Which pushchair would you recommend to a new parent?

[TinaMumsnet]

We're making plans to test and review new pushchairs and we'd love to know which ones you'd recommend.

There are so many options on the market, it can be hard for new parents to know which ones are really worth investing in. So if you've used a great travel system/pushchair in the last two years, we want to hear about it!

Tell us the make and model of the pushchair you rate, and why you'd recommend it to others. Your comments will help us to create a shortlist of pushchairs to test and recommend to new parents.

Also, if you have any helpful advice on what to look out for when shopping for a pushchair, we'll include it in our buyer's guide.

Thanks!

[PurpleFlowersInMyHair]

Blooming heck, stupid autocorrect- apologies for all my typos

[Soubriquet]

I don’t know purple, my first travel
System was well worth it

The carry cot lasted till 4 months. Would have lasted longer but dd wanted to sit up

And the seat itself was huge. Easily fitted a 4 year old it (tried with my niece)

The hood was big too

I made the mistake of giving it up for an umbrella fold. I HATED the umbrella fold. They never push right. I then spent ages trying to find a decent pushchair to replace the one I got rid of.

Never again

It was a britax b smart.

[Mustangsallyis]

Uppababy Vista for sure. Has a nice high seating position for baby, huge shopping basket, smooth steer and is perfect in the garden or on country walks.

[TillyTheTiger]

Joie chrome. Loved it when DS was a baby and it's still great now he's almost 2.5yo. Flexible, easy to collapse and tons of space in the basket underneath. And it's reasonably priced!

[jennymor123]

I would think twice about buying any pushchair supplied in the UK. This is because they have to comply with the UK's Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations, and the route to compliance for most manufacturers is to use flame retardant chemicals. These are toxic and absorbed through the skin. California has just banned all flame retardants from all children's furniture/prams etc, because they're so toxic. If you want to avoid these chemicals buy over the internet from suppliers outside the UK - on the whole, the rest of Europe does not have flame retardants in their prams/pushchairs, etc. Sweden and Germany are particularly opposed to these chemicals.

[PurpleFlowersInMyHair]

@Soubriquet that reminds me of pushing a maclaren umbrella fold around the streets of Rome and outside the colosseum. Terrible fixed wheels not able to cope with uneven ground- and was v difficult to push. The poor child was exposed in the sun and suffered a bumpy ride! Never again!

Many of the travel systems would have coped very well with this terrain, but then you wouldn’t have been able to take it to plane steps (would have had to check it in) and folding it to get into our cabin (we went on a cruise ) would have been a right pain.

Now we have a BJCM GT it’s the perfect compromise between easy fold, comfort, smooth ride and weather protection. We took it to Athens recently and visited all the ruins - had no problem with the terrain and DD stayed cool in the heat because of the large hood (a sheepskin liner is a good idea for any buggy in the heat - it kept her nice and cool). There are lots of buggies out there that are similar upthread - there are other options to travel systems packages and umbrella folds.

[PurpleFlowersInMyHair]

@Jenny that’s interesting- what is the effect of the chemical to health? Wouldn’t our sofas be covered in it too though- so difficult to avoid even if you purchased the buggy overseas?

[jennymor123]

Yes, sofas and mattresses too. Because of these regulations the UK has the highest levels of flame retardants in house dust in the world. We also have the highest levels of flame retardants in mothers' breast milk. Flame retardants accumulate in the body and are persistent in the environment. The horribly typical pattern is that the FR industry releases a chemical it claims is safe then, much later and at great cost, someone proves it's toxic and it's banned. But it remains in existing products, of course. All kinds of illnesses are associated with them, children particularly vulnerable: cancers, thyroid disorders, depression - and there is a worrying parallel between the rise of autism and the rise of flame retardants in western homes.

All of which would be bad enough but the UK government proved in 2014 that these regulations don't even work! Which means we're sitting/sleeping on toxic products that are flammable anyway.

The EU does not have these regulations, mainly because the European Commission was convinced by the likes of Germany and Sweden that flame retardants are more harmful to health/environment than useful at preventing fires. It's pretty much certain that non-UK pushchairs will not contain flame retardants - but you could always double-check with an EU company's website. However, the UK's Baby Products Association has for years being lobbying the government to take FRs out of baby products because they are losing a lot of trade to non-UK companies.

[jennymor123]

Sorry, I missed your point: that if our sofas/mattresses are full of flame retardants too, is there any point in worrying about pushchairs? Well, I think it's important to try to reduce these chemicals as much as possible. For example, you can buy sofas/mattresses in the UK without FRs - they're expensive, however, since they have to use good naturally flame-resistant materials like wool.

Unfortunately - and sorry to bring it up - but the flame retardant industry has also been very successful, via its insurance company mates, in persuading manufacturers to include its chemicals even in products without flammability requirements. Hence, we get the damn things also in duvets, carpets and curtains.

[jennymor123]

Good overview of this issue: www.saferstates.com/toxic-chemicals/toxic-flame-retardants/ - same chemicals apply in the UK.

[mumto2babyboys]

Cosatto have massive hoods but overall I'd choose another cosatto or any umbrella fold than an expensive travel system again.

Cosatto supa dupa was 300 and icandy 1100 and extra for all the attachments and maxi cosi car seat and adapters, lost count of how much in total but it was a lot and most of its it's in the loft since youngest was 8/9 weeks old and it's just too big to lift in and out of the boot and it's too annoying to use and seats are too small.

Looks good but once you try an umbrella fold it's like wow... I can put stuff on the handles without a buggy clip and it is easy to push as well.

practicality outweighs looks and the big companies rip off first time mothers. I'd never buy another 2 piece buggy or including the car seat; 3 piece travel system ever again. Learned my lesson.

Also had the britax double b agile I think it was. Had to take the wheels off to fit in the car.

Was a nightmare in winter after being at the park or anywhere with muddy wheels that wouldn't budge and having to clean my hands after it and then reattach the wheels next time.

Umbrella fold makes life so much easier but go for one with lie flat option and a decent hood

[mumto2babyboys]

Children are mostly face forward because they are stepped in to the buggy and not able to wiggle loads until they are older. Doubt they would be lying on their side and absorbing any chemicals unless they are in a carry cot.

Same for car seats surely they have the same chemicals as pushchair fabric but still need to have one!

[jennymor123]

As said, flame retardants are absorbed through the skin. They also are notorious for leaching out of products to be breathed in. I'm trying to be honest without being alarmist. But this issue - that the regulations don't work but are poisoning us was recently called by a journalist, "The biggest scandal in product history" and I think he's right.

Detachable baby car seats also come under the furniture regs so contain the same chemicals. Again, you could buy these from outside the UK.

You could also lobby the Baby Products Association to get them to encourage manufacturers to a) get on to the government to change the regulations in line with the rest of the world and remove FRs from furniture or, if not, b) to at least use inherently flame-retardant fibres instead of chemically coated fabrics - this would add very little to their overall costs.

[fuzzywuzzy]

I love my silver cross reflex with baby nest. It’s an umbrella fold pushchair, is lightweight and converts from a parent facing pram to a front facing pushchair, altho the pushchair alone lies flat and is suitable from newborn. Has extending handles and is brilliant for parents who use public transport a lot.

It’s really narrow and I can slot it into the smallest space on the bus, very easy to manoeuvre. However the pushchair is really roomy and has plenty of space even for big toddlers.

I love the hood which extends all the way down to shade baby completely when she’s asleep, or it’s useful for extra protection if it gets too windy when out and about.

The pushchair came with a baby seat insert and rain cover.

Drawbacks, being silver cross all other accessories are on sale separately and add up very quickly. As well as the newborn pack I got a footmuff and cup holder for the buggy, which are expensive but very well made.
Also the basket under the pushchair can’t be reached when pushchair is in lie flat mode or when the baby nest is in place and is being used as a pram, however the sides of the basket are elasticated so small things can be slipped in and then taken out whilst in lie flat mode.

I’m now expecting another dc and wandering desperately how I’ll ever replace my lovely light weight easy to use reflex for a double. Very stressed about the prospect.

[AwkwardAsAllGetout]

‘and there is a worrying parallel between the rise of autism and the rise of flame retardants in western homes.’
I’m sorry, what? I’ve seen you on many threads banging on about flame retardants, but come on. By that measure, there’s also a worrying parallel between autism and anything you care to name that has seen a rise in anything, anywhere. Aka, total bullshit. There’s no correlation whatsoever, but you can make statistics show pretty much whatever you want, a rise in people eating bananas may correlate to a rise in people painting their houses that bloody awful shade of grey. One didn’t cause the other. Please don’t spout bollocks.

[jennymor123]

As for me 'banging on' why don't you do the research and then tell me I'm wrong. Without that, I don't recognise your authority to deem what is or isn't bollocks. As for the autism connection, a good place to start is with 'Toxic Cocktail' by Barbara Demeneix. And there are masses of papers on the toxic effects of flame retardants. Check out Stec/Hull's 2017 paper in Chemosphere - based not on statistics, as you put it, but on extensive testing of furniture constructs then measuring the toxic fumes that they emit when on fire.

As for flame retardants in general, if their harmful effects is bollocks, how come they regularly get banned by the US and the EU (via REACH) because they're found to be toxic? DecaBDE is a good/bad case in point: banned by the US and the EU (next year) but still in millions of UK sofas/mattresses. Are you happy that you won't be affected because all of this is bollocks?

[jennymor123]

Oh - and I'd welcome you pointing out the bollocks in these two facts:

Organophosphates were banned in the UK from agricultural products like sheep dip because they're so toxic.

Organophosphates started to appear in sofas and mattresses following this ban (well, the chemical industry has to find a new market) and are now all but ubiquitous in these products.

Happy to sleep on them because this is all just bollocks?

[SailAwayWithMeHuni]

I love my mamas and papas ocarro! Looks stylish, easy to push, suitable from birth, good on rough terrain, easy to fold one handed, folds as a one piece in both forward and rear facing, large shopping basket, lots of comfortable padding to make seat comfortable for baby.

[PerditaNitt]

Bringing it back to OPs question...

I have a bugaboo cam which is still going strong for baby 2. I love the huge hood (which goes all the way down), easy steering, adjustable handle, solid build and size of the seat and bassinet (since I have tall DC). I’m not keen on the tiny basket (although it is cool that you can fold the base up without anything falling out), fiddly brake, fact that it take a bit of time to put it in the boot because it is in two pieces and the sheer size of it when folded. When I changed my car recently I decided to go for an estate because of the blooming pram!

I also have a mamas and papas armadillo flip which folds down in a different way so is easier to take in the car. Good steering and nice hood, however, the seat doesn’t sit up high enough so toddler is always a bit reclined in it. I can also feel the difference with the plastic wheels on the rough surfaces versus the solid bugaboo tyres.

Have just invested in a BabyZen Yoyo (after much deliberation about the cost) so that we can use it on holiday for the baby and use the armadillo for the toddler. Wasn’t keen on a double since the toddler will
Hopefully be out of prams soon enough (plus he is tall so most doubles have seats which would be a bit tight). I know some people who invested in the BabyZen as just a spare pram but use it as their main pram because it is so lightweight and easy to fold.

When trying out prams make sure you test them in your boot and try folding them up yourself

Hope this helps!

[snapped1234]

Uppababy vista vote here! X

[jomaIone]

Mamas and papas Occarro has been fantastic. Big solid wheels for off road, gorgeous design, big basket, very sturdy and cosy. You can use the buggy seat from newborn as it lies totally flat. My baby hated the carry cot but loved being in the buggy. Just a beautiful handy buggy.

[aniawl]

One of the criteria we didn’t think about when we first started looking at prams was our height. Both my husband and I are tall and we found that most buggies even when fully extended were forcing us to stoop down or bend down. The one that won was icandy apple – on its third child now and still going strong. Heavy but sturdy and very easy to steer and manoeuvre.

[ohdearthehouseisburningdown]

Cybex Eezy S Twist. Small folded down. Can parent face still after 6months unlike the Yo-yo.

[BertieBotts]

I disagree about travel systems being pointless as I have always loved mine. I get an umbrella fold later too, but I keep the big pram. I like a rear facing seat, and therefore I can't agree that these other pushchairs are "perfect".