What are the safety regulations that determine what age a pram/pushchair is suitable from?

[franch]

Does anyone have a link? Are they determined by weight, head control or what?

(We have a Marco Sky which used to be safe from 2 months; they now advise from 3 months. Interested to know how these things are decided and whether we could make our own judgement once DD2 reaches 2 months.)

Good grief - there are Pram Regs !
The Wheeled Child Conveyances Regulations 1997
isn't Health & safety great !!
on this website
I assume in the regs it must state somewhere - I'll keep looking

When we bought a maclaren techno we were told that it said suitable from birth because thats what they say on the continent but according to British regs it was 3 months. I don't suppose European babies are that different to ours!

To be suitable from birth, I think it has to recline completely flat. I don't think it's anything much more complicated than that is it? Some of the buggies that only recline slightly will need a child who can sit up reliably and strongly and those say from 6 months don't they?

its to do with the angle that the seat reclines... i (near flat) recline is suitable from birth, ones that lie back a bit are generally 3 months and ones that dont lie back at all are 6 months....

dont know off the top off my head what the exact angles are!

Geogteach - That is interesting. We bought the Maclaren Rally Twin which says suitable from birth in the UK but in the instructions said it was only suitable from six months in every other language. I rang Maclaren who said that European regulations state a baby should be in an enclosed pushchair ie a pram until they are 6 months.. I found this very odd but was happy that my dd's were happy in it and so kept it. (It is for occasional use anyway as we have an old style Silver Cross for walking with). I thought it was odd that Spain and Greece etc apparently had more stringent rules than the UK.

Don't know about any regs but I once took dd out in a 3months plus stroller when she was a week short of 3 months! (we were only going down the road for 5 minutes) I remember feeling really guilty about this and felt everyone was looking at the pushchair and could tell. Expected a HV to tap me on the shoulder and tell me off!

I think your own judgement would be fine here and base it on the factors you have thought about.

I believe a lot of the lie-flat rules assume you will leave a baby in the pram for hours and hours. I'd bend the rules for age, if I was only using the pram for an hour or so.

Thanks all. I knew it was to do with the reclining angle, but what magically happens on the day that a baby turns 3 months that means they can suddenly sit in a pushchair that doesn't lie flat? DD2 sits in a bouncy chair for a lot of the day and that's not flat ...

It's not about magic changes, it's about relative risk. Being flatter helps them breathe better, and reduces the risk of curvature of the spine, if I remember rightly.

And bouncy chairs leave their spines pretty flat, they don't bend them strangely at some arbitrary point.

Aha - ok that kind of answers my question NQC, thanks. (I didn't really think it was about magic changes ....)

they have to draw the line somewhere though don't they?
otherwise people would be sitting newborns up in a pushchair because it didn't say not to iyswim!

i think the 3 months/6 months is an average age when a baby can cope with being sat at a more upright angle without fear of damage occuring should they be in it for hours at a time...

loads of people with a lie-flat pushchair clip their baby's car seat onto the pushchair (as a travel system) - that can't do their poor little spines much good can it?

cfm,.. the manufacturers recommend not leaving them in those for longer than an hour if you are out, so no they aren't great for them

babies are best laid flat!

exactly! they always look so scrunched up don't they? poor little mites