New parent question (pram and car content)

Molly – each to their own – better IYHO presumably.

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.

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.

Obviously got one of those super amazing easy to sleep sorts. Ours has never been a good napper and in trying to get a routine, we were quite happy to use the drive to the supermarket to get him to sleep, click him into the travel system and then do the shop knowing he’s at least had a decent nap at a decent time. Transferring him to sling or pushchair from car seat wasn’t an option as he’d wake and not go off again.

Oh and still using the car seat a lot for quick in to town missions – that said we have a clicky in and out base so it’s really no faff.

Geoff – I don’t like that kind.

I figure it’s what they like though really? Ours hated the farbic wrap sling, would always get too hot in it. Always prefered the baby bjorn which he still uses.

Molly – each to their own – better IYHO presumably

I have nothing else to give apart from my ho.

Although we did under-dress ours when she was in the sling – and this was over the summer too. Re the sleeping – even if she was awake as a little baby she loved the fabric sling.

Not sure I’ve ever seen a screaming kid in a sling, seen plenty in pushchairs tho.

We had a baby 6 weeks ago. Don’t spend too much time worrying about this stuff, it’s not really that important unless you’ve got really specific needs anyway. We do have a 2nd floor flat and don’t have a car which dictates a certain preference. Good luck and congrats btw 🙂

We’ve used a small pushchair from birth, plenty will go flat enough for a newborn. It’s light, small and easy to cart about. And it was £80 new 🙂 Chicco Liteway I think.

We’ve had an over the shoulder sling, but I’m not that keen on it as it feels a bit insecure. Much prefer the babybjorn, but she’s only just big enough for that. Would much prefer that over a buggy for walks in the countryside. I’ve a **** back and find it very comfortable.

When we used to take MFL Jr around the local forest, we never used the pram, we used a carrier.
We also changed quite quickly from an oldish Ford Fiesta to something bigger as the Fiesta couldn’t accomodate a pram & anything else – it wasn’t possible to put shopping in the boot with the prame for example.

We’ve had an over the shoulder sling, but I’m not that keen on it as it feels a bit insecure

Someone gave us one of those – it killed my shoulder and arm in all sorts of bizarre ways even when she only weighed 2-3kg, and it wasn’t so secure either. Not good.

We are due in September, and from the buggies i’ve looked at so far, the wheels are really easy to get off,and put back on. Not that its an issue with a Mondeo.

Not too keen on three wheelers, they just don’t feel as stable when undergoing in store ragging test.

Apparently air tyres or soft rubber compound possibly with suspension are a good idea.

Obviously got one of those super amazing easy to sleep sorts.

Time will tell! My point is that if she’s already sleepy, lifting her into the pram won’t wake her, and if she’s already wide awake, there’s little we can do about it.

A friend is a paediatric nurse, and warns against using car seats for long periods – small babies are prone to overheating in this position. Obviously this isn’t applicable for supermarket trips…

A friend is a paediatric nurse, and warns against using car seats for long periods – small babies are prone to overheating in this position. Obviously this isn’t applicable for supermarket trips…

Yeah but they have a big disclaimer on them anyway suggesting limits on time. Obviously when your child only naps for 30 minutes at best it becomes a non issue 🙂

i’m not sure I knew it was possible/sensible to use a pushchair from birth. that is worth looking into and then getting a seperate car seat/carry thing.

Max 2 hours is the recommendation on car seats isn’t it?

Here’s our experience:

Baby bjorn carriers are really good and our baby enjoyed being able to see where she was going.

We bought a Quinny system – it works well when they are very small, and the pram attachment can be used it as a travel cot for visits and camping trips too. We had an isofix base and it was good to be able to unclick the car seat and click it onto the wheels.

That said, as soon as she outgrew the car seat, we found it too wide and heavy around the shops and not really up to the job off road. No use for two children either, so limited lifespan.

Now we just use a maclaren “umbrella” folder – light and easy to stow. Note that even that will not lie flat in the back of a small car like say a Fabia/Ibiza. The wheel arches fill both sides of the boot.

We have a baby jogger with 16″ wheels for any trips out in the woods, soon to be joined by a Chariot bike trailer/jogger.

Would advise not spending huge amounts of cash on something that might only end up getting a few months of use.

We’re happy with the Quinny, but we bought second hand – if we’d paid full price, we’d have been gutted! Would also second the idea of a phil and teds – something that can be expanded for baby #2.

Swoosh – you won’t be worrying about germs in a few months thats for sure. babies are dirty little people, toddlers are even dirtier. My wife was going mad at our 2 year old the other day as he was going into the garden with a cup, filling it up from a bucket of green water and drinking it. She went mental, he laughed and thought it was a great game.

Germs – thats why I said buy a new cacoon thing, then they don’t touch the pram until they are 3 months old – by that time they’ve been licking the floor and all sorts – it’s all good for them.

Never had a problem with stability of 3 wheelers!

It’s the baby bjorn one we had. I just couldn’t remember the name of it before – excellent bit of kit.

The recommended time in the car seat can also become a little moot when you are driving around town at 3am trying to get the little darling to sleep, when all else fails. Bad parent me? 😳

We also got a car seat from freecycle 🙂 I just pulled the covers off to make sure there was no damage underneath…

Plenty of pushchairs are suitable for birth, they’re all labelled as such on Medicare or in motherland etc. The back bit just locks in a few different angles.

I see you’re in Nottingham. Get up to Stork Talk in Ilkeston, lots of makes there and you can try them in your car right outside the door. We’ve had alsorts from them. They are very knowledgeable too, family run business. We had a Bugaboo for our first and soon after number 2 came along went for a Phil and Ted’s. The Bugaboo is pants on anything other than a pavement, P&T much better, the new ally framed one is a huge improvement on ours too. Thankfully all our baby stuff will be going soon as ours are now 3 and 5.

our daughter (first one) is 7 months now, not much of a sleeper at all, the only thing that really got her to sleep was being walked around in the pram – she didn’t really sleep in the closer sling, IME our baby slept better when stretched out flat on her back as opposed to in the car seat (she does sleep in the car tho)

we have a bugaboo and I wasn’t happy about lashing out that much on a pram but it has been worth it for the amount of pavement pounding and it converts to a pushchair so we’ll get a good few years out of it.
If you look after them you can get good 2nd hand values or get a good quality one from ebay

NCT nearly new sales are your friend

as for car fitting, some car boots just aren’t very big but if you put the chair on it’s side you get them in, this is how we got out bugaboo to fit in a mini (and they have a seriously poxy boot)

swoosh, congratulations 🙂

Spud – we went to Stork Talk on Saturday and found some really good systems in there. We’re going back on Friday morning to make our final decision between two we liked. I think it’s best to see things twice as when you go back you will have a better idea of how we want to use the pushchair and what we want from it.

Phil & Ted’s good IMHO.
We went through four pushchairs with our two kids, starting with:

Graco three wheeler, cheapish but solid/foam tyres and a front wheel that didn’t steer made it awkward to push. Quite heavy & bulky, think we had to remove a wheel or two to get it in the boot. Travel system feature was quite good though, lift seat from house to car to buggy. Glad to get rid of it, moved on to:

Phil & Teds original. Excellent overall but not without its drawbacks. Lovely to push (pneumatic tyres help) but bulky. When up they’re quite big as a single but very compact for a double. Great for going on busses, at least in London. When folded we had to take both back wheels off to get it in the boot of our Mk1 Focus. We had the original one (black painted frame) which was a real pain to fold when it’s got the second seat on the back. Newer design with the bare aluminium frame claims to have solved this (and lovely to look at) but it seems that the tyres wear out and it’s hard to find replacements. Must have pushed ours nearly three thousand miles. That’s a serious estimate. Eventually bits started wearing out but they can all be replaced – at a price. Carried patches and a pump but we never had a puncture – other parents did though.

McLaren double (second-hand). Traditional side by side double, folds fairly small. Bit wide for pavements, probably for busses too. Harder to push than Phil & Ted’s but folds much smaller – we kept it in the car, which we don’t use very often and used the P&T’s most of the time.

McLaren single, Lightweight, folds small. Wheels were wearing out after about a year. Don’t know if we could have replaced them. We had a buggy board on the back for our older child which worked well.

Don’t think there’s much need to worry about germs from second hand items but it’s easy to say that about someone else’s baby, much harder to feel that way about your own precious little bundle of joy.