had a horrible week ended up in A&E with Baby Hope choking. All is well again now though but I'm sti...
had a horrible week ended up in A&E with Baby Hope choking. All is well again now though but I'm still traumatised by the ordeal!
Member since:10.06.2009
Reviews:144
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When I first had my baby I bought a huge travel system which came with the car seat, a pram and a pushchair. The wheels were huge and so it was always awkward getting through small spaces on pavements and negotiating shops. They were also really heavy so I decided it was time to start looking for a pushchair, or a stroller as they seem to be called now thanks to the American influence.
I had always been told that Silver Cross is a name that you can trust and that it is reliable and the best on the market. My parents recalled a time when you were 'someone' if you had Silver Cross, however the market is much more competitive now with the likes of Maclaren and Mamas and Papas having some really decent push chairs too.
I didn't really know where to start looking, all I knew was that I wanted something that was simple to use, much lighter than what I already had and would fold up small enough to fit into my car with ease alongside a load of shopping!
Because I had heard good reviews about Silver Cross I decided to have a look at them in particular and came across this one- The Silver Cross Pop.
It appealed to me because it was so much lighter than my previous one. The word 'pop' is used as it's name as it's meant to make life easy if you just want to pop to the shops or to pop your baby into it without fiddling around with complicated straps then this is supposedly the push chair for you.
It is suitable for babies from 4 months unlike with the other pushchairs i had seen which suggested suitable from 6 months. This is due to the fact that the back of the seat
fully reclines and so babies do not have to have the same strength back and neck muscles as a 6 month old.
It lies back to almost flat which is a good selling point and it is really easy to do so. I looked at it and didn't have a clue how to do it but once I was shown how I realised it was really simple. You simply just pull a little lever at the back of the seat and pull the seat as far back as you want it to go. To sit it up again you simply pull the straps which go through the handle until it is tight enough to be as upright as you require. It is very straight forward and you don't have to be strong to do it at all!
The pushchair seat itself is a nice size, some of the cheaper puschairs i'd looked at hardly had any 'bum space' at all and looked very uncomfortable but this one has a larger area and it's padded nicely so I expect is very comfortable for my baby.
The wheels are only small so its not a very smooth ride unlike with travel systems that tend to have bigger wheels. They also have absolutely no treds on them either, I had only walkd up the road and it looked as though the wheels had been all over the countryside they looked so suddenly worn and scuffed so this isn't exactly a selling point. You can buy new wheels though so if they do become too damaged you can replace them although I'm not sure of the cost.
Another downside though of this pushchair is that the brakes are a bit 'dodgy'. I THOUGHT they worked but then I realised when I was on the bus the other day that they actually don't work very well at all! The back wheels work off the one lever which you simply press down with your foot and the front wheels have two separate brakes- one each. The front brakes seem to work fine and are very good but the back one is hard to press down and then it doesn't go down very far which isn't a problem if you're just putting th ebrake on whilst you're putting your baby in or stopping for a moment or two but when you're on the bus and it jerkes it somehow manages to make the back brake jerk a little and so came off! I kept trying to get the brake to stay on but it just wouldn't stay on, luckily the front brakes were much more hardly and did as they were told but I was not at all impressed by probably one of the most important features of a pushchair- the brakes!
The other safety aspect of the chair is the straps and these work fine! They wrap around the baby's arms so that they are secure and it's not too fiddly to do as the straps unhook from each other so you don't have to start trying to bend your babies arms into awkward positions to try to get them through! They then clip into the bottom section of the belt and your baby is secure. The straps all have adjustments on them so as your baby grows you can ammend the amount of required strap.
The pushchair has a rather large hood which is good as it pulls forward and there is a little bit of 'mosquito net' at the bottom too which adds another section to help protect your baby from the elements. At the top of the hood is a see-through section so you can see your baby when looking down instead of having to keep stopping and peering round the side of the pram! As well as the hood the pushchair comes with a rain cover which clips on easily and folds away nicely. It isn't a fantastic fit though as it gapes a little at the sides so not necessarily the best but it has worked just fine for us so far- I may change my mind on this one when it's the winter though!
A little feature which I love about this pushchair is at the back is a little pocket which is great as it saves me having to rummage around in my bag/pocket etc for my keys or phone. It's really handy to just have my useful items like these close to hand.
The folding mechanism of the chair is the same as others on the market- you simply pull up a lever and then fold the chair forwards until it's collapsed and to put the chair back up you just unclip two levers and press down on the bar at the back as it forms it's shape. It's really very simple which is just what I was looking for!
It also has a carrying handle which is a big long strap down th eback which is useful although it has managed to unclip itself a few times which isn't quite so useful!
The look of the pushchair is really nice, it's silver bars are rounded which I think looks much better than the square ones and it's fabric is black with very dark grey circles on. You can get different coloured varieties of this, I have seen a black and red one and one with bright white circles on. It looks nice and compact and comfortable too.
I haven't been able to check how easy it is to clean as we haven't had it long enough but there aren't lots of parts to it like nuts and bolts and what not which are always a nightmare when cleaning baby/toddler equipment is concerned and it looked as though it would be easy to wipe down or run the hoover on it when my baby does start to have snacks whilst travelling along!
It also comes with a cup/bottle holder which attaches to the back near the handles which moves so you can reposition it where you like. And also the shopping basket underneath. The basket is very small though so you couldn't put much under there but it is useful to have for the odd item or two
It's easy to push as it's light although, like I said previously, it's not very smooth. It's easy to turn corners and negotiate steps and getting on and off the bus so a really decent push chair.
I have had a look at the website for silver cross to get some further details concerning the specifics for size and they are as follows:
unfolded: Height: 107cm width: 49 cm length: 80 cm
folded: width: 28cm Height: 27cm length: 105 cm
and the weight is: 7.2kg.
I do really like his pushchair despite it's few little issues I would like Silver Cross to improve. I think it's really easy to use, easy to push and very easy to get my baby securely in and she finds it very comfortable as she always nods off whilst in it!
I purchased this from John Lewis for £115. They are also available from Mothercare and Babies r Us.
For more information visit www.silvercross.co.uk
Pictures of Silver Cross Pop Single Pushchair
Silvercross Pop single pushchair
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Jul 24th, 2009
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