Doona car seat

[Cakelaur]

Looking at getting one of these mainly for getting baby too and from the car. (We often have to park down the street and I have a really bad back so can't carry heavy things for long)

Does anyone have one? Are they just as a safe as the maxi cosi?? We will have a separate buggy for being out and about.

Thanks

It's a great idea but I don't think it scores that highly on safety testing. A Maxi Cosi (or Britax, Joie, etc) would certainly be safer. You could always carry the baby in a sling or in the pram to the car and leave the infant carrier installed in the car rather than carrying that back and forth to the house.

It doesn't get terrible ratings, hardly any infant seat does, but it doesn't score as highly as some other seats. According to ADAC testing it only gets average ratings for side impact protection whereas most seats get good or very good ratings for side impacts. Also the original Doona (not Doona+) has poor ratings for high pollutants which they say may be a cancer risk long term. That's speculation so you may not wish to set too much store by it. They also note that the seat is very heavy to lift into the car itself, so you might be better off with a simple/quick frame for your infant car seat or adaptors for your buggy. Many more brands than the maxi-cosi will fit onto "maxi-cosi adaptors" so it's worth looking at car seats specifically rather than picking one to go with the buggy.

I agree you might want to look at a seat which stays in the car - I'd also look at 360 seats, like the Joie Spin.

FWIW, the Maxi Cosi Citi, Cabriofix and Pebble have the same safety rating as the Doona+ when fixed with a seatbelt (very low risk of frontal crash, average risk in side crash), but get slightly better results when used with an isofix base, except the Citi which is not compatible with any base. The Doona+, weirdly, gets worse results in side crashes when used with the isofix base.

The Maxi Cosi Rock and the Pebble Plus get better safety results whether belt or base fitted. (The Rock is only suitable up to about a year, so might be lighter to carry around but won't be useful for as long.)

You can check the ratings yourself here BTW :) You'll need to google translate it unless you can read German but Chrome will do that for you. www.adac.de/infotestrat/tests/kindersicherung/kindersitz-test/default.aspx

Thanks @BertieBotts this is great info.

Hi there. I'm also thinking about buying this car seat. We mainly want to use it for my husband's car (I don't drive), and then for short Uber trips and trips in public transport when I'm on my own with the baby. However I'm definitely concerned about the fact that small babies shouldn't be in it for more than 30min. That shouldn't be a problem in general but sometimes it might be. Are many people using this for their new borns and babies under 6 months? And how are you finding it? thanks