Pram ? Stroller ? Travel system? What’s the difference

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So overwhelmed by the the amount of choice.

Looking at the egg3 ( because it’s fits in my small car boot), I do a lot of dog walking so need something fairly sturdy although hoping to use a carrier most of the time.

I have a budget of up to 2k for a travel system, but if it’s not needed then I don’t want to spend too much either:

when people say …. Oh you won’t use it for long you’ll get a stroller, what do they mean ? Is a travel system not the same as a stroller ?

A travel system is just a buggy that you can also put a carrycot or a car seat onto. You don't have to buy it all in one bundle if you don't want to. We do a lot of off-road dog walking too, and one of our cars is quite small. For DS2 we knew exactly what we wanted based on our lifestyle and things that annoyed us about the buggy we had for DS1, so we got a Mountain Buggy Swift (compact all-terrain pushchair, great for dogwalking), the car seat adaptors that fit on it to attach our Maxi Cosi car seat, and a cocoon that slots in and clips on. The only downsides are: no option for parent facing pushchair seat, and crappy small basket underneath, but these things don't bother us and the small basket is the price you pay for having something compact, in my opinion.

@BarnacleBeasley

but what’s the difference between a carrycot on the chassis vs a stroller ?

I think a carry cot is like a moses basket on the pram, from birth till 4/5/6 months whereas a stroller is more like one of those umbrella buggies that just fold right up - some (many?) suitable from birth but it's not a carrycot.

We also had the mountain swift. With the carrycot addition it parent faces longer as the carrycot converts to a seat after 4-6 months.

I wouldn’t get an egg with small wheels for off road dog walking. You generally want a three wheeler with inflatable wheels. Look at mountain buggy, out and about, Thule, baby jogger, those kind of brands. You can use all from birth as seat lays flat, or add car seat or carrycot if you prefer

Theres no reason to swap out a pram for stroller unless you want something lighter and smaller. Most people get a small compact type if they need for travelling abroad or public transport. We did, we bought a yoyo as it folds hand luggage size so easier when flying and using trains. But we still use mountain buggy throughout as the wheels more practical out and about if you don’t live in a city

I only really hear American people say stroller so I assumed it was just what I would call a pushchair. But if it means a flimsy umbrella fold thing with tiny wheels, I would not have any use for it, the pavements where I live are rubbish. Good point above re carrycot on the mountain buggy - the difference is you can convert to a parent facing seat, but I didn't get one as wanted to swap the buggy between baby and toddler, so preferred to keep the normal seat fabric attached.

Carrycot look more like a moses basket, typically used up to 6 months where baby can lie down flat.

Stroller looks more like a seat with a harness and suitable for several years.

Thanks @Goldpanther i Just didn’t understand when people say, don’t spend too much on a pram because you’ll only use it for 6 months ! I thought how could that be! It is still a weird thing today because it sounds like most people buy a travel system anyway.

@Caspianberg
To be honest I don’t think the places I walk would be suitable for any buggy/pram so there is no point buying for that, I’ll just use a carrier!

We got a second hand travel system with our first (replaced the car seat part of it) and it was handy to be able to put the car seat on the buggy but we never did it with our second. Looking back it wasn't really necessary and if you're buying new / spending a lot then I wouldn't do it. Id rather spend the money on good quality pre prepared meals or a cleaner 😂

Also as pp said, you can get adaptors for lots of car seats to lots of prams.

Also to consider is that the baby isn't meant to be in the car seat for long, so although handy for short trips in and out of shops/the car etc, it is a lot of money for that handyness! And I didn't find that stage lasted long anyway as before long, a few months, nap times were less frequent and could just plan around them.

If you need a good offroader, I really recommend the out n about nipper!

Travel system just means you can attach a car seat to it. So drive to the supermarket, lift out car seat and attach straight onto the base/wheels. I used it once but probably pretty helpful if you drive most places and then pop in somewhere.

Unless you are literally never going to wheel them round anywhere you’ll need some kind of bassinet that allows the baby to lie flat. Sometimes called a carry cot. Babies are meant to lie flat for the first 6 months.

There are lots of options that work for this:

1. Purchase a chassis style that comes with a separate bassinet that can then be swapped for a separate pushchair seat (e.g. UppaBaby Cruz)
2. Purchase a pushchair (sometimes called stroller) that either converts to lie flat or that has a newborn attachment a bit like a smaller version of a carry cot (e.g. Baby zen yoyo).
3. Big old style pram which I personally have not seen in recent years.

Both 1 and 2 often come with car seat adapters.

Some then chose to move to an umbrella style stroller. These are not suitable for newborns and I don’t think have car seat adapters, but to be honest by then you probably don’t want to be wheeling around a car seat with a toddler.

Others stick with either 1 or 2 which is what I did (I had both the examples I gave above).

You might find you end up with multiple prams for different occasions, we have and so have a lot of my mum friends.

We have our "big pram" which is an Uppababy Vista. Has the carrycot for infants, can face baby towards you or away from you in the seat, great basket. We use this the most but it doesn't so that well on muddy ground as the front wheels get clogged up.

Then we have a Cybex Avi running buggy. Bought for my husband to run with, but handles muddy ground really well so we often use on dog walks. It's massive through and the front wheel doesn't pivot, so absolutely can't take it in shops or cafes.

And finally we have a silver cross travel clic for travel, and sometimes out and about in London etc where you might need to carry the baby in the carrier and carry pushchair up an escalator.

I'd say start with the travel system, but maybe don't spend loads. Joie do some good ones. Then it will feel less painful when you end up with a collection of prams

Ok there's the first bit you use which is the flat bed for newborns that they grow out of once they can sit up and have good head control they can go into the stroller part of the travel system.

I would recommend buying a good car seat separately as a lot of car seats that come with travel systems aren't great , don't offer good support to newborns.

Some car seats that are tested well and offer good support are

AVionaut pixel pro (this seems to be a very good infant carrier and good support for premie small babies)

Cybex cloud T

Avionaut cosmo

Britax babysat pro

Maxicozy Carbriofix

I got my travel system from mamas and papas as they let you mix and match the infant carrier with some travel systems so I went with the Cybex cloud T

Pram/buggy/stroller/pushchair have pretty flexible definitions, but what they mean is that most people end up swapping the big bulky travel system buggy for a lightweight (possibly umbrella folding) buggy after about a year - once the baby is bigger and sturdier.

We did get a lightweight buggy to leave at nursery and picked one that folds to carry on size for flying by pretty much never used it. Our Uppababy Vista worked like a dog across two children until they were about 3.5.

For a lot of people it makes no sense to spend on a new travel system when they can be bought second hand, especially since they'll use the buggy they buy later for longer.

We never used a travel system. Small babies especially are really not meant to spend a lot of time in car seats, so whenever we arrived somewhere in the car we took baby out of car seat and into a sling.

That's the other thing, despite buying a pushchair we barely used it for the first year because DS was a velcro baby and was only happy in the sling next to us. All his naps were in the sling.

I wouldn't rush to buy anything other than a car seat until you know what kind of baby you get!