap.com/

Advantages: It is lovely and cuddly. Keeps the baby warm in winter (you can put it under your coat. Babies sleep really well in them. Easy to go into shops, cafes, on public transport, over stiles etc.

Disadvantages: Some people will think you are a weirdo for not using a pushchair. Some people don’t get on with them. You have to work out how to put them on (once you know it, it takes seconds to put on, probably less time than putting a kid in a pushchair with all the winter pushchair stuff). Oh and grandparents / other people who only rarely take the baby out may not want to wear a sling.

Most of the people I’ve known who didn’t get on with slings had baby bjorn type carriers, not the hold them close to the body wrap type slings, which when they are very little seem much comfier. The wrap slings have a limit to how old you can use them – once the baby is older and wriggly, they’ll learn to escape. Ours lasted about 6 months with a very wriggly baby.

Oh and our quinny was second hand, no problems with germs, it isn’t like germs hang around for weeks on stuff – your baby will find a million far more inventive ways to catch germs off other babies (licking each others’ faces, sharing toys, stealing food off them etc.)

Something like this – http://www.boots.com/en/Infantino-Flip-3-position-Front-Backpack-Baby-Carrier_1132435/?CAWELAID=591466606&cm_mmc=Shopping%20Engines-_-Google%20Base-_—_-Infantino%20Flip%203position%20Front%20%20Backpack%20Baby%20Carrier

We pissed around with a wilkinet sling which was what all the hippy chic mums were raving about at the time but you have to tie the bits to secure it – I prefer clips and Velcro!

The boots one linked above is suitable from birth when used on the front.

Geoff – I don’t like that kind. For real snuggly warm loveliness we had one of these:

As you can see, head support is not an issue because the baby’s cradled against your loving breast 🙂 There are three ways to use it, for different ages of baby, and instead of straps which dig in the fabric spreads across your shoulders which supports the load amazingly comfortably. It was much better than the kind you link to – but they are in turn much better than pushchairs imo.

Oh and you can also BF in it if you are of the female persuasion, even when you are walking about. IF you have the technique right 🙂