No idea where to start!

For the big 3: pram, cot and car seat. We want safety but for good value. There are so many choices on the market and we have no idea where to start looking! What products do you recommend?


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i think for the pram it's really a matter of deciding what's important to you (how do you plan to use the pram - long walks over rough terrain, just around the shops, short walks on the footpath) & then go & test drive a few. we also took personal recommendations from a couple of friends. we liked the 4 wheelers better than the 3 wheelers so that also narrowed down our search. we have a strider 4 & have been really happy with it. we also go the bassinet attachment & that was great at the start - DS even slept in it most of the time till he was a couple of months old.

the cot was (for us) a matter of balancing one that met australian safety standards, look, cost & i preferred to get an australian made one. the one i wanted was out of our price range but we found one in excellent condition on ebay & that came with a matching change table. in the end, i shouldn't have bothered because our DS has had something against the cot from day one & never slept in it for more than 2 months. other than that, he's co-slept with me/us in either a mattress on the floor, his bed or our bed :lol:

for the car seat i did some research & looked at product review sites which narrowed it down to a brand. then it was a matter of finding one that fit in my (not very big) car.

i found it helpful to go & look in a couple of the big baby stores & then search around online to see if i could find a better deal.

i've been really happy with our pram & car seat. the cot was lovely but just not for our DS. this time round i'm looking at the cost to hire a capsule for the car for the first few months & also at getting a bassinet or hammock.

ha, it's easier to buy a car than a pram....carseats aren't much better.
Cots, well it depends on how much you want to spend. If you're in a metro area find a large baby store and test drive. Doesn't mean you have to buy there, but at least you get a feel for the real deal. Internet shopping is hard for stuff lie that.
Know the measurements of your car. No sense buying the fanciest car seat if it doesn't fit. Same with the pram in the boot.
If you see someone random with a pram you like - ask them about it. Most people are happy to help.

With the pram it's easier if you know some basic features you'd like. For example this time I know lots of people recommend a babyjogger pram, but I didn't want a 10kg+ pram. BTDT that and they're a PITA to have to lift repeatedly into a 4WD boot IMO. Parent facing isn't really important to me as I tend to carry my babes until they're about 6mo - but it is important to some. Some people need height adjustable handles due to serious height difference between them and their partners. I live in Central Oz so a HUGE hood is important - many prams don't have this.

There used to be a thread on what feature people found invaluable in prams and what they hated, but the best I can find is this.

Work out a budget, if you need to. Research car seats, there are plenty of reviews out there and information on here. Personally i can't go past safe and sound meridian convertable. Then I would look at prams, what sort of lifestyle do you have. Work out what you want for a pram, what size boot do you have to fit it into? Do you run/walk, catch public transport? I thought you needed a great cot. But now I know that you just need a sturdy cot with a new good mattress. It would be what I'm most willing to compromise on. But safety with the car and the pram if you are a social/active person is vital. I also recommend putting weight in the pram when you push it around the shops. Prams push a lot different when they are loaded up. Fold, unfold yourself, not just buy watching the sales assistant.

Happy purchasing. I found it quite daunting especially because everyone had opinions. But take the time to enjoy it, it is exciting!!

Oh and I love my phil and teds vibe. I would buy it again, no regrets. I walk, run and travel a lot. It has been on about 35 flights, done thousands upon thousands of km traveling in the car. DD loves it, but hates the stroller we got.

Yep it's very overwhelming! I'll tell you how I decided but of course different things are important to different people :D

For my first pram I really wanted a reversible handle as I thought that was much easier than turning an entire seat around. This was very beneficial and I was very happy with the pram (Steelcraft Acclaim) until I fell pregnant again. I have now bought a Baby Jogger Select. This time around I needed to have 2 kids on board and I also decided to go with a capsule, which in hindsight is very useful for a newborn! So out of the range of prams that could accomodate all this I was happiest with the BJ, it seems narrower than others but is longer which is fine with me. I also wanted a height adjustable handle as my DH was always kicking the wheels of the Acclaim.

The cot we weren't too fussed about. As long as it met Australian Standards of course. The main thing for us was the timber. Our house has lots of wood in it so we matched as close as we could to the window frames, other furniture etc.

I was not going to compromise on safety with the carseat so couldn't go past Safe n Sound. We got a convertible one so Moo has been in that since we was born.

Do research online, ask people, don't be afraid to have sales assistants give you demos. Good luck!

Whatever pram u get will be wrong, most people hate their first pram. Id wait til after baby was born to get the right one. Good luck

We loved the strider travel system for the pram. Because the infant capsule also formed the carry seat which fit right on the pram. We could transfer DS out of it without waking him when he was really little. A little wide for small aisles but that was my only negative.

Cot we bought from ikea and we had a budget. I refused to spent $800 ++ on a cot and ikea had a nice sturdy cot and all the matching nursery furniture for around $1200.

Good luck!!

I live upstairs so I got two second hand Maclaren strollers. The cot I got on eBay, fluked one for $60, my parents recently got another at a garage sale for $15.

The baby capsules we hired from the Ambulance service in Qld, they have a dedicated scheme for it.

When he needs a car seat, soon, I will get a new one of those, I think Babylove is a good, cheaper brand.

All really come down to personal preferance and budget so its hard to say but here are my recommendations :)

Pram: Thats one you need to decide on your own as there are so many different types out there its hard to recommend without knowing what you need specifically in a pram. I have a peg perego skate that i absolutely love, but they are far from cheap. Others will argue the skate is crap im sure, but for me its everything i need in a pram and i love it.

Cot: You cant go past anything Boori. Fantastic quality furniture that is solidly built and will last for generations to come. Worth every single cent. Their change tables are fantastic too.

Car Seat: I recommend safe&sound's meridian ahr. Very good and safe car seat.

Bottom line is though, pretty much everything available in the shops is safe. They cant be sold if they dont meet australian standards. So whatever the price, i think you can feel confident it will be safe and if you have any doubts, ask or research online. They all do the same things, it just comes down to quality and price.

Pram: Yeah prams I'll agree are pretty personal. I got the Quinni Buzz in a package deal for $500 reduce from $1300 from Baby Kingdom. It has all the features I wanted and came with the detachable bassinet. I just couldnt go past the hydrolic lifts in it either so convinent :D

Cot: King Parrot is owned by Boori have lovley stuff and is no where near as expensive :) We got the Cot and Chest of Drawers + Change Table top in a package deal for $1100 it also had the change table mat and mattress included in the price.

Car Seat: Safe and Sound Meridian AHR Convertible - Has highest saftey rating in forwards and rear facing positions of all the convertibles. This was most important for us when decideding on a car seat. Was $500 however will last till approx 4 years old.

Thanks very much everyone! I am liking all the consistency of suggestions with things like recommending prams with capsules and the like. I had a brainwave and got my parents' Choice.com.au website login so I'll see what they have to say also.

When you say, "it depends what you need in a pram", that's the bit I don't know. I'm not a heavy exerciser, I like to walk about 30-45 mins when I'm in the mood, definitely no jogging for me. I definitely want a pram with decent wheels! No crappy shopping trolley going every direction besides where I want to go! :) that's about all I know about what I want in a pram really, lol.

We have a bassinet given to us so I guess a cot isn't vital yet, but when we do have one we want it to be white and not too bulky, due to space restrictions. It also has to have rails/a rail that lowers to a decent drop as I'm a shortie! DH is a lot taller than me so that probably influences the pram choice more than anything right?

As for the car... We have a Mazda 323 hatchback so it's not huge and the pram would probably take up the whole boot and the car seat would probably take up a lot of the backseat, but we don't really want to upsize cars until we have to cause I do a lot of mileage in it for work and we want to drive it into the ground before getting another one, IYKWIM :)


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phebee, you can def get smaller prams and carseats. You just need to know your measurements.
SnS make lots of other carseats, and the Meridian is huge.

We have a maclaren pram which has been great. We decided on that one mainly because we have a hatchback and limited space. It folds up like an umbrella stroller so you can slide one end under the car seat strap. It's suitable from birth too which is a bonus. dh is tall and I am definitely not, and we both use the pram comfortably, the next model up (we have the vogue, the next one is techno i think) does have adjustable handles though if the height is an issue.

Good luck, once you actually start buying things it's so much fun :)

If you have a mazda 323 I'd possibly look for a smaller seat than a meridian AHR - it only *just* fits rearward facing in our Outlander with enough clearance between the the carseat and the front passenger seat and the Outlander is a fair bit bigger than our Mazda 3. Safe and Sound make a range of other seats all of which have excellent safety features over and above the minimum standards.

Prams are a very personal thing but I do like Steelcraft - had one for DD, and have one that's been passed down from SIL for this one on the way :)

Another vote for the Strider. The only con is it's wide. I need to use disabled aisles at the checkout etc. A capsule is fantastic. We didn't have one for my first but did for #2 and #3 and it's been so much easier to do everything.

Car seat, something that rearfaces to 12kgs is your best option. Those seats usually last until the child is 3 or 4 so it's good value aswell.

Loved my Baby Jogger City Elite but wanted to be able to use it with a capsule and a toddler (seated) which it can't do so it's actually on the market :D I'm in Perth, not sure where you are (I'm on my phone), but let me know if you'd be interested in looking at a fantastic second hand 3-wheeler pram with loads of extras (including capsule attachments and the bassinet).

I bought the Baby Jogger City Select to replace my Elite so I can use the capsule for our second baby AND have my DD (2yo) in a seat as well. If my Elite could have handled my requirements, I wouldn't have bothered upgrading. The Elite is amazing and fits easily in a small boot. Google Baby Jogger Australia and watch the demos.

We have the SnS Meridian which fits fine in my Mazda 3 but it did have to be in the middle when rear facing (which is where we wanted it anyway) to give both driver and front passenger enough leg room. SnS Compaq would probably be a good option for limited room. The Meridian is great though. We looked at the Platinum as well but, from what I was told back then, the major difference was the built in speakers and iPod connectivity and for us personally, we thought that was a bit much in a car seat. I wasn't keen having music so close to their ears!!

Capsules - wish I'd got one the first time round! :doh: I bought a Maxi Cosi for this baby (and we are hoping for a third baby down the track) as it clips perfectly into Baby Jogger prams. The fit with my pram really dictated which capsule I'd get.

Cots - there is so much to choose from but it really just comes down to tastes. There are quite a lot on the market now where the side doesn't lower - all the cots sold at Babies R Us fall into that bucket (my mum works there). I personally fell in love with the Boori range so it was just a matter of picking a cot that we loved the look of :) King Parrot, the cheaper brand by Boori, have gorgeous cots too.

Good luck!

I LOVE my pram! I got a baby jogger city mini pram and I love it and I've heaps of fellow people in my Mum's group comment on it too. I was like you and had no idea of what to get or even what features to get. TBH we went to the baby shop looking for a 4 wheeler (DH didn't like the idea of a 3 wheeler and I didn't care) and we wanted something that had the baby facing us and that was light and easy to fold. What we found was that most of the 4 wheeler ones where the baby faces you were not light and were quite expensive. One of the shop assistants asked if we would mind if they showed us the one they got (the baby jogger city) even though it had 3 wheels and the baby couldn't face us and we immediately loved it. It is soooooo easy to fold (there is this handle thing in the middle you just pull and the whole thing collapses down and folds in half - and it's just as easy to unfold) and it is really light. It also easily fits into my boot (I have a small car - a ford fiesta). I would honestly recommend this pram to anyone in a heartbeat. I also love that we didn't need to go and buy a seat for it once bubs grew out of a capsule which seems to be the case with quite a few prams....

Car seat - We just got a safe and sound. That too fits into my tiny car.

Cot - We got a setting that was on sale at the same time as getting the car seat and pram and we got a discount from the shop for buying so much at once....

Our Cot is a the Childcare (childsafe?) brand from Target. We got the Walnut but it also comes in a light brown and white.

Our pram is a few years old, we got it 2nd hand... Strider (its a 4 wheeler but not called any particular model) if I ever needed to upgrade Id go for a Strider 4. We have a basinett and upright seat attachment.

Our Carseat is a bulky thing (think its Mother Craft/Care). Fits in our Holden Wagon but the front passenger doesnt have much room.