Double buggy or buggy board for a three-year-old and newborn?

[Bluebellsfortwo]

Our daughter will be just turned 3 when the new baby arrives. We live in London and don't have a car so we use a pushchair every single day at the moment (she is 2y9m). Is a double buggy necessary or would we be able to get away with only a buggy board?

She's not really a runner and holds our hands well, but she often says she's tired of walking and wants to sit. She's a slow walker and gets distracted easily. We also get public transport a lot and walk frequently.

Scooter with a strap, you can pull the older one along or hang the scooter off the buggy when not using it. Works well for getting the bus as well.

I was in the same position. All the car drivers told me buggy board. I got a 2nd hand double and only used it for 6 months but didn't regret it! I sold it for the same amount I bought it for.

I wouldn’t bother with either. Especially not a double buggy. My child was exactly 3 when my second was born and it was perfect timing for all the baby equipment to be passed on.

Double and a cheap mclaren with a second hand boardnfornwhen they're older/trwvelling

This is exactly what I'm wondering, if all the people who say buggy board are car users! But I'm also thinking about space, I know doubles are massive and we live in a flat and are limited on space and already have three prams at home 🙈

Wouldn't this mean you would need to have a hand free at all times to pull the scooter along?

How long did you use the double buggy for? I'm wondering how much use we would actually get out of it. DD will be 3y1m when baby arrives.

Thanks for this, this is really helpful feedback! I'm cautious of buggy boards as my husband is 6'5 with very long legs. Thinking to get a second hand one to test it out.

That's a great idea. Which double did you go for in the end?

Very good points! My DD still naps but hardly ever does so in the pram.

We went for a second hand double buggy, my eldest used it until 3yrs 6 months. They weren't ready for a buggy board until closer to 4.

Some of the newer out n abouts have a seat at the front for older children, but they're pricey.

😂 I can imagine my DD doing this! She's quite attached to her pram!

I'm really intrigued by this! Looks like a great middle ground!

We used it for well over a year . We had it on holidays in Spain the following summer. In my opinion well worth it as it saved my sanity and made day to day life so much easier. I remember DD refusing to leave the playground one day and baby DS was cranky and I remember just picking her up and plonking her into the buggy and wheeling off at speed .

Thank you, this is great advice! Will definitely do this.

Another vote for buggy board. You can get one with a seat on it for younger ones

Buggy board

We were in London, no car use, when I had my second and we had a 2.5yr gap. I tried a double but hated it, couldn’t get in buses easily, too heavy to carry up and down steps, a bit too wide for comfortably navigating shops. Eldest also didn’t take to it.

We used a buggy board, it takes a bit of getting used to walking with it but once you’ve got used to it we could do miles with it. We also got a scooter. On very rare occasions (mostly airports) I’d put the baby in the sling and the toddler in the pram.

By 3.5 ish he would walk everywhere and I’d have had got no use at all from the double

Maybe see if you can trial a double from a friend and the same with the board to see what you get on with best.

Do you use a sling? I found a sling and a maclrean easiest for the first few months. I could fold it with one hand. Buggy boards are a pain, you trip over them, okay for short trips but you often have to detach them to fold the pushchair. I had a side by side double too, they're kind of a pain but on a long day out they could both lie back and sleep. So long as the oldest wasn't pinching the youngest. You can get lots of shopping underneath too. I ended up with all them, I think buggy board was my least favourite, not overly enjoyable for DD either.

Good luck 😊

We are in London and we had both. I liked the double for trips when I wasn't using public transport - I'd sometimes take it on the Overground but never liked using it on buses or the tube, unless I knew it was step free the whole way (and even then the lift would sometimes break down). I used a buggy board with a Bee and it was easier to use on buses and tube, though still big compared to the Yoyo which was our main single buggy. Sometimes I'd use the Yoyo and just have a sling as well, which was the most portable and meant we could sit on the upper deck and never had to worry about a wheelchair boarding a bus or the downstairs space being full. My eldest liked to nap right up until starting school so a buggy board wouldn't have been helpful for longer trips out.

@Bluebellsfortwo if you get one buy a bungee cord or something so you can easily tuck it up out of the way when not in use. My children were decidedly flighty about being on/off/on/off etc so having a quick and easy option to stow it was helpful.

Car free Londoner here. Slightly smaller age gap. We went with a mountain buggy double as is relatively narrow. Fine for the first few months until the baby got old enough to hair pull DC1. Had bought second hand and sold on for similar price. Buggy board with seat still gets lots of use at ages 3+4, and now they both take turns on it. We added ‘handles’ (bits of ribbon) to the sides of the buggy as DC1 wanted something to hold onto when on the buggy board. When the buggy board is down we sometimes end up pushing it side on rather than from behind. Now we’ve all got used to it, this works well. I also bought a hoppy hammock thing and sometimes if we’re out late we do an on the road bedtime and DC1 happily sleeps in it and says it’s comfy. Have a scooter with a pull strap. Not fun pushing buggy and pulling scooter at the same time.

Neither. A hoppie hammock.

Definitely get a mountain buggy duet. I used it all the time when I lived in London and used it on public transport all the time. It's always useful to have somewhere for a little one to sit when you are out all day and don't want to have to sit down for an hour whilst they nap. Also the space underneath is massive which is great when shopping.

@Bluebellsfortwo I really appreciated the double buggy because sometimes I wanted to pop them in and walk big strides to get to the place I was going while thinking about the things I needed to think about. Buggy boards mean you can't stride and are a nightmare on kerbs. Slings physically constrain you and make you hot. Towing a kid on a scooter is effort to stop them from falling off. For 6 months it's worth taking up space in your flat. Honestly, you're looking at a double buggy as a solution because it is the solution!