Carrycot or not carrycot?

[frogalou]

Hello

Is a carrycot necessary or a bit of a waste of money?

Thanks

It completely depends on your lifestyle! If u r going to be hot footing it around the country staying with friends/family who do not have children then I imagine it will be fairly essential. However, we found that both sets of grandparents bought a cot for their house and when we stayed with friends who had children we used their travel cot so our travel cot was used infrequently. We had the traditional shaped cot originally and found it a pain to put up so then bought a 'pop up tent' type one and found this more useful- takes up a lot less room in the boot and dd also likes to play camping in it now that she is older!

Hi, i thought about this when i bought my babystyle oyster.
I wasnt at first going to buy one, i was just going to use the car seat to clip on, however the woman in mothercare informed me that babies shouldnt be in a car seat for more than 90mins due to their spine being curved in a car seat.

So if i walk into town, do alittle bit of shopping and walk back, i would be well over 90mins so i brought the carrycot.

They arent cheap, think it was £115, but i didnt want baby to be uncomfortable in car seat or damage their spine because of their position.

mrs i think you mean a travel cot rather than a carrycot?

I loved ours. Each ds only used it for about 12 weeks but I felt more confident with it.

Like plum says, babies should be in their car seats for limited times (I was told 2 hours), so having them lying flat in a carrycot while they were very young meant no limitations on how long we could be out and about for.

We bought one by bebeconfort (windoo) which is suitable for overnight sleeping so we used that in the early days and then moved on to a crib (which both fitted in our bedroom). Just after 6 months they then moved I to a cot in their own rooms.

Ours had some kind of straps and system to secure it across the back seat of the car which was supposedly safe. I wasn't happy with that though and we never used it like that.

Hi, thanks for that. I meant a carrycot that you fix to a pram. Is a car seat not enough (to go out)? I know that babies are not supposed to be in a car seat for more than 2 hours but as they need feeding it is unlikely they will be in the car seat more than 2 hours. I have a moses basket for the first few months indoors. It feels like a carrycot is a bit of a luxury, not a necessity...

Ah, yes sorry, I meant a travel cot not carrycot!

I almost didn'y buy one thinking for quick trips I would use chassis and car seat then a sling for walking. I only bought one because I got a good deal.

I ended up having a emcs and was so glad I had the carrycot. No driving for 6 weeks and limited ability to lift but pushing pram with carrycot was no problem. I really would have struggled to get out without it.

It's also handy if it comes off the chassis easily. If baby falls asleep in it you can leave them in it and take it to whatever room you are in.

No frogalou!

You're after a carrycot if you want something that attaches to the pushchair chassis.

A travel cot is much bigger and not portable with the baby in it.

Ah! Carrycot then! Thanks Iwish! All this new vocab is a bit much for my (foreign) babybrain....

4DCs here. Never had a carrycot. DC1 went in the baby carrier, lie flat buggy or car seat. DCs2-4 spent (and are spending in the latter case) the fist 6 months plus transported in a proper sling. No need for a pram/buggy at all. Far easier, as you have free hands .

Frogalou - I can sympathise!

I can vividly remember going with DH into a nursery shop to start looking at buggies/prams/pushchairs and the saleswoman asking is we'd like some help and what were we after? We'd only just had a quick browse around and were completely baffled at the choice and new vocab!

It's a steep learning curve!

Oops, my mistake,

I have a carry cot and have found it very useful. DS has been having his downstairs daytime sleeps in it - if I need to go somewhere within walking distance I can settle him in there, try to escape while he is still asleep, the walk in the pram keeps him asleep and he might even stay asleep for a tiny while when I get back. It's more comfy for him that car seat on the chassis too. Pretty much replaces need for moses basket downstairs for naps.

I was torn as to whether to buy the carrycot attachment as we have the silver cross surf which lies flat so it isn't a necessity - what sold it for me was no need for straps in carrycot so you can just pop the baby in there without disturbing her by fastening her into the normal seat unit - how useful this will be I don't know as she hasn't been born yet

I did, the maximum a baby should be in a car seat is 2 hours but being anything other than held or flat on their backs isn't good for them at all. The car seat position curls them over and squashes their lungs, it also restricts their movement. If you think it's expensive try getting a second hand one on eBay and then buying a new mattress for it.

We bought a carrycot for our Oyster pushchair and I used it 2-3 times. Most of the time she was in the car seat as we weren't out for long at a time, so it ended up being a bit of a waste here.

Totally depends on your lifestyle. If you drive everywhere can be bit ic a phage, school run on and out ic thd car when it's raining pain on the worst.

I love babies in proper prams with carrycot so for me had one for both rc and will for this one. We walk everywhere, ds was in carrycot in his pram every day walking dd to preschool and back twice a day for almost five months. My pram had a big carrycot so worth looking at, my friend has a mamas and Papad sola and her average size baby was too big at three months!!

We used ours constantly until dd outgrew it at about 4mo (iCandy peach). Daytime naps, daily walks, etc.

We used ours constantly too. Was that really cold winter in the UK two years ago and DD was so cosy in there. But I did walk a lot. And as people have said, was easy just to leave her in there if she was asleep when we got home. I don't think it would have been quite so useful if I'd have been in and out of the car all the time, so I would say it does depend on your lifestyle.

I've bought one for our Oyster, as I'm planning on going out for a walk with the baby every day that the weather allows just to get us both some fresh air.

I've also seen my friends' babies sleep pretty well in the carrycot in the day (either on the floor or still attached to the pram chassis) so I think that will be a second use, and much better than me having to carry the Moses basket up and down our steep stairs.