New borns and Hilux's - Car Seats etc...

[FlySurfer - Edy.]

Hey Forum members - Hi

I'm gonna be a Dad in about a months time and hving some minor panics ...

I'm sure some of you have babies and I would like to know what baby travel systems you have opted for and why.

I'm thinking of a travel system - 3 or 2 in one and yes - I have searched the forum but no specifics found.

My wife is all of 4 ft 9 so it needs to be light weight for her and it needs to have all terain wheels for the beach.

And of course a car seat for the Hilux ....

Can anyone offer some advice regarding this ?

Many thanks in advance.

Ron.

[SparX]

Hey Forum members - Hi

I'm gonna be a Dad in about a months time and hving some minor panics ...

I'm sure some of you have babies and I would like to know what baby travel systems you have opted for and why.

I'm thinking of a travel system - 3 or 2 in one and yes - I have searched the forum but no specifics found.

My wife is all of 4 ft 9 so it needs to be light weight for her and it needs to have all terain wheels for the beach.

And of course a car seat for the Hilux ....

Can anyone offer some advice regarding this ?

Many thanks in advance.

Ron.

Hello Mate , Congrats etc etc ...

We bought a Bebe Confort Pram the first time round , it was quite an expensive jobby , but the car seat attachment was very light , ideal really .
The only thing I will say is myself and alot of other parents I have spoken to say the "Travel System" prams are a waste of money , you dont use them enough to make them worth the money . also it is not reccomended that the little one stays in the car seat for that long , so lets say you go out in the car 40 min drive to a shopping center , then pushed around with the car seat attached to the frame for a couple of hours then back in the car the poor littl thing has spend 4 hour plus in the car seat . ( the reasoning is that the spine is not straight when in the car seat )

However we still use the Baby seat ( now on our second baby ) but leave it in the car. The Best buy we have made so far in Prams / buggies ( we have 3 ! ) is the Philandteds explorer . its a 3 whell all terrain type buggy , which you can lie flat for the baby to go in. the whells are big enough to cope with sand and pebbles etc . and there are loads of accessories. I was selling them up until a few weeks ago when i fell out with the distributer for selling them too cheap ! these buggies will also take 2 kids when that day arrives !!! with an add on seat.

we also have a mclaren techno xt for round town mostly as my wife doesnt like pushing the 3 wheeler through shops. but the mclarrens are very light and fold really small , and will also lie flat ( ish )

I probably have rambled on and not been much help ! hope you find something . there is far too many to choose from !

[Gtdog]

Congratulations in advance, Your life is about to be changed forever, and in many ways!

We have one at Two years and one 9 months,
We have found the Mclarren Buggys excelent, light portable and work for 99% of occasions, then we have a mothercare offroad 3 wheeler type thing, works well, and hasnt broken yet.

Ref car seats, as last poster says, the less time strapped in the better, as the little terors backs are in need of tlc. We have one baby car seat, rear facing (now temp redundant) for the first 6 months then a good Britax seat from then until about three years.

Mothercare and Britax are name to use, I would not advise spunking great wads on transformer type car seat buggys etc, they more often than not cost more an perform neither task well.

Save all the money you can, you will need every penny shortly for all the other baby add ons. I worked out recently that my two have so far cost over £10,000 to date.

Worth every cotten picking penny!

[Slugsie]

When my daughter was a baby (this is pre-Surf) I didn't go for any of the all-in-one type seats. I had a car-seat carry thingy (very light weight, easy to carry round, but also very sturdy) that was made by Mammas&Pappas, and a separate pram with big wheels made by Graco. The pram was superb, sit up/lie down, loads of extras (rain hood, foot warmer, drinks tray!!!)

The only other advice I would give is to also get a lightweight pram in addition to the main one. They can be a god-send.

Good luck with the coming adventure, it's even more of a rush that descending a 1 in 1 mud slope.

[silvtr1000]

Congratulations! It's hard work, and changes everything, but nothing gives me more happiness than my kids. Good luck.

We got a Graco buggy for our second child (now 2 years old), with a baby seat that clamps into the buggy, and a base unit thing that stays strapped into the car. You just clip the baby seat in and out of this base. After going thru the sh1te of unstrapping a sleeping baby (our first is now 4.5), hoping he'll stay asleep - not a chance. The convenience of the Graco system (or any similar brand with a similar system) is worth 10 times whatever you pay for it.

http://www.gracobaby.com/products/su...=44+50&act=A20

http://www.gracobaby.com/catalog/pro...3&CategoryID=1

For the 2 year- old now, we use a Bebe Confort Iseos seat that stays in the car - 2-year old climbs in & out herself.

https://shop.babyworld.co.uk/Display...aspx?which=459

I highly recommmend any of the above.

Number three due in January 06, and she's already sent me up to the attic to check we've still got all the necessary stuff . . .

Mark

[Medieval Dave]

Baby Seat

Britax 'rock a tot' carrier / car seat, from mothercare. Very light and secure, and cheap. Then a lightweight folding buggy for out of the car.

I didn't fancy the travel system stuff. As someone else posted they end up in them for too long.

[monty146]

Hi and congrats.Check this out,we got this for our wee boy and so far it's worked a treat.The layflat car seat is great for long journeys.http://www.babydays-e.com/acatalog/Jane.html All the best.

[da SLUG man]

i had a travel system thing from mothercare (the girraffe print one!)

he grew out of the car seat too fast and the buggy takes up loadsa room in the back!!...

all well and good, but gets in the way more than you end up using it.

trouble is, they don't do anything that covers 0-18 yrs!

[FlySurfer - Edy.]

Thanks for all the kind wishes peeps and replies.

I was a kitesurfer till now...LoL....my son is going to be the worlds youngest beach bum if I can have it my way !

Anyway - the gear...

Welll I was just about to go buy a BeBe Comfort - Loola pram with Cfreatis car seat like this -

http://www.babybirds.co.uk/CarSeatsCreatis.php

its a 2 in one kind of thing but the bumpf and attendant is shop say its fine for long rides in the parambulator as it lies flat. the car seat is another thing indeed...but I was kind of convinced by this at 7.9 kilos folded.

Now that I have read the thread I will go and do more web searches and try to find if there is anything more suitable.

It seems the general consensus is get seperates but thats way costly....eeek ! mainly the pram !

The loolaa also has the windoo carry cot - so he can be flat in the pram with htis on...and leave the car seat in the back.

I'm sooo new to this !

HELP !!!!!

Cheers again.

ron.

[SparX]

That looks like a good solution to me .

Those that have had kids already , and blown loads of money on prams can be all wise now , and tell you what you need to do . at the end of the day , if you dont try it you wont know.

Good luck.

[FlySurfer - Edy.]

Cheers Sparx.

Will let you all know how I get on...

My missis is only 4ft 9 so it needs to be light and this one seems well light...

Cheers again.

Ron.

That looks like a good solution to me .

Those that have had kids already , and blown loads of money on prams can be all wise now , and tell you what you need to do . at the end of the day , if you dont try it you wont know.

Good luck.

[Medieval Dave]

Seats,

I don't thing that seperate bits have to be expensive.

THe rock-a-tot car seat and carrier was less than £70 and has all the full safety ratings.

Folding buggies are light, cheaper than prams and some go back to almost flat for the little ones. I can't remember the name but it will come back to me.

I don't reckon you need a pram at all, their just too unwieldy and out buggy seems to do everything we need.

I tell you what. Just go into a big mothercare, and say ' I'm a bloke, I know nothing about prams and stuff. I want you to show me all the options and let me have a go at seeing how they fold up and stuff'. Thats what I did and they couldn't have been more helpfull. even walked out to the car park to check the seat clipped into the surf's seatbelts OK, because they don't have imports on their compatability chart.

Its a lot easier to see whats good and whats not when you can test drive it.

Dave.

Post a piccie when he/she turns up for us softies.

[CaptainBeaky]

Congratulations!

Also, get some sleep in now - you will need it...

IF I recall correctly (from 2 minutes ago when I started reading this thread), this is your first. Are you planning to have more than one? If so, it is worth checking that the first pram has the facility to mount a seat for a toddler.
Some makes do an extra seat which clamps onto the pram to allow the older child to sit/ride, while younger sibling is in the pram proper.
I made this mistake, and ended up buying a second pram once we had sprog #2.
The first was a Mammas & Pappas something or other, and wasn't very well made - bits stopped working/fell off/cracked within a month.
The second was made by (not absolutely sure of the spelling) Emmaljunga (there should be an umlaut over it somewhere, but I can't remember where...). VERY well made, nothing broke in the 3 years we used it.


YMMV, etc.


Regards

[Chillitt]

good luck with the little person, and when you get a pram or buggy or whatever do please practice stopping just before you hit someones ankle, and do try to judge the width of your vehicle and not just keep ramming it through gaps not designed for such chariots..
i thank you...

[openback]

just to add my congrats in advance to, its hard work but its the best!
all i can add to your question is a "tavel system" is the way to go, baby + car/surf = sleep (bliss) last thing you want to do is wake them up to put them in a pram, much better to lift out seat and clip it to buggy frame. all the best to you both + 1.