When the time came to look at specialty prams for Mikey, I have to admit I was feeling pretty nervous. Knowing that Mikey could no longer be supported in a typical pram had me feeling all kinds. of emotions. I knew he needed the support and of course I wanted that for him but it can still be hard to wrap your head around.
Fortunately these prams have come a long way, once upon a time toddlers and children didn’t even have the option of a supportive pram.
We only had 2 options to try-out with the help of Mikey’s OT which were the Medifab Shuttle Discovery and the Hoggi Bingo. There are quite a few different options out there like the Stingray, Pixi Stroller, Special tomato pram (and pram liners), Zippie Voyage, Kimba Neo, Convaid, Hippo+ and Zip Buggy to name a few. It depends on your location and provider as to what will be available for you.
We decided on the Bingo as it was more compact – the Shuttle Discovery had a VERY long base as it’s designed to take a second seat.
Like most special needs prams the Bingo has a separate base and seat which are both quite heavy. While the pram can be folded with the sat attached, you’ve got to have a large boot to store it and its very heavy to lift.
The Hoggi Bingo has an indoor hi-lo base – we never really used the hi-lo function as at it’s lowest point it is still quite far off the floor. We ended up getting a Rifton Activity Chair for indoors.
Overall the Bingo is a great pram. Some features we find useful:
- It has a lot of growth, especially ion the foot plate
- The sun visor is huge so perfect for the Aussie sun
- The seat has a good range so it can be tilted all the way back for naps
- Supports can be customised – for example my son didn’t need the head supports so they were easily removed
- Nice big tray table
The biggest pain is the weight and connecting the seat to the base. Like anything with practice it gets easier, it’s just a bit fiddly and you need 2 hands to get it on and off. It also comes with a VERY small basket, so if you need ton cart a lot of equipment/extras around it might not be the pram for you. We opted to purchase the larger basket for $100, it’s still quite small but is sufficient for us.