Pushchairs - what a minefield!!!

EllieBelle

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Well yesterday we went to look at prams/pushchairs. I had my heart set on the Jan Slalom Pro and we went along and tested one and all was well and good until we realised that the car seat although fits onto the pushchair chassis, it doesnt have a fixed base in the car - and you should have seen how the sale girl struggled to attach it in the car - there was no way the baby would have kept calm, and I know after a few weeks I would have been totally fed up with it - would have been fine if you didnt want to use the car very often!!

So we decided to look at different models, still all terrain as we live in the country and walk the dog etc....this time we asked to look at any that could be used as a travel system - but that also had a fixed base in the car for the child seat (I honestly didnt know how important having a fixed base was until yesterday).

Fell in love with the Icandy Apple Jogger - it comes as a pushchair - front or rear facing, and also comes with carrycot - the bonus being the maxicosi car seat (supposed to be one of the best on the market), also fits onto the chassis - and has a fixed base for the car - the car seat comes in about 20 different colours too!

So ladies what do you think??

http://www.icandyuk.com/products_detail ... r-carrycot
http://www.icandyuk.com/products_detail ... ple_jogger

I wish you lots of luck with your pram search - and think really hard about whats important to you before making any decisions!! We nearly spent a small fortune on something that wasnt really practical for our needs!
 
I couldnt agree more! The Pushchair is one of the things i am most looking forward to buying and yet its also the one thing i dread the most!!!! We've decided we quite like the Babystyle Evo travel system.... but since we can oly find online stockists we cant try it out or talk to anyone about it...its a total nightmare! After reading your experience i wont be going out and buying something i dont have a chnce to test drive first!!!

On the Icandy Apple... i like it, it looks really sturdy and good value for money...plus like you say added bonus of maxi-cosi seat! Does it come in different colours (the pushchair?) and what are you going for?

Bekie
 
Bekie.....definitely go and test drive one first!!

It never ever dawned on me how difficult getting baby in and out of the car would be without a fixed base that the seat just clicks onto!! You need to also imagine your day to day life and work out what works best for you......I know I will be going out in the car daily as we live in a tiny village and have to drive to shops etc, I also know I need to walk the dog down farm tracks etc.

We are going for the Icandy Jogger (just trying to persuade my mother to treat her grandson :D ).

Its not cheap and not available on-line.....its £469 (includes carrycot, footmuff, 2 rain covers and adaptors for the maxicosi car seat), car seat is extra! Unfortunately all the all-terrain prams are expensive!
 
It is indeed! Also you have to think carefully about how you're actually going to be moving around day to day, and don't forget that your life will have changed a lot, some of my friends didn't have the car much as their OHs had it (we don't have one anyway) some travel systems etc don't fit easily through some front doors (it's mostly Victorian terraces round here and it can be very difficult) plus what you want for your newborn might not be what you want for your toddler if it lasts that long.

I got a pretty cheap (£60) basic stroller with Elliott which went flat and had a cosytoes thing on it so that it was warm. It was light and easy to steer which was good but my friend had a nicer one which had a kind of food/toy tray which clipped on the front which was nice later on and hers kind of folded up at the bottom so that when it was flat it was more like a pram (although it didn't have a cosytoes). The wheels gave in on that one about 18 months in but by that point we wanted a £15 stroller anyway to get on and off buses easier and because he wanted to sit upright and not at angle as a lot of them are. To be honest when he was under 1 I carried him a lot in a ring sling and then an Ergo carrier as it was often much easier. (My OH said that the Ergo was the best baby purchase we made and I think he was right)

This time I'm after a stroller which lies flat, with a cosytoes, with a front tray which I can fit a buggy board to the back of for Elliott. The plan is that I'll carry baby and have him in the stroller sometimes and if not then Elliott will ride on the back. I just don't think I can handle one of those double buggies as we have a lot of hills here, small houses and small shops and I'm bad enough with a small stroller! Might not work but that's my plan so far.

Good luck with the buying!
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p.s. I'll just add that we live in inner city Bristol, about as urban as you can get- it's all different depending on where you live of course!
 
EllieBelle said:
I also know I need to walk the dog down farm tracks etc.

Might be worth considering a carrier then- the Ergo was very very comfy to wear, even when he was over 1 and I tried a lot of different carriers first. You can wear it on the front, back or side and he slept in it no problems, I had both hands free and got a sneaky cuddle in all at once! It was very good for Country walks, buses and short shopping trips.

http://www.ergobabycarrier.com/gallery/

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Looks good if you like it :) Its a bit smaller length wise than the Jane iirc. Its clean and simple looking which is nice.

TBH though what puts me off that one (and any like it) is the flat handle bar. Pushing a pushchair over fields and rough ground I much prefer a round bar so I can get a decent grip. It feels much more solid in my hands is all. I remember looking at the iCandy in the store when we were stuck between forgetting the Jane because of the car seat issue or going with a totally different car seat from birth. It was the handlebar I really didn't like. And also the frame didn't feel so solid to us. We live on a hillside on a farm and our land here is very steep and stony. The Jane has stood up to 2 hour hikes over all the hills and done so brilliantly. With dog in tow.

We decided we still wanted the Jane as our pram/pushchair. So we got it and simply skipped getting the infant carrier and got a 0-4 car seat from birth. Saved ourselves the cost of the carrier plus another car seat in the not too distant future. We got the Jane Slalom Pro and Matrix cup pram was all. Our car seat stayed permanently in the car from birth. We got a Britax one.

We tried out pretty much all the 3 wheeler all terrain types. I spent weeks investigating the pros and cons. For us, what we did worked brilliantly. Pretty much all of the systems we wrote off for one reason or another. I think the one we came close to getting was the Phil and Teds one. But in the end the sturdiness of the Jane won out.

You have to go for what you like and what you think will work for you.
 
And ditto the above, a baby carrier might be a worthwhile investment when dog walking. My OH likes using it when out and about with our dog and baby. Means we can wander to the places a pushchair really won't go.
 

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