In what scenarios do car seats need to attach to pram?

[Luckyelephant1]

FTM here and I'm starting to research prams/car seats/travel systems.

It's a minefield and the whole stuff about car seats and pram adapters boggles my mind a bit.

In what scenarios is it important for a car seat to fit onto the pram chassis? All I can think of is if baby falls asleep in car seat while you need to run errands such as grocery shopping. But even then only for short errands as babies aren't meant to be in car seats for long anyway?

So am I missing something else completely? My plan was to keep the car seat in the car most of the time, and mostly use the pram with carrycot or a baby carrier for the first few months.

FYI we live in a village near a large town, lots of walks and parks nearby, most amenities are a short drive away and we almost never need to use public transport. Any tips would be great!

I never had a proper travel system just a car seat and separate pram and just took baby out of the car seat and popped in the pram and vice versa, I can see the convinience of not having to disturb the baby but for us it never really caused an issue

It's just so much easier to put the car seat on the chassis rather than mess around with the bassinet for the pram. It disturbs the baby and it's just not an argument I was ready to have 😂 we got a joie ilevel car seat which reclines almost totally flat so it was absolutely perfect for us. Everyone is different though.

I can see why it’d be useful but I haven’t had the adaptors with either of my DC and it wasn’t a problem. You’re right that they aren’t supposed to spend that long in the car seat so I wouldn’t have done it for walking round town or going for something to eat etc and when Id go shopping I’d put the seat on one of those special trollies as you need to trolley space for what you’re going to buy anyway.

I never had a car seat that attached to a pram. I guess it’s useful if a baby is asleep & you don’t want to disturb them? But depends on how often you drive.

@elsaesmeralda

I never had a proper travel system just a car seat and separate pram and just took baby out of the car seat and popped in the pram and vice versa, I can see the convinience of not having to disturb the baby but for us it never really caused an issue

Thanks yeah that's what I'm thinking unless anyone can convince me otherwise!

It was handier with the second DC. Particularly taking DC1 to nursery/school, and things when you are in and out of the car frequently and quickly. Chassis out, click car seat on, go. As opposed to chassis, body, fold the cover down, blanket off baby, unclip, baby moved, blanket back on - and the same in reverse. When you’ve pulled into the co-op for a pint and a loaf, the car seat is way easier.

I also had a joie ilevel and loved it.
It was so handy to be able to take the seat out of the car and pop it onto the pram base, nip into a shop and back again with baby asleep the whole time.
I also liked that because it lay flat I didn’t need to get the baby out ASAP if they were happily asleep. Loved it

If it's raining and/or cold and your baby is nice and cosy in car seat you can quickly slot the thing into frame and be off without having to faff about in the wet and cold and risk waking/disturbing the baby.

Thanks all very useful. I do like to avoid faff so its something to think about as I get stressed easily 😂

Would you say it's better/easier to select car seat first then pram, or vice versa (if you don't go for an all in one system)? As not all car seats can adapt to every pram from what I gather.

I never used the attachments with my first child but she hated that car seat and I used a sling a lot. I did use them second time round though, mainly for just parking up and popping into shops quickly, especially with a toddler in tow as well. I’d say they’re useful to have, but not essential.

Also a car seat that easily clicks in and out isn't just useful for clicking onto the pram. Useful for nipping in to pay for petrol - take the baby in the car seat with you, sticking them on the special trollies at the supermarket when they are too small to sit in the trolley seat. I did baby swimming and used to take the car seat into the changing room with me. I would get baby dressed and warm and put her in the car seat whilst I got sorted. There was no where else to put her as the floor was wet. Also when they fall asleep in the car, you can take them into the house to sleep.

Obviously in very early days they shouldn't be in car seat for longer than 30 mins but when they are a bit older they can go longer stretches. Personally i found one that clicks onto buggy and out of car easily invaluable.

We decided against a travel system as my partner has the car for commuting so the majority of the time I would be taking the pram from the house.
We bought the maxi cosi mica car seat that spins 360 which makes it easier to get her in and out of the car seat. Especially if I'm getting her in from inside the car if it's raining or if I have given her a feed in the back of the car. It rear faces to 18kg/4 years so will only need one car seat for extended rear facing reducing seats in landfill.

A few of my friends that have travel systems have switched to spin seats at 3-4 months as moving the seat in and out of the car was getting heavy /aggravating back niggles

I would think about when and how you would use the car seat and pram.

We had a travel system including car seat... I found having a car seat that attaches to the pram really helpful, as babies do tend to fall asleep in the car and transferring to a pram is annoying if you're only briefly popping to a shop or the post office etc.

Also, my baby didn't like being in the carry cot part of the pram very much and rarely settled in it, perhaps it was too spacious/ flat - he seemed much happier contained in the car seat until he was big enough for the normal pram, and it was less cumbersome for us too!

I have a fixed car seat because I wanted a 360 and one that lasted from both a coat and environmental impact point of view (my seat goes from newborn to age of 4 so I won't need to buy 3 different seats).

I haven't found any issue with having a fixed one, baby transfers to the pram fine and if he is asleep in the car, he'll open his eyes to look at me and fall straight back to sleep once the pram starts moving.

It's also handy having the 'bucket' seat if baby is going to spend any time out and about with grandparents or even if you have two cars. The more static seats aren't designed to be taken in and out frequently, whereas that's the point of the infant seats.

We got a Cybex bucket seat (I'm not even sure if that's the official name, sorry!) and a base ready to use when DD was born, then I ordered a Group 0+/1/2 seat (Britax Dualfix) when it was well reduced some time later.

Once DD was a bit older the "big" seat went into my car and the base for the infant seat is in DH's. She's fifteen months and she's still got some growing room left in the infant seat, and we'll be using it again with baby no.2.

If you have an easily awoken non-napper and don’t want to be tied to your house all day, that’s when it comes into its own. I had a constantly overtired one who would wake the minute you touched her, so it was infinitely easier if she fell asleep on the way to a baby group/coffee date to take her whole seat out and have her in the car seat until she woke up. It was never more than half an hour sleep at a time anyway, but this system absolutely saved my sanity.

She dropped down to just one half an hour nap a day at 12 months, and then no naps at all by 20 months so it wasn’t an issue once she was in next size up car seat.

It entirely depends what sort of baby you have. My son fell asleep in the car no matter what, and there was no way I was waking him to transfer him to the carry cot every single time we went anywhere, it just wasn't practical. If you live somewhere where you don't drive everywhere maybe you don't need it. But DS was born in spring so we spent a lot of time going for lunches, long park walks etc and we drove to a lot of those places (because we didn't want to go to the same park near the house every day!) so by the time we got anywhere he was already asleep in the car seat. Our carrycot barely got used. DC2 due in March and I very much assume will be exactly the same as DS.

I had the adapters for my pram and used them exactly once. Won’t bother next time!

we had a car seat which clipped on to the pram. it was useful. however, it was a killer carrying both dc around in it if just quickly nipping to the shop. they're heavy already and i think this has contributed to my carpel tunnel.

if i was to have another one, i wouldn't get one which could go on the pram.

someone upthread said they had a spinning car seat. definitely get one of these. they are ace and save all sorts of back issues.

There is no right or wrong and it depends very much on your lifestyle and where you live.
We did have the travel system, with car seat to be attached to the pram chassis and we used it a lot.
First of all my little one refused the bassinet. It's been used maybe 5 times, probably less. He hated it.
We did use our car daily and it was so much easier to just unfold the chassis and pop the car seat on top, without basically disturbing the baby. Otherwise you would have to unfold the whole pram, release the belts on the baby, take the baby out, put the bay in the pram, secure the belts there again etc. Sometimes baby is not in the mood for all the faff. And it's time consuming.
Back home, often baby was asleep in the car and I would just carry the car seat indoors and let him nap longer.
At supermarkets I used to put the car seat on top of those big trolleys made for the purpose, so I didn't have to drag pram+trolley.
We really did use it a lot and I would chose to use it again (probably vs purchasing the bassinet).

Ah thank you everyone this is super useful. Obviously no idea what my baby will be like yet in terms of naps but it does seem a lot of you find it useful to pop the car seat on the pram.

@theantsgomarchin our lifestyle probably similar to yours as in driving places to go for long walks etc. Baby due in July so want to make the most of the summer and autumn weather (obv covid dependent) Does this mean you went for a car seat that let's the baby lie flat if he was in it for long walks?

@Luckyelephant1

Ah thank you everyone this is super useful. Obviously no idea what my baby will be like yet in terms of naps but it does seem a lot of you find it useful to pop the car seat on the pram.

@theantsgomarchin our lifestyle probably similar to yours as in driving places to go for long walks etc. Baby due in July so want to make the most of the summer and autumn weather (obv covid dependent) Does this mean you went for a car seat that let's the baby lie flat if he was in it for long walks?

In that case I would definitely consider it then. We went for the Cybex cloud Z which lies flat on the chassis (not in the car, but we never went anywhere when he was a baby that was a 2h drive away so it didn't matter. Although that being said, you can have a baby in a car seat longer than 2h they just recommend taking breaks in between). I'd have a look for a 2nd hand one on fb marketplace personally. You want one with an isofix because the faff of strapping the car seat in and out of the car every time you go anywhere is FAR more trouble than it's worth, but the car seat gets so battered anyway it really isn't necessary to get a brand spanking new one. Most of the main car seat brands (joie, cybex, nuna, maxicosi etc) fit with most of the major buggies so choose a pram first so you can get the right car seat adapters depending on which one you get

Consider a decent sling also. Under 4 months my daughter screamed if she was in the pram for more than 5-10 minutes due to reflux. I took a sling with me and put her in that for the rest of the trip using the pram more like a basket/giant handbag! Overnight she switched to falling asleep in it so I'm glad I stuck it out.
We started with a caboo ring sling which was good when she was a newborn we then switched to an infantino carrier.

We got the caboo second hand and the infantino was brand new but opened box so neither were particularly pricey in case she didn't like it. It has been a lifesaver given her being a refluxy baby. It also handy for quickly popping to the shops

More for people without cars who use the train then have to use taxi I reckon. That's what we used to use it for before we got the car

I’m planning on getting the cybex cloud z car seat which can be turned in to a lie flat (when not in the car) so if I’m popping in and out of car I can keep baby in the car seat but still be safe from a lie flat point of view