Baby travel systems (merged)

maureenjscott

I spent today wandering around a few pram shops.... one i walked in and walked straight back out at the sight of the first few price tags! lol

Definately going in and having a play about with some to see what you like is a good idea - i was in mothercare for about an hour with only two travel systems. This is my third child and previously i had the cheapest from birth buggy from argos but 10years ago i was able to hold my baby on my lap on the way home from the hospital, these days, although i dont have a car, my friends/family do and if I want to get lifts, taken shopping etc I need a car seat. Been looking at travel systems as all the looking for seperate buggy and car seat seemed to be more expensive - lots of travel systems on sale at the moment too which is good.

Am looking at a Hauck on kiddicare which comes with a pile of extras and looks really good from the video. I'm concerned about the adjustable seat though. It seems to use a cord with button thing that you pull on the cord, push up the mechanism and the seat sits up, press the button and pull down to lower the seat - are these any good? Does anyone have experience with them?
Seems very different from the mechanisms on the buggies i've had in the past.

Good luck with yours Beccam,
mo x

tiamai_d

Mothercare has the loola for £175 in store (in mine anyway) right now. Online they are still £275.

CL

I would love some MSE style advice on what is the best travel system (pushchair + carseat).

I don't want to be sucked in by the idea that the most expensive is the best, if that's not necessarily the case.

Thanks in advance.

got-it-spend-it

Is it for a newborn? Will you be using it mostly with the car, walking or on public transport? Any preference for 3 or 4 wheelers?

I have a My3 in red with a Maxi Cosi carseat. It's a good pushchair, can be used as a pram, parent-facing, front-facing and the chassis can also be used with the carseat. It's great 'off-road', easy to push and baby seems very comfy in it. The downsides are that you have to take it apart to fold it (so would be no good on the bus etc), it takes up a lot of boot space and it is quite wide so not ideal for shop doorways. Now my baby is a little older we use a stroller in town and mostly save the My3 for the park or beach.

There is so much choice, it is definitely worth going to try a few in shops like Mothercare, Mamas and Papas and John Lewis.

xmaslolly76

Its an absolute minefield these days you need to sit down and work out exactly how your going to be using it on a daily basis then as Gotit said go to the shops and have a play around with them.

Personally i went for something light weight as its pushed around quite a fair bit and at the time we had a car so lugging it in and out would have been a nightmare with a heavy pushchair. I bought the Hauck Condor came with everything we needed and has so far been a brilliant pushchair :-)

jillie1974

agree with lolly and gisi. best to go to a few different shops and try them out. if you will be using the car a lot, one that is light will be so much easier to use.

we have the Hauck Condor as well. it came with a carrycot which was fab for the first few months as it doubled as a 'moses basket' for downstairs when K was little.
it is a good price as well. we got it from Tesco Direct and it was £249.99.
the carseat does till baby is 13kg.

always29

brilliant advice from gisi and xmas but just to add if you are going to use a car a lot, take the car with you and try folding it to fit in your boot!

We bought the maclaren xlr with car seat as we use public transport soooo much its incredibly lightweight and easy to maneovure on buses / trains / tubes as well as walking a lot. It's not parent facing but found that even now, pretty much as soon as Tom is in the chair he falls asleep so that's not been an issue. It's not the cheapest option but it's been brilliant for us. I didn't think I'd use the travel system element but have used it a lot when visiting relatives by train but they've got cars the other end.

http://www.babyandco.com/itemdetl.php/itemprcd/Maclaren_XLR_Travel_System?utm_source=Google%2BShopping&utm_medium=Google&Black/Champange&of_tid=L7RhqQnaq0yfkmFH4Ox1Dw-DcQPt8biTG5!!!Jhy4akTFk_85N47Py2d20jU5jIP which reminds me we got it from boots.com when they had a 20% off sale and we also got about 40 quids worth of advantage points with it.

freda

We didn't buy anything till after DD was born, and we were so pleased!

We ended up not needing a pushchair till she was over 3 months old, and even then we only got one so the grandparents could take her out. We used a kari-me sling ALL the time, it is so lovely and snuggly and comfy and we still use it now she is 3!!

We also looked at safety reports in Which? about car seats, and came to the conclusion that the ones not sold as part of another system were safer, and got a Maxi-cosi car seat seperately.

I am so glad we didn't get a heavy travel system, there is no way I'd have been bothered to lug it in and out of the car, and I so loved cuddling DD around in a sling it wouldn't have got used anyway!

If I liked going on long walks (and by long I mean spending all afternoon walking, I do plenty of walking around!!) then I may have found a larger system more comfortable to push than an umbrella buggy. How much walking around do you do?

Have a think about if you actually think you need such a big, expensive system, and consider the alternatives, maybe?

CL

Thanks, there just seems to be so many I don't know where to start. It is for a newborn and I will be using the car alot (plenty of room in the boot), not using any public transport and intend to be doing alot of walking in parks, etc.

I really can't imagine that I would use a sling as have had a few back problems in the past and I intend to do quite a bit of walking.

tiamai_d

For walks in parks I'd suggest you get an off road type, with big wheels and good suspension. I love my 3 wheeler for walking, it ploughed through snow, goes over tree roots, can be pushed along grass verges, through mud etc with no problems. I had a carrycot for when she was a baby, then switched to the pushchair when she was about 5/6 months. She was in the carrycot when we had all that snow in January and she slept right through me ploughing through it all

As for travel systems, I don't like babies in car seats when not in the car, so can't help there. Do make sure you get the car seat fitted (and make sure it fits any other car it will be used in, ours fits my car but not my husbands - DOH!).

Try them out in shops and if you spot one out and about that you like the look of, smile and ask the person what type it is! Most folk are pretty flattered if you coo over their pram (and child too, but mainly the pram) lol!