How useful is a travel system compared to a buggy?

[cassandraB]

Help! Very confused. We just bought a phil and teds vibe for first baby due in Feb, planning to use with the maxi cosi cabriofix as a travel system, but now being told there is no adapter for the vibe and only for the sport until "sometime next year". We chose the buggy as we liked the big wheels for using on dirty country roads and paths, future use of double-kit (fingers crossed) and lighter than other P&T but now wondering whether we made the wrong decision.

Will we really miss not being able to slot in a car seat? I had imagined we would use it when driving into town and then going shopping or when driving and going for a walk, but maybe in those situations we would be better off having the baby flat in the cocoon? Any other buggy users out there who could advise before we take the vibe back to the shop and start looking for a new buggy?

Many thanks in advance and Merry Christmas!!

It's good when the baby is asleep and you want to move him/her without them waking up. So in the first six months it does make a huge difference. But you can normally get these things second hand on ebay if you are very taken with it.

Keep the Vibe.

Babies shouldn't be in car seats for long periods at all, not good for their breathing or their spines. Far better for your baby to be in the cocoon.

Move them out of the car into the buggy obviously!

oh for an edit button!!

Just wanted to point out that millions of mums manbaged perfectly well before the advent of travel systems

I had a travel system. When you are using the car seat bit it turns a reasonable sized pram in to a massive contraption.
I used it with ds1 but with ds2 I left the car seat bit in the car and just used the pram bit as a pram.
One thing I found is that the car seat bits of travel systems tend to be on the smaller side - both my large boys outgrew it by 9m and I'd really rather have kept them rear-facing a lot longer.
I'm not having any more kids, but in the spririt of 'if I'd known then what I know now' I'd have got a good pram and a separate car seat.
If you've got a buggy that can convert into a double with no further expense then keep that, and get a good quality car seat that will last size-wize longer than a travel system 'bucket' thingy!

I personally don't like travel systems, they are too big and bulky. ASlso you're not really supposed to keep a baby in the car seat for longer than 2hours max as it's not good for spine development.
We had more of a stroller as needed something light as I don't drive (but dp does) we didn't have much trouble getting ds out of car seat into buggy while he was small.

travel systems are good if you regularly have to drive in the car for a short while and then be out for 10-20 minutes and then get back in the car, eg school or pre-school collections when you can't walk.

Other than that babies really are best off laying flat.

keep the vibe, and if you reallyy want a travel system and you have the cash, buy a maclaren XLR and their matching car seat. Then, with only two purchases you have a carseat witrh fab safety ratings, a lightweight buggy for shopping/one toddler etc, a double and an all terrain, and you can save yourself a fortune in future buggy purchases. Alterenatively get yourself a maxi cosi car seat and save yourself and your baby backache from using a travel system.

Thanks for all your comments and help - makes me feel a bit less like the dippy pregnant woman who spent a fortune but hadn't done her research properly - again

i love my p&t best (double)pram i've had (got sport tho, not a vibe) agree completely with sleighgirl unless lots of in and out of car trips keep baby flat, i hate seeing them squashed into carseats for too long when they should be laying flat in a nice pram for the first few months.

As baby gets older you will probably find you want a lighter buggy for shops anyway, but its always great to have an offroader for walking, i went through the park just now and caked mine in mud, all the wheels will come off for quick scrub then ready to go again!

we are lloking to buy the Vibe ready for April, we like the Peanut but that doesnt come out until March over here in the UK. The peanut is a lie flat basonet if you dont want to use the cocoon. We would also like to use the Maxi Cosi but the fixings mentioned do not come to this country until August for the Vibe!!

We have friends in New Zealand so will look to see whether we can get anything shipped over ASAP!!