Travel System for Carless Parents

[SirDigbyCC]

Hi all,
SO and I are expecting in October, I'm disabled (partially sighted) and SO never learned to drive, we live in London so not been a major issue.
I've started looking into Travel Systems and feel a bit lost at the moment.
If we go out together we'll either be getting public transport, or an uber.taxi and would need something that also acts as a carseat), fairly lightweight as SO isn't that strong, and then I guess the next priority is safety?
Any advice on where to start?

This is tricky because for young babies they shouldn't be in a car seat for more than 2 hours due to lung compression.

A good pushchair for public transport is a Bugaboo Bee - suitable from birth and compact.

Another option is a travel system that uses a lie flat car seat.

That's fine, we wouldn't be going anywhere over 2 hours away for a good long while via car, unless traffic jams. We have a big family party next summer that's 1h30 which is the most I expect. Any longer than that and we'd insist on mid journey stops!

On a travel system the car seat is attached it acts as the seat, so although baby may not be travelling in the car for over 2 hours they will have to remain in the car seat whilst being pushed around once you get to the destination as there is no where else to put the baby.

A car seat that lies flat once on the pushchair might be best, however babies tend to outgrow the infant carrier by 9-12m so you'll need a longer term plan anyway.

Doona (Google it) is great for this. Doesn’t solve the “too long in the seat” thing but is super super convenient for “taxi plus walk” type transport days.

An infant carrier that's belted is your best bet for being able to go into an array of cars.

The posters upthread commenting about the 2hour rule are correct but you can manage fine. My child had reflux and we only used the car seat on the pram chassis for months 1-3 and she never breached 2 hours, we'd otherwise hold her, sling her or lie her out wherever we were.

The lie flat ones are great but the mechanism makes them very heavy.

If I didn't have a car to leave the car seat in (i.e. if I'm using it we need to carry it round with us) I'd choose a pram where the car seat adaptors sit on top of the seat (rather than one where you remove the seat to use the car seat instead iyswim). I think I've seen the yo-yo in use like this? Means you can then have the option once out of popping the car seat off and lying baby out flat in the pram (having car seat next to you on floor for instance).

I’d recommend a YoYo. Small and compact so ideal for public transport. The newborn nest has a harness so baby is secure on the bus or tube escalators. Re taxis if it’s a London black cab you can just push the pram straight into the back and apply to brake. But if you want a car seat for uber or relative cars then you can google which ones are compatible with the YoYo (or whatever pram you decide on) and then make sure it can be installed with the seat belt and doesn’t need isofix. But it’s not a long term plan- there’s no toddler seat that’s truly mobile so between about 12 months and 3 years (the absolute youngest they can go onto a booster) you’ll have to find another way of doing things.

The cybex cloud car seat reclines so is safer to use on the pushchair frame. I think it should fit on most pushchair that come with a car seat adaptor but we use it on the bugaboo fox. The fox is great but quite bulky in the boot of the car

We live in London and don't have a car. We bought an uppababy vista v2 because you can have the seat / bassinet on and a car seat at the same time. So when we were going to visit family we could have DD in the bassinet / seat and then just use the carseat for the taxi at the other end. Or if going to hospital appt could take the car seat attached to the buggy and then transfer DD to baby carrier whilst in the appt.

But it is MASSIVE! So not the easiest when on escalators. But its clearly v popular as i see loads around my bit of SW London.

Otherwise 3 of our NCT group had Yoyos which look amazingly light and I think you can buy adapters to add a carseat, so you could do the car seat + sling option.

Once they grow out of the infant carrier carseat we have a joie stages seat, which is rear facing and seatbelt fitted so no need for isofix but its heavy and obviously doesnt attach to the buggy so we dont carry it round - we only use it for eg. going to family. We now either hire cars or only go places where we can do public transport all the way.

Sorry, just realised you said you didn't learn to drive so hire car bit obviously wont be relevant to you. Must reread before hitting send!! 🙈

Babyzen yo-yo. Can like others said also keep the newborn nest on with car seat. So if you go to family can clip cat seat on for walking in between taxis , use car seat in taxi and then use main seat when car seat left at family house. In London taxis most people just keep baby in pram and wheel in. The babyzen yo-yo handle folds down to half size whilst seat in use to make more compact in taxis or trains. I used the yo-yo a lot in London taxis last year with almost 2 year old and just folded handle and wheeled in and he was left strapped in.

this video shows how the car seat attaches with newborn nest still on
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=H1kf_oyByKQ