Tiggs

we bought our £600 MandP gear on ebay in mint condition for £450...just sold it for £480 year later!

we also have an MandP 3 wheeler from ebay- as new for £100....half price at least with all the extras it came with.

Fat Boy

IMHO get the smallest, lightest pushchair you can find (we've got the Maclaren XT) and while they're tiddlers (1-12 months) get a britax jobbie for the car. It's held in place with a seat belt which takes 30 seconds to put on and take off , can be used front and rear facing (allowing for air bags), so you don't have to wake them up when get them out of the car. While they're small they wake up and go to sleep all the time anyway - for the first few months, if they're awake then they're usually looking for food, have just followed through or are unwell/teething, otherwise they sleep, so don't worry about waking them up too much.

Once they're over a certain age and size you can get a bigger car seat - we regularly get our daughter in and out of this permanently installed seat without her waking up.

When we had our little girl (16mths old now) we bought the eff off mac 3 wheeler pram, carry cot, pushchair thingy and used it for about two weeks! It's been in the attic ever since as it takes up the entire boot of the car, it doesn't fit through shop doorways or garden gateways and it weighs a ton.

FB

Boss Hogg

Echo what FB just said - we bought the full M&P Pilko system for No 1, used it for 3 weeks then stuffed it in the loft where it has remained since. It's easier to carry the baby round in the car seat, then move them to a Maclaren buggy as soon as they're old enough - reason - they're light, and you don't have to wrestle with the sodding travel systems thing in the rain, with shopping and 1 screaming kid.

However, for No 2, my wife's just gone a bought a Quinney Freestyler plus all the bits - it weighs 14kg!! I'm going to do my back in hoiking that in the loft...

The reality is - buy whatever your wife wants, in the interests of keeping the peace, then buy what you actually need a few weeks later.

RB5193

Andy,

Just done all this, and it was a bloody nightmare, in the end the only practical pushchair/pram to buy is the Mamas & Papas Pilko P3 system and the carrycot with the car fitting kit. The pushchair folds up really small and narrow so goes in the boot easily leaving some room for shopping as well, it's light to carry so you won't need to change it later for a stoller, and the carrycot fits nicely across the back seats where the baby can lay flat as putting them in the baby seats when their newborn for more than 90mins can damage their backs, if you have a classic scoob then your going to have a mare finding a 0-9 months car seat as none of them fit properly due to the tails on rear belts being too long. The carrycots a god send when he falls asleep in the car you can just lift it out without disturbing him put him in the house and let him sleep. Were going to wait until he's about 17 kilos and then get a proper forward facing seat after that, probably the Britax Isofix one and I'm going to weld in some brackets to take it behind the seat as the classics don't have them.

Hope this helps and congratulations to you both!

Brit_in_Japan

IMHO that sounds a little dangerous. The safest way to transport a baby (up to approx 10 months old) is in a rearward facing child seat. The head of a baby weighs proportionately much more than that of a child or adult and they do not have the inherent physiological strength to resist sideways impacts. Their bodies are much too weak to resist sideways loads due to seatbelts thereby risking internal injuries but more importantly without proper support/restraint of the head the sideways loads are likely to cause serious injury. You want the loads to be borne over the whole body of the baby (legs, back and head) longitudinally along the length of the spine. Since the likelyhood of a frontal impact (incl front corner impacts) is greater than any other, and much greater than a side impact, rearwards facing child seats are most likely to protect the child from serious injury. From what I can see of that picture the lie-flat setup doesn't appear to give the best support.

Correct.
You must never use a rearwards facing child seat in the front seat of a car if it has a passenger airbag which is enabled. I am talking death of the baby due to the airbag, there are many well documented examples. With some cars there is a switch which can disable the front passenger airbag, so then it's not a problem.

If the impact is so great that the safety cell in the front is intruded upon, then to be honest the accident is into territory where no infant could withstand it, wherever the child seat is placed. There is a limit to what forces infants can withstand that simply cannot be changed, it's physiology and bio mechanics. I would disagree with the implication that babies in the front seat are inherently more at risk in major impacts than in the rear seats. Provided there is no passenger airbag, a baby will have just as much (or as little) chance of surviving in the front as in the rear in a severe impact.

imlach

Have to say, the baby seat has NEVER been used in the lie-flat position in the car - it is pretty useful completely flat in the pushchair or as a 'bed' when visiting though.

Diesel

For God's sake Andy you need the MY05 WR1 type PPPperambulator - dont you follow fashion??? Confused mate???

D

stevem2k

You'll also need a bigger vehicle than that skateboard you have currently to carry all the junk

Steve

Doc

We have a Pliko P3 from Mamas and Papas. Very happy with it. Its light, appears very comfortable and it folds up small. We took my wifes car when we bought our pram to double check they fitted in the boot. We had two bases for the car seat so changing between cars was quick and easy. As for the price, we were lucky, my parents bought it

Diesel

VERY strong baby to open the velcro in the lie flat position on your link Andy! Unbelievable! Matrix seat did rock a little in the Scoob, but nothing to worry about - it is not rivetted to the floor after all.

You'll get bogged down in all this m8 - go to that shop for a sniff; they are good and no need to buy first time. Much easier to decide when you see fopr yourself.

D

Little Miss WRX

Congratulations to all involved.

No advice, just congratulations.

mattstant

HAHAHA (I'm laughing because otherwise I'd be weeping) been there done that(every flipping day in fact)

weapon69

Congrats Andy

I've got a week to go before baby B2Z + W69 is due and we haven't bought anything!! So you're waaay more organised than us We looked at Mothercare prams 3 in 1 thingy. But now we're thinking we don't need the clip on car seat to the buggy so looking at others. I can't believe the price of buggys £400 seems to be quite common! Not sure what makes 3 wheelers better than 4-wheel prams *shrugs*

Not much help really, i need as much advice as you do!

Tiggs

"Not sure what makes 3 wheelers better than 4-wheel prams *shrugs* "

they are only usefull for "offroad", we use ours when we walk the dogs etc.....also if it has MandP on it you can look down on all the poor people with their cheap stuff.....just like cars then!

imlach

Not sure, but I suspect it's something that only men could emotionally understand

imlach

Forgot to add for those thinking of buying a buggy......some have a lead time of 8-12 weeks - especially the Jane ones if you are fussy on colour (and there are multitude of them - some garish, some less so!).

weapon69

Andy Tang

iTrader: (3)

Thanks for the advice and congrautulations!

I'm (although I'm not sure if Caroline is!! ) current torn between either:

1) M&P Pliko P3 travel system

2) Maclaren Techno XT and a Britax Roc-A-Tot car seat

We are test driving (for want of a better phrase) the Mamas & Papas range this weekend, as well as looking at what there is to be had from the NCT 'nearly-new' stuff!

We won't order until the new year, but fortunately our company has a relationship with both companies, so that offers us a better availability and of course a discount!

KiwiGTI

My wife is due in January so we are going through the same thing but have nearly made the decision.

Probably the M&P Pliko Pramette + Primo Viaggio car seat.
Also a Maclaren Techno XT for travelling.

The pramette was chosen over the P3 and others because you can face the baby when pushing it (was told it was important). Get a demo in a store, it's quite impressive.

Also the Maclaren can be bought really cheaply here, www.kiddicare.co.uk , it's only £99 whereas everywhere else it £150+

Just a note, the car seats are supposed to only be used for 2 hours max and then you have to lie the baby flat for 15 minutes, so you are going to have to move them relatively frequently anyway so the travel systems lose some of their attraction.

weapon69

Yup, thats what has put us off.

ScoobywagonGl

Britax rock a tot car seat is an excellent choice Thats what I had as it was the only one which would fit in my car (yes i had an old nova) but i reccomend them 100%

good luck with the test driving

Sith

Sorry Andy, just noticed the post. Duh!

Congrats mate.

Brendan Hughes

THREAD RESURRECTION

Andy, what did you get in the end and how does it suit you?

Andy Tang

iTrader: (3)

hmm... came back to my own thread from another one about pushchairs and very apt as our baby boy was born 6 days ago on Monday!

We did buy a Maclaren Techno XT, but before our daughter arrived my wife changed her mind and insisted that we needed a Jane Matrix lie flat car seat.

We didn't want a three wheeler, so it ruled out some of the Jane range, but we are very happy with our Jane Carrera C, which the Jane Matrix seat clips into.

We regularly do journeys in the car of 45-60 minutes and wanted baby in lie flat car seat to limit any long term spine damage.

Our daughter is now 18 months and walking. Shes out grown the Matrix car seat in both the lie flat and upright position when she was 9 months old and we got her a Maxi Cosy Proxy car seat (due to the reclining option and numerous good reviews)

Our newborn son is using the lie flat car seat now, but we just need a buggy board for the Jane Carrera C.