We have a baby who is now twenty two months old and this is his third buggy (I was told but I now know that babies don't come cheap!). We started out with a classic Silver Cross Pram/buggy combo for him which was perfect as a pram but was too bulky when the little fellow was old enough to want to face forwards. Cue our next buggy, the Petite Star Zia (see my review of this one). This is a lightweight three wheeler which we instantly loved, but the more we took our son out, the more I noticed he was looking a bit 'slouched' compared to other babies in their buggies, who were sitting more upright and proud. It sounds like a minor thing, but I was worried about his back and the fact he seemed to be sinking into the buggy a bit, so we promptly went on the hunt to Mothercare for a replacement. This his how we came to this SilverCross Pop buggy.

The Pop is a stylish looking buggy (ours came in blue and black but there are variations of this on the internet). It features a really useful sun cover (this feature seemed to be absent or defunct on most other models in the shop). The one on the Pop actually goes out about a foot and half over the baby's head and then has a retractable visor that can block out low sun on your baby's face when needed (though I'll admit that living in North East England, you don't need to worry too much about the sun!). This is one thing that was really missing on the Zia, and constantly readjusting a sun umbrella whenever you turned a corner was a real pain. The second most important feature for us on the Pop was the firm straight back support for the baby; when we plonked our son in this one to try it out, hey presto, he was sitting nice and straight up looking very comfortable and pleased with himself. The five point safety harness was also a doddle to fit round him and lock together as well (something our Silvercross pram/buggy couldn't boast).

So with a quick test drive round the shop with baby in place, we thought we'd found the perfect buggy solution in the Pop and it was promptly purchased (we got ours for around £100 mark). I was more than happy with the buggy to begin with; I loved the simple folding and reopening mechanism, it collapsed really easily after simply pulling a lever and dropping it, which was very useful out and about. Similarly, the mechanism to drop the back of the buggy down was a cakewalk, and the reclined option was always really welcome when our son decided to take a quick nap on a walk out. There is also a handy little plastic window on the top of the buggy to check that the baby is still in there and snoozing happily away whilst you walk on which is a nice touch. The undercarriage of the buggy does feature limited space for a few things, but let's just say you are not going to get your weekly shop in here!

So is this a great buggy to purchase? Well, my son seems a little big (in the tall sense!) for his age, and this buggy was beginning to look increasingly narrow with him in it. As he went a few months in it, I couldn't help but notice him looking a little squashed inside it, and, as quickly as his feet reached down the footrest, suddenly they were awkwardly hanging over the edge of it with him not knowing where to put them. This extra weight also meant that the buggy began to be a bit of tank to manoeuvre. It was not too bad at first, but as he got bigger you could feel every bump on the path and you almost had to swing the buggy to get the momentum required to mount steep curbs! So I'm afraid the early promise of the Pop soon dissipated for us; I do think it's a good buggy, but because of these shortcomings we found ourselves returning to our trusty old Petite Star Zia after a few months...and it was amazing how light and easy to drive the Zia was after spending a bit of time with the Pop! I guess the grass does always seem greener on the other side!

To conclude then, the SilverCross Pop may get you so far with your baby, and I could wholeheartedly recommend getting it for them when they are very small (ie straight after they come out of the pram), but if you've got a big baby don't expect this to be your last buggy purchase, just enjoy the great features it does offer before they grow out of it!