Carseats, Pushchairs, Strollers etc

I managed to negotiate with a baby shop for the pushchair / moses basket / car seat / cot / etc I got them all well below RRP and below ebat prices, where are you? maybe could recomend places

Also heat, our baby room is the coolest in the house, they don't like heat
 
Morba said:
Ow much!
Have a look on somewhere like netmums. There's bound to be a few on there much cheaper
Click to expand...

There probably is but that's the one the NHS reccomend and give out, we've had ours now running nearly 2 years and it's only ever needed one battery change and is utterly reliable.
 
maccapacca said:
There probably is but that's the one the NHS reccomend and give out, we've had ours now running nearly 2 years and it's only ever needed one battery change and is utterly reliable.
Click to expand...

I'm not saying it's not worth it, just that it can be found cheaper surely.
Also it wouldn't surprise me if they are contracted to give out only that one.
 
Hikari Kisugi said:
Thnak you for all the very helpful advice. Luckily my wife is thinking upon similar lines to myself, and money saved on a pushchair that will only do to a couple of years old can be spent on other things.

I've been looking through sme stuff today, and we shall have visit to toy-r-us and mothercare again sometime in the next week, even if i don't buy from them I would feel happier trying out stuff instore first.

For a travel system type thing, we spotted the
Graco Quattro Tour Sport http://www.toysrus.co.uk/Babies-R-Us/Travel-and-Pushchairs/Travel-Systems-and-Pushchairs/Travel-systems/Graco-Quattro-Tour-Sport-Travel-System-in-Black-Mist(0076980)
which seems to have a baby sized car seat included, and this clicks directly onto the pram initially, it also has a fixed base for the car, so click out of one, clik into the other.
The car seat is a group 0+, so only does the inital 15months or so, thats fine in my mine, as we'd then though in a year swapping to a proper car seat, such as the
Cybex Pallas http://www.mamasandpapas.com/product-cybex-pallas-2-in-1-raven/119428100/type-i/
This seems to do groups 1 2 3 and looks to be adjustable in every way possible, converst to cybex solution X as child grows.
Then it would be a case of buying a big buggy when the child grows out of the Graco one, which could be a cheap maclaren job when we eventually get there.

Anyone have experience with the stuff I've mentioned, or similar stuff? Any pitfalls?

I do plan to look and try before buying, but seems that £220 + £180 or so and all is sorted buggy to age 3 and car seat to age 15mths and then swap to age 12mths to 11 years, or basically for good as far as the car seat goes. I will take the advice and spend a bit more and get matching footmuff and change bag and stuff for the initial buggy too, they will be needed but maintaining sell on price is a good idea.

Want to try to avoid £700 on a buggy alone.
Thanks for all the info so far, all very useful in helping me try to make a decision.
Click to expand...

Two things that I don't like about the graco,
1. The weight, it's 13Kg.. not too much of an issue when the baby is small, but as a 'pushchair', it's starting to get quite heavy.
2. It doesn't look like it folds down very compactly.. The graco's we tried where all 'easy fold' systems, but folded flat, but wide, and took up a huge amount of boot space when we tried them at Mothercare.

By contrast, the Bebeconfort Loola is 7Kg for the chassis, and it umbrella folds into an amazingly compact space.
http://www.bebeconfort.com/collection/UK/prom_poussette_loola.htm
Most of the baby car seats just clip into the chassis, or the buggy 'seat' which is 3Kg, which is still a fraction heavy for later on 'stroller' use, but can be clipped in either way (facing you/facing away).
You only need the car seat + Loola buggy, the pram thing just isn't worth it IMO.

Or the M&P Pliko Prammette, 9Kg, you can clip in the Car seat, it too can face either way, and comes with a mountain of accessories, and again folds very compactly, and actually converts to a kind of pram easily. Their Primo Vaggio car seat clips into it.
http://www.mamasandpapas.com/product-pliko-pramette-city-scape/185748804/type-i/

They are more expensive then Graco, but I got the Loola + Creatis car seat for £375 and the Pliko + Car seat for £325 by getting last years colours.. I think £400 max would do it these days..

And they tend to hold their value, as I said above, we sold both ours for a good price, they did the kids right through until they no longer needed even a stroller, and the only thing we bought that was inevitable was the next stage car seats.
 
Last edited:
As for 'peace of mind' and baby monitors, I think that's personal, I thought about a motion/breathing sensor, but decided against it, although I know the paranoid feeling you get as a parent on your first child, if there had been any history of cot death in the families, I'd have certainly got one, and admittedly 2-3 years ago, I don't think they where that reliable.

We did use a baby monitor though, it's horses for courses, knowing when they are getting restless and intervening before they go balls out screaming is handy, plus our house was quite large, and when in the garden/garage it proved invaluable, we got one that you could remotely play some soothing tunes, which worked several times when they where restless, and you wanted some background noise to cover up the noise of guests talking loudly etc.

The daftest thing I bought (for £20) was a teddy-cam.. I'd certainly not have bought one had it not been very cheap, but it did have the novelty as new parents of actually switching to, and watching the baby on the TV, just to 'check'.. LOLz, I was quite paranoid for a few weeks, when the baby was initially in our room for the first couple of weeks, it had to be by the missus, if it was my side of the bed, I couldn't sleep, I'd be constantly checking they where OK..


One thing worth mentioning, is I bought a braun infra-red thermometer (in-ear job), this allows very quick and accurate temperature readings, and it quickly puts your mind at rest, and was invaluable when inevitably they once or twice caught something that had the temperature hovering close to 40 degrees. We paid £28 in the sales for it, and it's the same one the mid-wifes used, and our doctors, and it's been used for everyone for 5 years now.
 
Last edited:
We never had a baby monitor with either of ours. Our house is small enough that if they cry you'll hear them. If you want the peace of mind of knowing their heart hasn't stopped, then that's your judgement call.
 
Graco all in one jobber, £200 new and they are very good.
I'd try and pick one up on fleebay or gumtree, put the money saved to something else.
 
Didn't have time to read the whole thread. Mine little boy is now 6 weeks old. My partner insisted on everything being new so out of the window all the good kit my uncle had to offer me. Then came the mother in law with her demands. We ended up with a Quinny for £600 including car seat etc.

We could have done without the pram attachments as he is so big and always wants to be sat up. The mother in law insisted though and it feels like a losing battle sometimes.

I reckon we could have done it for £400 with out all the extra trash. Although it was expensive the quinny is top top notch. Takes 5 secs to collapse and into the boot and very nimble at getting about.

Whatever make her happy to be honest as saving £200 - £300 isn't worth the ear ache I will get for the next 2 years.

Whatever suits you best!

/edit we have a maxi cose car seat including in that with the base. Only one that fits the new ford focus for safety ratings. Good little chair :)
 
Last edited:
In response to the cot/moses basket alarm, Be wary of how little you do pay, I thought exactly the same and bought a cheaper model... Big mistake, If my daughter turned in her sleep the alarm went off, I was a very tired mummy in those stages lol. You tend to get what you pay for so try more middle ranged - expensive rather than cheap- middle ranged :)
Good luck with it all, And Enjoy parenthood.
 
Got a Silver Cross Pram, great brand and very reliable, cost about £250, used for the first 18 months. Also came with a car seat.

Got a cheap pushchair and it was crap, ended up with a Silver Cross one for £90, this lasted until he was 2.5 and now he walks everywhere.

We are now on baby number 2 and he is 6 months old, use the Pram and car seat no problem and he will move up to the Pushchair when he is ready.

Problem is a lot of people want brand and trendy. So pay like £500 or £600 for mamas and papas etc as it's all about street cred, or buy ones that don't fit in your boot well or fold down easy. It's not a trend item, it's a necessity.

As has been said go to shops that let you try them out and get a feel for them. See how they fit in the car, fold down and carry etc. Also make sure they are easy for the wife as she will do most of that in the future and weight can be an issue.

Get ad ecent one that will last if you are going to have more.
 
I totally agree with the advice that it is down to individual tastes and to try out as many as possible.

We went for the Mamas and Papas Ultima which is a travel system that consists of Pram section, Pushchair section and Chassis. We've also bought an IsoFix base for the car seat, a Mamas and Papas car seat and a sure fix stand.

It gives us quite a few options. He's still in the pram stage now, but we can clip the pram section onto both the chassis or the stand. It therefore doubles as a moses basket. We can take him out for a walk, he falls asleep and we can just lift the pram section onto the stand when we get back without waking him. The pram bit also has adjustable air vents and mattress can be raised or lowered and it is suitable for them to sleep in so it can be used as a travel cot.

As another poster mentioned the ISOFix base is well worth it - so easy. The car seat also clips onto the chassis. So even in the Group 0 stage we can take him out in the car, just unclip his seat from the base and put it on the chassis and it acts as a pushchair. It sounds as though a car seat would look weird on a chassis, but it's fine.

When he gets older we'll use the proper puschair bit, but even that can be adapted and clipped onto the stand and used as a high chair for feeding.

Quite expensive, but we are getting every pennys worth and I'd recommend it. It's all really light and the chassis is easily folded\unfolded. Another poster mentioned the pram stage isn't very long - maybe, but you'll still want to go out for walks etc and with this system you get a lot more use out of it. We bought the travel system from the factory store in Huddersfield and saved a couple of hundred quid because it was last years colour!

All in all we spent :

Travel System (Chassis, pram, pushchair) ~ £350
ISOFix base ~ £100
Car Seat ~ £80 (Should last him until he's 12-15 months)
Sure Fix Stand ~ £30 from factory shop
 
Just to mirror others here, i couldn't wait to get rid of our bulky tank like pushchair and buy a lightweight stroller, it made a huge difference. However for that first 6-9 months you really do need something a bit bigger.

My advice is to spend a reasonable amount, no need to spend a fortune on brand name fashion prams as they are luxury items and in many cases highly impractical to take down/put up. Ignore the bugaboo mothers who insist that it's worth every penny - it really isn't.

We got a mamas and papas luna with car seat for about £280, but that didn't include the isofix base which was another £110. Now using a silver cross stroller which was £85, but my advice would be to get a maclaren, they're much better.
 
I find that car seats which click onto travel systems are a waste of time, as the weight of baby and seat will soon be too much for you to want to lift out of the car. Although it does become another seat if you are visiting friends and they don't have a bumbo chair (recommended)
 
We just ordered ours at the weekend. Ordered a big silver cross sleepover classic pram (the Mrs just didn't like any of the others) and a Recaro isofix seat, as the seat that fits the pram isn't isofix.

Try and do some reading before you go and get a vague idea of what you want. We went in knowing we wanted that pram (we'd been in before and went home and researched) but I was willing to listen to suggestions for the seat. Woman in the shop pushed hard a Britax but when I got home I read a couple of very bad reviews so I cancelled it and ordered the Recaro as we were very happy with older sons seat from them.
 
Thanks guys, lots of useful advice.
We're going to go to babies-r-us tomorrow and have a try at lots of them, maybe hit mothercare and mamasandpapas the day after. See which we like best then likely head home and search the net to find the best pricing options for whatever we like.

Been some really useful advice on this thread and thank you to everyone who replied.
 
If the baby is due in December then you may be lucky and make it in with the Mamas and Papas sale. We got our pramette & car seat etc for 50% off by going to the factory outlet and choosing a slightly less popular colour.

We also found that the weight is far more important than anyone ever tells you. Hours of pusing the thing up hills and you will be wondering why you chose something so heavy if you aren't careful
 
We bought a second hand Silver Cross 3d will all the extras for our nipper as I was told by a few people you wont use it for long and once the child is sitting a stroller is far easier, less weight and takes up less room. The Silver cross cost us £170 second hand and was in really good condition because the people we bought it off had only had it 9 months. We sold it on on ebay and took about £120 for it. It had everything with it including the ventura plus car seat so was well over £400 new.

I'm glad we did because I discovered a few things and wasn't sad to see it go when we replaced it. It had small wheels it didn't cope with kerbs and bumps to well, the wheels were arranged in pairs on each corner as well, this means that the buggy isn't easy to steer with one hand and tends to go where it wants when you do push it one handed. A single wheel in each corner turns a lot easier than a pair on an axle. The other thing was the weight and bulk of the thing, 11kg doesn't seem that much but it is when you compare it to the buggy we replaced it with that's only about 6.5kg.

We bought a Britax B-Mobile 4 buggy which wasn't expensive but seems a lot better built that the McLaren strollers and the same weight, it was bought mainly for the weight saving as we needed it to come with us when we went to the USA. We have been really impressed with it though and will use the whole system for the next baby. We went with the Britax because it has the ability to be a travel system but as a buggy weighs so little. We used it with the cosy toes for a while and now its just purely used as a stroller. It comes with the adapters to fit the infant car seat on to turn it into a travel system. Well worth having a look at while you there. Theres a deal on the whole lot here. The weight they are quoting there though is with everything supplied including the car seat, the stroller is 6.5kg as i mention earlier.

Personally I didn't see the point of going with ISOfix in the end. Its really there to help stop incorrect fitment of child seats but adds a lot of extra cost for no real benefit(as long as you fit the seat correctly). The infant carriers aren't hard to fit with a seat belt although ISOfix is more useful here because you moving the baby about in the infant carrier a lot, personally we didnt feel the need to spend the extra on the base for that with the Britax as we'd got used to using the seat belt with the Silver Cross Ventura. The bigger car seats once fitted wont need to be removed very often and if you want to lend it to parents or others you would need to make sure they had ISOfix. One of the car seats we also bought had the ability to use both a 2 or three point seat belt, that ment when we flew to the states we bought and extra seat for our son and he slept in his car seat all the way there and once there we had the car seat for the hirecar.
 
Dandle said:
Personally I didn't see the point of going with ISOfix in the end. Its really there to help stop incorrect fitment of child seats but adds a lot of extra cost for no real benefit(as long as you fit the seat correctly). The infant carriers aren't hard to fit with a seat belt although ISOfix is more useful here because you moving the baby about in the infant carrier a lot, personally we didnt feel the need to spend the extra on the base for that with the Britax as we'd got used to using the seat belt with the Silver Cross Ventura. The bigger car seats once fitted wont need to be removed very often and if you want to lend it to parents or others you would need to make sure they had ISOfix. One of the car seats we also bought had the ability to use both a 2 or three point seat belt, that ment when we flew to the states we bought and extra seat for our son and he slept in his car seat all the way there and once there we had the car seat for the hirecar.
Click to expand...

We both have 2 door cars, so trying to fit the car seat using the seat belt correctly is awkward. ISOFix just makes it a breeze. Also moving the ISOFix base from one car to the other takes seconds.

Also if your relative didn't have ISOFix the car seat can still be fitted using seat belts (or at least the Mamas and Papas one can).
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom