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Original poster

buggy for a heavier child (age 4 - 5) - any recommendations?

110 replies

donnie · 22/02/2009 16:40

I want an umbrella fold job, nothing flash. All the ones I have looked at are up to a max of 15kg which my nearly 4 year old already weighs. Any suggestions?

TIA.

------------------------

Hello,

We've noticed this thread is quite old and some of the product recommendations are a little out of date. We've spent weeks speaking to parents and testing out pushchairs and buggies. Read our round up buggy reviews to see which stroller was crowned best buggy [spoiler alert, it has a 25kg weight limit].

Hope that helps! Flowers

MNHQ

OP posts:
lljkk · 26/02/2009 11:01

Scooters are shite, the child falls off, gets hurt, cries long and hard, and then refuses to ride it any more. (And that's from my child who was agile enough to ride a bike without stabilisers before he was 4yo). So adult has to carry the scooter AND coax a grumpy child into walking the mile or so to get home, still.

Also hard to keep child-on-scooter close to you if you also have another child in a buggy. You run the risk of knocking them over as they weave around you or get in front of buggy wheels where you can't see them. Or they will want to race off (and be very captable of it) when you have to plod along far behind with baby in buggy.

Buggy much better.
You go for it, Donnie.
Sorry I can't suggest one, my 7yo can still fit in the McClaran, though.
Unless you're asking someone else to push it, no one should make any comments about it.

happywomble · 26/02/2009 11:19

helsbels4 - good post!
I try to encourage my DD (nearly 4) to walk where possible but still get the buggy out for a walk longer than a mile uphill.

To those who say children will get obese if they ever use a puschair over 2..my DD is not overweight. She is however short, only on the 2nd centile for height so probably the same height as some of your tall 2 yr old boys. It is hard for a short 3 yr old to walk at adult pace for a couple of miles.

However I am overweight and so it is probably better that I get the brisk fat burning walk pushing the pushchair rather than walking slowly at toddler pace for miles on end.

Coldtits · 26/02/2009 11:23

I would say a nearly 4 year old doesn't need a buggy but I totally see your point about the holidays. Buggies are a godsend on holidays, when kids are tired and ratty!

I would suggest going to a car boot sale, buying the cheapest, sturdiest looking buggy you can see, ignoring the weight recommendations and letting her just trash it, then binning it before you come home.

helsbels4 · 26/02/2009 11:32

Thank-you happywomble
It drives me insane when people make sweeping statements about things! Just because their four year olds don't need a buggy, doesn't mean that somebody else's doesn't. GRRRRR - and breathe!

happywomble · 26/02/2009 11:38

Wonder if they are the same people who tut tut if your child isn't potty trained at 18 months .

ihearthuckabees · 26/02/2009 11:41

I too thought that by age 3 my DS should walk everywhere, then I took him on holiday, age 4,to New York, and my friends were all offering me buggies. I said, Oh no, he walks everywhere. Then he fell asleep on the subway, and I had to carry him up several long flights of steps and along 10 blocks back to my friend's house. Boy, I wished I'd taken their advice!

But at 5 year old being pushed to school everyday. (Also at number of kids who are driven to school. Only excusable if parents are en route to work in my opinion, or if school is more than a half-hour walk away. I don't think it's the kids who are lazy/incapable of walking, it's often the parents who can't be bothered.)

SheSellsSeashellsByTheSeashore · 26/02/2009 11:48

I made dd1 walk everywhere from about 2.5 earlier for shorter journys. Ill be doing the same for dd2 who now walks to the shop and her grans but goes in her buggy for any walk that would normally take more than 10 mins as she is still a bit unteady and slow.

I hate seeing children older than say 3.5 in pushchairs. And I judge . I decide that the child is pandered to and spoilt and the mum/dad is oveprotective and nuerotic

My five year old somtimes sits in her sisters Quinny Zapp inside the house though and seems comfy enough.

helsbels4 · 26/02/2009 11:50

Don't start me off on parents driving their children to school!!! I live directly opposite my ds' school and the amount of parents who I know and that live in the same area as I do that drive their children to and from school baffles me! One mum lives just around the corner (five minute walk from school) but arrives half an hour before end of school and promptly parks herself on the zig-zags outside school and sits there on her phone/reading a book etc. Drives me WILD!!!!!!!

lingle · 26/02/2009 12:14

How rude and silly to judge on such a non- issue.

helsbels4 · 26/02/2009 12:19

Who me or the non-buggy brigade?

ThingOne · 26/02/2009 12:30

I live less than ten minutes from school and make my DS1 (5) walk there and back. Oh, sorry, hold on, that wasn't the point.

We have a Phil & Ted's e3 and I'm sure the proper seat has a max weight of 25kg. I've looked on their website and if it's now called a classic, that figure is correct. These load up well with all sorts of gunk and still push well, so if you're really looking for a shopping trolley with optional child carrying ability, it'll do the job well.

happywomble · 26/02/2009 12:38

shesellsseashells -

"I decide that the child is pandered to and spoilt and the mum/dad is oveprotective and nuerotic "

For all you know the child may be in the pushchair for a one off occasion as he/she is ill or injured, or just very tired, or mum is running late.

Will you be sending your DCs to boarding school at 7 to make sure they don't get too mollycoddled?

Your post makes me feel

SheSellsSeashellsByTheSeashore · 26/02/2009 12:55

No happy I won't be sending them to boarding school.

The way my sister turned out very much influences the way I bring up my children. She was in her buggy untill she was five, she was spoon fed her breakfast untill about 6 and has always been the baby. If she were left alone for any length of time she would probably starve to death if not for take outs

helsbels4 · 26/02/2009 13:08

So if I walked past your house regularly after my DD had just walked all the way to the shops, around the shop and needed a rest in her buggy for the last bit, (as I said earlier, it is an hour and a half round trip to supermarket) you would judge me and come to the conclusion that my child was spoilt and that I am overprotective and neurotic? How weird? Do you also judge the people that constantly drive past with their children in their comfy cars??? Madness.

lingle · 26/02/2009 13:57

I'm referring to the anti-buggy brigade.

Original poster
donnie · 26/02/2009 14:06

well, little did I know my rather innocuous thread would elicit such anger and prejudice!how comforting to know that even a question about a buggy can somehow manage to get you tarred as a lazy mare who wants their children to become obese and develop type 2 diabetes.

anyway thanks a lot to all those who made suggstions/gave advice etc. I have ORDERED A BUGGY!!!!!!

So - whan you see a freak family at the airport/in Spain with - horror of horrors - a buggy with a child over 2 years old in it -that'll be me.So ner.

OP posts:
Original poster
donnie · 26/02/2009 14:08

oh yes and over-protective and neurotic. That must be me then. Thanks, Seashells.

OP posts:
SheSellsSeashellsByTheSeashore · 26/02/2009 14:57

Donnie I wasn't reffering to people who take buggys on holiday.

Sil took one on holiday when niece was about four incase she got tired on an evening. I don't think I would do it for dd1 as she doesn't sleep at home let alone on holiday so I doubt it would be needed. I have no opinion of people who put older children in buggys on holiday. Just those who do it regularly at home. And for fairly short distances in some cases.

Sorry if that upset you, it's just my opinion.

carrielou2007 · 26/02/2009 15:22

When I am not at work we do not use the car as I feel very strongly about using our legs and getting fresh air as much as we can. So that will very often involve walking 3.9 miles to town and the same back. My dd loves walking but it is too much for her. We time one way when it's nap time and then I let her walk halfway or so back.

My dd was 2 last month but is very very tall (people think she is at least 3) and so I get when I say no she has just turned 2.

We go for a short walk every evening after tea when I am working, bit of time together, fresh air, it's how I do a lot of my food shopping by getting some stuff each night, it's one mile. Did not take the buggy last night, left at ten to six got back at ten to eight. I was going barmy as dd wants to look at every blade of grass etc. She was obs so over tired yet I couldn't carry her along with the shopping. I expect I received jugement from others about having my dd out when it was past her bedtime...

Enjoy your buggy, you can always sell it on ebay when you get back!

mamamea · 26/02/2009 18:34

Blimey, people are awfully rude. We just (well, at 4pm) came back from a four and a half hour walk, I wouldn't expect a young child to walk that far.

lingle · 27/02/2009 09:13

Shesells - these other kids in buggies are not your sister.

misdee · 27/02/2009 09:21

i have a toddler seat for dd3 on the top of the buggy. who is a fab walker, but at the end of the day at school, she is shattered and the walk home can be a nightmare. the extra seat is thetre if she wants it. i akso use it of we go into town at the weekend. its far easier to push her than carry her or give her a piggyback whilst pushing dd4.

4andnotout · 27/02/2009 09:24

My dd2 (3.11) sometimes hitches a lift on the footplate of the mountain buggy double on the way to school in the afternoon, but she walks up to 4 miles a day on the tripe to and from school 3 times a day. If i didn't have dd3 & dd4 i should imagine she would still be in a buggy in the afternoons as she is usually knackered by the time we pick dd1 up.

4andnotout · 27/02/2009 09:25

TRIP NOT TRIPE

naomi83 · 27/02/2009 11:35

which buggy did you get?

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