Last summer was the first summer my daughter spent in her buggy, the year before she will still in her pram and I didn't need to worry about a sun shade. I knew I didn't want a parasol type sun shade for the buggy as my friend had one and spent forever moving the parasol around whenever she changed direction. I needed something that would protect my daughter with minimal fuss.

After looking around on Amazon, I came across this Sunshine Kids sun shade and it looked perfect. It cost around £10 last year. When I received the package, I didn't quite understand how a big sun shade could fit in the small circular plastic packaging it came in. Once I had opened the zip on the packaging all became clear, the sun shade simply popped out to full size. The packaging then acts as somewhere to store the shade when it's not in use. It is quite tricky getting the shade back in as the packaging is so small and the shade is so big, but the mesh like material is easy to bend and after folding it a few times it will fit back in the packaging nice and snug. It also means that when the shade isn't in use, it can easily fit in the basket under the buggy or a changing bag.

The sun shade is easy to fit onto a buggy, Sunshine Kids say it will fit on most types of pushchairs. It has six ties in total, three for each side of the buggy. To fix the shade into position around the handles there are two velcro strips, these fit easily around the handles, further down the back of the buggy are two fabric ties so that it can be attached to the bars running down the back and then finally there are two ties on either side that attach to each side of the buggy.

Once the sun shade is in position and attached securely, you will find two small pockets on either side of the shade, the packing suggests using them for your phone and other essential items, the pockets do look quite deep but I still wouldn't trust them to hold my phone or my purse.

The shade boasts that it has a UV protection of 50+, this is very reassuring as you know your child is protected even if the sun in blinding down. Our buggy has a hood and the shade lies nicely on top so that's double protection from the sun. The shade then acts as a sort of canopy as it is a lot longer than the hood so children sitting inside the buggy get maximum protection. Even though the shade acts as a big canopy my daughter doesn't mind having this on her buggy as she still has a good view of what is going on in front and around her so it doesn't block her vision Although the sun shade has sides that go down too, it doesn't mean that children don't get much fresh air as it doesn't cover the whole sides of the buggy.

We used this sun shade a lot last summer and when we recently went abroad and it is still in an excellent condition, I think this is mainly because when it's not in use, it is simply stored away in the packaging. At £10 I think that's great value for money and I'd definitely recommend looking at buying one of these as an alternative to the umbrella parasol type sun shades.