Prams!

[Leleophants]

Saw a few in town but such a struggle to decide!

We like one with a decent travel system which is easy to move around and has decent wheels for a range of terrains. i-candy peach looks good for this but it's quite big and heavy and expensive, also why do none of these prams come in exciting colours?

I want something colourful that actually looks good if we're spending so much money!

Bugaboo..you can change the colour of the hoods and buy some really nice accessories. Even have them customised too.

Uppababy vista has been good for us. We wanted one that could be used by two children at once

Bizarrely we’ve ended up with an Uppababy Vista AND a Bugaboo Cameleon (we moved after buying the Vista and it won’t fit through our new front door! So that’s a consideration, the Vista is very wide). The Bugaboo feels very light and nippy in comparison. But I actually prefer the Vista, not least because the basket is absolutely huge. It’s also great if you’re tall, dh is 6’5 and loves it. I like that dd is up much higher in it too, the Bugaboo does feel very low in comparison. I was amazed that both fit in my Corsa boot, and the Vista is the one I keep in there for trips out. It just feels much sturdier than the Bugaboo.

My daughter has just turned one and has been out of her pram for months. She prefers a pushchair and, although ours does convert into one, it’s bulkier and don’t fold down as small.

Personally if I was having another I wouldn’t spend a lot of money on a pram and they have practically no resell value, too. I’d save the money to buy a good-quality pushchair and car seat later as you’d need to buy them anyway.

We bought the Mothercare Journey travel system which was £300 and it was a good pram until she outgrew it.

If you want all terrain look at the mountain buggy. My brother had one, that was not wrapped in bubble wrap, that lasted all 3 of his children so over 9 years!

It is what we will be buying

Cossato have the brightest designs.

We’ve had the Uppababy Vista (absolutely perfect buggy). Then we had twins so we got the Bugaboo Donkey (avoid!).

Uppababy Vista deserves all the credit and popularity. It’s versatile, manouverable, and easy to use. It’s bigger than some buggies, but not THAT big. Plus it’s got adaptors for various car seats, so you can slot a maxi cosi in.

I've loved my iCandy peach and now using it as a tandem with DS2. The iCandy does come in quite a lot of colours.

ICandy does do an all terrain if you do a lot of off road/path waking. We do also have an out n about nipper for off roading.

So do you think it's worth getting a travel system or just separate prams and car seat

Another vote for the uppababy vista here. It's genuinely one of the best things I've ever bought, I love it. My friend has the Cruz which she loves if you wanted something smaller (but I still say vista).

Another vote for Vista here, love how high baby is (bad back) and all the room under.
Travel system can be more versatile but depends on your needs really.

Get a travel system that takes a car seat. Most big brand travel systems don’t come with their own car seat, but have adaptors for major car seat brands.

For example, we went for the Uppababy. That comes with the bassinet, and the buggy seat. We then got a maxi cosi car seat, and the adaptor to put the maxi cosi into the Uppababy.

Some cheaper travel systems include their own car seat, but I’d generally avoid them. They tend not to have isofix bases for the car seats, so can be a bit faffy. Best to stick with the big brands.

Cosatto are best for colours. We got ours on Facebook marketplace as new for a fraction of the price!

Word of warning if your tall like me, my baby was very long and grew out of his flatbed on the silvercross.
I had to change to a different brand which was bigger as he needed a flatbed still.
I wish I'd thought of it when shopping as baby was garanatee to be long as both me n his dad are tall, over 6 ft. He was 99th percentile.
Also we dog walk a lot so a more study pushchair was needed for off roading - non tarmac.

Buy a PRAM and a CAR SEAT! Always best as most carseats part of a travel system are not as safe!!

We are getting the Bugaboo Fox as you can change hood/liners etc so blue/pink/yellow/red etc in summer grey in winter for us 😁 and a Cybex carseat & base, I saw it in asda today and fell in love 😂 xx

I am using iccle bubba travel system www.icklebubba.com/product/stomp-v4-special-edition-all-in-one-travel-system-with-isofix-base/

I love it, £599 and you have car seat ISOfix Base included suitable from 0-12months, pram and buggy suitable until 3-4 years I think.

Comes with nappy bag / mat , waterproof cover , shades for the car

The different parts are easy to assemble, I loved the green colour for my little boy.
( they have other options I believe )
The car seat clips into buggy frame so if your having a quick journey and baby falls asleep there is no need to disturb just clip them straight into frame ( hand for quick bite to eat local or nipping to shops )

It’s safe and good price and really sturdy

Only negative is I have a smaller car and the pram / buggy attachment doesn’t fit in the boot with the frame ... but it does in my husbands car ... have a look x

Im getting the bugaboo fox ,i do lots of walking. I had bugaboo donkey last time,once u have a bugaboo u cant use anything else & they do last.

We have an Oyster 2 & loved it with our first baby. Easy to put up & down, way to steer, good handle heights etc! I And a relative bargain compared to some! A variety of colours too.. I used our pram every day for 10 months pretty much with no issues.

Get one second hand. All the colours this/last year are dull dull dull. The ones from a couple of years before are much more colourful. And you save money.

If you get a Kiddy, Maxi Cosi, Joie, Cybex or Recaro car seat you can put it onto loads of different prams just by getting "Maxi Cosi adaptors" (aka universal adaptors)

If you go for a Britax, Graco, Mothercare, Silver Cross, My Babiie, Ickle Bubba or Kinderkraft car seat/buggy you can only use the same brand.

Cosatto I think are in the process of switching so they do maxi cosi adaptors and their newest car seat works with those as well.

It is IMO worth researching car seats as this is a much more important piece of equipment for your little one :) and extremely confusing. There is a good Facebook group called Car Seat Advice UK you could join and read through some of the posts (or do a search for infant carrier) to see what people do and don't recommend.

Big wheels/good on terrain vs lightweight, easy to maneuvre is a trade off. You get more of one you sacrifice the other. But those were both things we wanted too and these were the in-betweens we managed to come up with which didn't cost a million pounds (my other essential criteria were: parent facing seat, proper lie-flat (hinged seat, not moulded one that tilts), and small enough to fit in our miniscule boot).

Maxi Cosi Stella/Adorra
Cybex Balios S
Mutsy Evo (second hand only) - this is what we got
Joie Chrome DLX

I was doing this research a year ago now so options may have improved compared to these ones. I noticed MN have rated a newer Maxi Cosi one as even better, which might be worth a look as I don't think it was out last year.

HJWT you can put the Cybex on the Bugaboo with their Maxi Cosi adaptors :)

I have a Cybex Aton 5 and it's a lovely seat, the only thing I wish I'd known from the beginning - pull UP rather than down/out on the long strap which tightens the straps around baby. It seems to pull smoother and go tighter then, which is important.

The icandy lime is great and not as expensive as the peach!

Having tried out the ICandy Orange, the Mountain Buggy Duet, Bugaboo Donkey 2 and Nina Demi grow we have bought the Demi Growin anticipation of our twins. It only comes in 3 colour options so no excitement there (though the single one comes with more options) but it’s easy to assemble and collapse, comes with everything you need from a travel system, has its own car seats which have good safety ratings and the basinettes are a good size (though our twins are likely to be small on arrival). Wasn’t the cheapest option (that was the Mountain Buggy but I felt that was flimsy with smaller basinettes than any other brand) but equally wasn’t the most expensive one.

We just need to decide which car seats to move onto when they out grow the included ones.

@BertieBotts yeah its great we had Cybex with DD but had the iCandy peach! Won't make that mistake again she looked squashed at 10 months poor baby 😂

I’m posting because I want to stay in this thread. It’s actually causing me anxiety! I can’t find anywhere with a reasonable range to try any models out. I’m down south but our nearest big city is about an hour away so it’ll be a day trip really.

I want off-roadable, decent wheels (probably four, for dog walking). I would prefer lightweight, big basket, and baby is probably going to be a bit on the bigger size. I’m not fully sold on pram, if I could be convinced on lie-flat buggy, but all the choice is blowing my mind!

I have a decent sized car boot (VW Tiguan) but my house is TINY!!

So far, icandy peach seems to be ticking boxes....open to recommendations xx

@Sessy19 I recommend the Bugaboo fox, had the peach with DD and sold it after 10 months have tried maybe 9 prams with my 2YO nephew and the bugaboo fox seemed to be the best seat size basket etc! Look it up on YT 😁

@Sessy19 I went to Bournemouth baby centre and they had all the latest models available for viewing and testing, not sure if that is close to you..... :)