Pushchairs that work from birth

The NHS sets the test here: "Pushchairs, also known as strollers and buggies, are only suitable for young babies if they have fully reclining seats so your baby can lie flat. Wait until your baby can sit by themselves before using another type of pushchair."

So each of these five has a seat its maker says lies flat, or a carrycot. They're ranked by regular price, lowest first, from each maker's UK site on 3 November 2026. This is a desk comparison from makers' pages and recall lists. We haven't tested any of them, and we can't measure a recline.

Two you might expect are missing. Babymore calls the Yara's recline near lie-flat, and Britax's FLYLITE page doesn't say the backrest lies flat. We list both from when your baby can sit, at about 6 months.

The five, side by side

Read that last column closely. The flat claims are the makers' words, and we found no angle on any of their pages. Ask to see the seat at its lowest setting in a shop if you can.

The carrycots are a different case. Babymore and Bugaboo rate theirs from birth, and Bugaboo says its carrycot is designed for newborns who can't sit upright without support. Neither page uses the word flat for it in the text we read, so ask.

Every price here is the pushchair alone, except the Chia's and the Cub's, which include the carrycot. Babymore was selling the Chia in Pearl Grey below its list price when we read the page, so look at the colour you want.

The lowest price

The TIRA costs £199, against £435 for the next one up. It runs from 0 to 22kg, and Britax says it takes an infant carrier too, for journeys that start in the car. Britax's page didn't show us a weight, so we can't rank it on carrying. Lift one before you buy.

Paying more

The Butterfly 2 costs £435 and the Balios S Lux £479.95. The Balios weighs 11.2 kg. That's heavy beside the Butterfly 2 at 7.3 kg, and you get a 10kg basket for it, which Cybex pitches at the weekly shop. If most of your walking ends at a supermarket, that basket earns its keep.

The Butterfly 2 is the travel choice. Bugaboo gives a fold of 44.8 x 24.5 x 55.5cm and says it fits IATA carry-on sizes. We set it against the Yara, which is for babies who can sit, in our Yara and Butterfly 2 comparison.

The Chia set costs £649 at Babymore's list price. That buys a 5kg carrycot, a 3.7kg seat and car seat adaptors, on a 7.5kg chassis, by Babymore's figures. Folded, it measures W56.5 x L81 x H33cm. That's long for a small boot.

The Cub is the big purchase, at £749. It's 10.7kg with the seat and 11kg with the carrycot, by Bugaboo's figures. With the carrycot on, the one-piece fold measures 60 x 60 x 95cm, so measure your boot first.

Want something smaller for trips? Our compact pushchairs list ranks them by weight.

Second-hand is a full choice

Which? says a third of the parents in its 2024 baby survey own a second-hand pushchair, and 89% of them were satisfied. It suggests looking for recalls, testing the brakes and checking the fold before you pay. That advice is worth following on any of these models.

Leave out the car seat if a seller offers a travel system. The NHS says do not buy a second-hand car seat. RoSPA's advice is the same, and it says never from a shop, classified ad or online.

What's fine to skip

A carrycot, if you're buying a seat the maker says lies flat, such as the TIRA, the Butterfly 2 or the Balios S Lux. That's the alternative, and it costs less. With a seat that isn't fully flat, the carrycot isn't the thing to drop: the NHS says to wait until your baby can sit before using that kind of pushchair.

Add-ons are fine to skip too. Bugaboo lists a baby nest for the Butterfly 2, and the NHS names pods and nests among the things to keep out of a cot. We'd leave it in the shop.

The NHS says to use a 5-point harness in a pram every time, and Bugaboo lists one on the Butterfly 2 and the Cub. The Cybex, Britax and Babymore Chia pages didn't state the number in the text we could read, so check that on any model you're choosing between.

If they fall asleep on the way

The AAP's advice for a baby asleep in a stroller is to move them to a firm sleep surface, on their back, as soon as you can. For sleep at home, the NHS says on the back, on a firm, flat mattress, with a clear cot, in the same room as you for at least the first 6 months. Your health visitor can talk through anything specific to your baby.

Standards and recalls

The British Standard for pushchairs and prams is BS EN 1888-1:2018+A1:2022 (BSI, status Current, Under Review, checked 3 November 2026). We've read BSI's overview, not the text, so we make no claim that any model here meets it.

We found no current recall for any of these five models on 3 November 2026. Each has its own check on its page in our pushchair catalog. To see how a pushchair fits your wider budget, try the three-year cost calculator.