Car seat:Doona vs travel system

[tommy85]

Dear Bogleheads,

Seeking your collective wisdom on what car seat to get. We are expecting our first baby in May and thoroughly confused with what car seat to get. A friend of ours that has Doona speaks highly of it. The past threads here, wirecutter and consumer reports all seem to suggest travel systems. We would like to have a stroller in which we can take the baby for walk around the neighborhood and parks, not sure Doona is sturdy enough for that. I also like the fact that with travel systems, the stroller is usable for longer time. We plan to have a 2nd kid if that matters. Any advice is highly appreciated.

Best,
Tom

[Doctor Rhythm]

I’d see if any friends or family with babies can show you their car seats and strollers, and let you see what’s best for your goals.

We liked our Graco travel system, but that was many years ago. It was sort of mid-priced and middle-weight. Doona wasn’t around back then, but probably wouldn’t be something we’d get (though I’m sure it’s also very good).

[kada]

Doona is pretty slick. Us personally we went with Uppababy and got the minu V2 since we wanted compact.

Edit: the car seat we went with was Mesa. Reason? Wife chose it

[ClevrChico]

I bought identical "Evenflo Chase Harnessed Booster" when my two kids were old enough for front facing carseats. It had very high ratings on Amazon and was very happy at the quality and price. Having identical carseats that operated the same way was nice.

Obviously the game hasn't started yet for you, just passing on some dad advice. I'd avoid anything bulky, complicated or super expensive, as kids have a way of destroying everything.

[tommy85]

I bought identical "Evenflo Chase Harnessed Booster" when my two kids were old enough for front facing carseats. It had very high ratings on Amazon and was very happy at the quality and price. Having identical carseats that operated the same way was nice.

Obviously the game hasn't started yet for you, just passing on some dad advice. I'd avoid anything bulky, complicated or super expensive, as kids have a way of destroying everything.

I will take any dad advice I can get:)

[PersonalFinanceJam]

+1 for Uppababy. We had our first last November and went with the Mesa car seat with the rest of the Uppababy travel system. In this early phase it really is great to be able to put the child in the car and then take him out and have the seat securely connect to the stroller without removing the child from the seat. I was skeptical of the need for a “travel system” before ours was born but the modern ones are true marvels of engineering.

[EverydayWallSt]

We had a Doona and traveled a lot. It was great for that. Hop on a plane, buckle it in as a car seat ,and when you land you use it as stroller down the aisle off through the airport to the cab line, and it converts back to a car seat. Amazing. If you’re going to travel a lot, it’s pretty awesome.

That said, we had two cars at home, and were glad our main car had a regular car seat / stroller system. The Doona was heavy and you had to “install” it every time you got in the car. So we only used it in our second-car other than when we were traveling.

[MBB_Boy]

We went with a Nuna travel system, secondhand from a friend. Close friends had a Doona, I thought it was very low/short as a stroller. And of course, they ended up having to buy a new stroller / car seat anyway when their kid got too big for the Doona

ETA: Get extra car seat bases. We just installed one in each car, and one for grandma. Never had to install again, could just click the car seats (we had two) into all the cars with ease

[ScubaHogg]

We used a Cheeco Key Fit for when they were little. The whole car seat would come out if the base (which was permanently attached to the car) and snap into the stroller. It was very handy.

https://www.chiccousa.com/shop-our-prod ... -car-seat/

[fasteddie911]

Uppababy vista. Maybe a bit luxury but has been worth it for 2 kids for us. Use their mesa seat or an adapter and seat of your choosing. It's bigger and bulkier but it takes punishment, rolls with authority and can carry 2+kids.

[drizzleray]

We had a Doona and traveled a lot. It was great for that. Hop on a plane, buckle it in as a car seat ,and when you land you use it as stroller down the aisle off through the airport to the cab line, and it converts back to a car seat. Amazing. If you’re going to travel a lot, it’s pretty awesome.

That said, we had two cars at home, and were glad our main car had a regular car seat / stroller system. The Doona was heavy and you had to “install” it every time you got in the car. So we only used it in our second-car other than when we were traveling.

Co-sign 100%. Worked great for travel & as our second option, but I would not want it to be my primary seat & stroller. Though I know some use it that way, so it's definitely possible.

[JoeNJ28]

New dad here. We use the grace car seat stroller system and love it.

[Teddy Ruxpin]

Graco car seat with the Graco frame stroller is a cheaper option that works great. The Doona doesn't practically save you much time, if any, as a two piece system would and costs about $200 more. Done about a dozen airline trips with it. I'd guess maybe you might save a few minutes deplaning but I've never had to wait long for the frame stroller to be brought onto the jet bridge.

They also seem awkwardly low as a stroller but I never pushed one.

[hunoraut]

Strongly advise you go into a store and actually try them all out for yourself.

When you buy a car seat, youre often buying into a system (compatible prams, full size stroller frames, portable stroller frames, etc)

Some of them can be very fiddly to use, which is not what you want while handling a baby. We have the full Cybex system and, even though each component is mechanically simple, i just find theyre not particularly intuitive or well designed.

[tommy85]

Thank you for your reply. We did that and felt travel system would be a better option for us. We did not feel the extra step of getting stroller from the trunk of car was too much inconvenience. But we don’t have the baby yet and have heard lot of people say convenience is worth extra money with newborns which is why I am asking for advice here.

[fastrak99]

I'm not sure about 'travel' systems but I can absolutely tell you that the doona was the best $500 spent towards an infant / toddler.

It makes loading them up, and fumbling with a stroller and car seat MUCH MUCH simpler overall. You don't need to carry an extra stroller from day one - you get to load them up into the doona in your home, roll them up to the car, fold it up, click in and you are on your way. If they fall asleep while on your ride, and you are heading somewhere you don't need to 'get them out' of the carseat to transfer to a stroller.

You already have 1000 things to worry about, this simplifies getting them around like no other.

Maybe this solution ain't right for everyone, but I cannot praise it highly enough.

We have used our doona on paved trails and around the city no problem. Obviously gravel, grass its not as recommended but it held up VERY well after many, many miles on her.

Our child grew out of it by around 14 months, after which we went to a full size stroller (bumbleride) + a convertible car seat.

Good luck.

[jayjayc]

I will take any dad advice I can get:)

While you shop for the car seat, search your local police and fire dept for installation inspections. I didn't do this ahead of time and all the appointments were booked for months. Reserve your spot now.

[barnaclebob]

We used a Doona and it worked really well. I am 6'1" and the stroller was about 1" too short for my preferences. One fun thing about the doona is that it will fit in the overhead bin on airplane (but wont fit down the economy class aisle of some planes).

We honestly didn't use the stroller that much because we didn't really go many places during covid. At the same time it was nice to have getting in an out of the car be super simple. Our daughter outgrew it at about 13 months, she got too long. After that they are happier sitting up in grocery carts or in an umbrella stroller anyway. Speaking of grocery carts, the Doona doesn't sit in them well.

[barnaclebob]

I will take any dad advice I can get:)

While you shop for the car seat, search your local police and fire dept for installation inspections. I didn't do this ahead of time and all the appointments were booked for months. Reserve your spot now.

Completely unnecessary, the directions to these things aren't that hard if you read them. The nurse looked things over too before we went home from the hospital.

[BattyNatty]

Highly recommend the Chicco KeyFit 35 - (at least as of two years ago) this is their latest/newest version and is better than the 30 many websites recommend (it works longer before you have to transition them to their next seat). Highly recommend pairing it with a stroller that you can click the seat straight into - for us that was a Baby Jogger Citi Mini with the adapter installed to accept the Chicco car seat, but many options out there depending on your preferences (ours was super light and easy to fold since we have stairs to deal with).

You have to remember you'll have a sequence of situations:
(1) to start, they need an infant seat both in the car and in the stroller. So ideally you want that to be the same seat including to make sleeping transfers easier.
(2) then they get a bit bigger and can use the stroller without a special infant seat but still need an infant car seat.
(3) then they get a bit bigger and need a convertible car seat.
(4) then maybe you add another baby and have to figure all of this out again
To us that meant we wanted to solve for 1 & 2 with stuff we bought before birth and then worry about the rest later. It also meant we avoided the most expensive strollers (UPPAbaby and the like) because we weren't sure exactly what we'd want 3 years later yet.

[daheld]

Highly recommend the Chicco KeyFit 35 - (at least as of two years ago) this is their latest/newest version and is better than the 30 many websites recommend (it works longer before you have to transition them to their next seat). Highly recommend pairing it with a stroller that you can click the seat straight into - for us that was a Baby Jogger Citi Mini with the adapter installed to accept the Chicco car seat, but many options out there depending on your preferences (ours was super light and easy to fold since we have stairs to deal with).

You have to remember you'll have a sequence of situations:
(1) to start, they need an infant aeat both in the car and in the stroller. So ideally you want that to be the same seat including to make sleeping transfers easier.
(2) then they get a bit bigger and can use the stroller without a special infant seat but still need an infant car seat.
(3) then they get a bit bigger and need a convertible car seat.
(4) then maybe you add another baby and have to figure all of this out again
To us that meant we wanted to solve for 1 & 2 with stuff we bought before birth and then worry about the rest later. It also meant we avoided the most expensive strollers (UPPAbaby and the like) because we weren't sure exactly what we'd want 3 years later yet.

+1. We used the Chicco Keyfit system and were really happy with it.

[gnujoe2001]

We've gone thru a Graco "Travel system" and a couple iterations of car seats. The 4 wheel mall/airport type stroller rarely got used. Some of our friends who often walk/run on mixed terrain were served well with a jogging type stroller that featured larger bicycle like wheels. For us, the wearable carrier was the MVP for infant/small toddler transport.

[kada]

For the car seat installation, UPPAbaby had a video consult where they made sure we installed it correctly. Not sure if other brands do this, it was a nice touch I thought. The hospital is full of people who can probably check this for you too though

[dboeger1]

First time parent of a 15-month-old here. We went with the Uppababy Cruz V2 and Mesa infant seat. The Vista seems to be more popular, but we got ours on clearance after the color option was discontinued, so it was a better price.

One thing to keep in mind with anything related to newborns is that they will outgrow them very quickly. Just how quickly depends on the child. We stopped using the Mesa around 9-10 months of age. It's not so much that our daughter outgrew the Mesa specifically (she's been smack dab in the middle of the growth charts, so a pretty average-sized child), but she was showing interest in sitting more upright, both while driving and strolling, and she was starting to take advantage of things like cup holders on non-infant seats. You could probably stretch your use of the Doona out a little farther, but at the end of the day, the Doona is inherently a product with a very short lifespan. Whether the added convenience is worth the price is ultimately up to you, but just keep in mind that before too long, all Doona owners end up moving to something else anyway. The way your title is written suggests that it's either the Doona or some other travel system, but really, the Doona is a separate bonus thing that doesn't replace a travel system. The closest comparison would be to other infant seats, with the Doona having the clear advantage of built-in (albeit limited) stroller functionality, and the disadvantage of not being as light or seamless as a typical infant seat with a base that clips into a base that remains in the vehicle.

As for whether a travel system is worth it over a traditional stroller that doesn't pair with an infant seat, I would say yes in almost all cases, simply because quality strollers that aren't travel systems are kind of a dying breed. It's just the way the market has gone. Even lower-end mass-market brands in your typical big-box stores are travel systems nowadays. There are some exceptions (particularly compact travel strollers, which I'll touch on later), but even if you don't decide to go with a dedicated infant seat, there's a high likelihood the right stroller for you is still part of a travel system. I spent a lot of time researching stroller options, and I never really found any non-travel-system strollers that were priced lower than travel-system strollers of similar quality/functionality, so I don't think there's really a price penalty to choosing a travel system.

So really, I think there are 2 big questions that are more relevant than the one you posed to begin this topic:

• Should you skip the dedicated infant seat entirely?
• Are you looking for something more niche like a compact travel stroller that has a reason for not pairing with an infant seat as part of a travel system?

For the first question, I was actually on the fence before we had our daughter, because you can technically start out with all-in-one seats that support infants, and I hate having a bunch of superfluous baby products. However, I was eventually convinced of the merits of a dedicated infant seat. The single biggest deciding factor was that I came across some study that suggested infant seats had much better crash test results for infant-sized children than larger seats with infant inserts. Unfortunately, I don't remember where I found that, so you may have to do your own research if that matters to you. It seems intuitive at least, given that the way larger seats support infants is with flimsy infant inserts, which aren't nearly as reassuring as a properly sized and reinforced seat frame. Then there are the obvious convenience benefits. Being able to carry a sleeping baby back into the house from the car without lifting them out of the seat is really amazing in those first few months of sleepless nights. I do think higher-end brands stick it to you with drastically inflated infant seat prices when compared to the cheap big-box brands. Still, knowing what I know now, I think I'd rather downgrade to a cheaper brand than forego the infant seat with a more expensive brand.

For the second question, I'm really not convinced of the value proposition of many travel strollers. The problem is that it's really quite difficult to design a quality stroller that collapses down to the required size for a plane carry-on, so the vast majority of so-called travel strollers still need to be checked on flights (or might be a matter of getting lucky with the gate attendants enforcing luggage sizes), which partly defeats the purpose. I was pleasantly surprised to discover on a recent trip that at least some airlines don't charge any fees to check strollers of any size, so there's just not much reason to get a smaller stroller for travel unless you're trying to squeeze a bunch of stuff into a car trunk or something and need to know exact dimensions. We just got back from a week-long trip with our Cruz, and it went through airports, on city buses and streets, in hotels, etc., no problem. We didn't use the Uppababy-approved bag they sell for plane travel, which may have voided our warranty, but it only got some minor cosmetic scuffs, no mechanical damage. I'm not saying nobody will benefit from travel strollers, I just think they're far less essential than many people make them out to be, and you can probably cross that bridge at a later time if/when you decide to travel with the baby.

With all that said, what are my recommendations?

If you're on a budget, I think Graco provides excellent value, can easily be found at major retailers, and is frequently on sale for even better prices than usual. Chicco is another popular budget option, but honestly, the Graco stuff just looks and feels way better in my opinion. We now use a Graco all-in-one car seat, and we liked it so much that when it went on sale, we bought another one of the exact same model for my father's house out of state, which saves us from having to carry it through the airport and such when we visit.

If you're willing to splurge, it's hard not to recommend Uppababy. All their products are built like tanks. Ours is quite capable at carrying groceries as well, so much so that we'll sometimes carry our daughter back to the car so we can fit more groceries in the stroller. The only real downside to Uppababy (aside from price) is that they can be a bit bulky and don't fold down quite as compact as competitors, so if you are really tight on space or strolling in stores with narrow aisles and such, they may not be the absolute best fit. We've been in a good number of situations where our stroller felt a bit unwieldy, but we've always managed to make it work. I liked some of the Nuna products as well when I tried them, but they also did feel a bit flimsier than Uppababy.

[BlueCable]

We were very pleased with Gracco KeyFit.

[tommy85]

First time parent of a 15-month-old here. We went with the Uppababy Cruz V2 and Mesa infant seat. The Vista seems to be more popular, but we got ours on clearance after the color option was discontinued, so it was a better price.

One thing to keep in mind with anything related to newborns is that they will outgrow them very quickly. Just how quickly depends on the child. We stopped using the Mesa around 9-10 months of age. It's not so much that our daughter outgrew the Mesa specifically (she's been smack dab in the middle of the growth charts, so a pretty average-sized child), but she was showing interest in sitting more upright, both while driving and strolling, and she was starting to take advantage of things like cup holders on non-infant seats. You could probably stretch your use of the Doona out a little farther, but at the end of the day, the Doona is inherently a product with a very short lifespan. Whether the added convenience is worth the price is ultimately up to you, but just keep in mind that before too long, all Doona owners end up moving to something else anyway. The way your title is written suggests that it's either the Doona or some other travel system, but really, the Doona is a separate bonus thing that doesn't replace a travel system. The closest comparison would be to other infant seats, with the Doona having the clear advantage of built-in (albeit limited) stroller functionality, and the disadvantage of not being as light or seamless as a typical infant seat with a base that clips into a base that remains in the vehicle.

As for whether a travel system is worth it over a traditional stroller that doesn't pair with an infant seat, I would say yes in almost all cases, simply because quality strollers that aren't travel systems are kind of a dying breed. It's just the way the market has gone. Even lower-end mass-market brands in your typical big-box stores are travel systems nowadays. There are some exceptions (particularly compact travel strollers, which I'll touch on later), but even if you don't decide to go with a dedicated infant seat, there's a high likelihood the right stroller for you is still part of a travel system. I spent a lot of time researching stroller options, and I never really found any non-travel-system strollers that were priced lower than travel-system strollers of similar quality/functionality, so I don't think there's really a price penalty to choosing a travel system.

So really, I think there are 2 big questions that are more relevant than the one you posed to begin this topic:

• Should you skip the dedicated infant seat entirely?
• Are you looking for something more niche like a compact travel stroller that has a reason for not pairing with an infant seat as part of a travel system?

For the first question, I was actually on the fence before we had our daughter, because you can technically start out with all-in-one seats that support infants, and I hate having a bunch of superfluous baby products. However, I was eventually convinced of the merits of a dedicated infant seat. The single biggest deciding factor was that I came across some study that suggested infant seats had much better crash test results for infant-sized children than larger seats with infant inserts. Unfortunately, I don't remember where I found that, so you may have to do your own research if that matters to you. It seems intuitive at least, given that the way larger seats support infants is with flimsy infant inserts, which aren't nearly as reassuring as a properly sized and reinforced seat frame. Then there are the obvious convenience benefits. Being able to carry a sleeping baby back into the house from the car without lifting them out of the seat is really amazing in those first few months of sleepless nights. I do think higher-end brands stick it to you with drastically inflated infant seat prices when compared to the cheap big-box brands. Still, knowing what I know now, I think I'd rather downgrade to a cheaper brand than forego the infant seat with a more expensive brand.

For the second question, I'm really not convinced of the value proposition of many travel strollers. The problem is that it's really quite difficult to design a quality stroller that collapses down to the required size for a plane carry-on, so the vast majority of so-called travel strollers still need to be checked on flights (or might be a matter of getting lucky with the gate attendants enforcing luggage sizes), which partly defeats the purpose. I was pleasantly surprised to discover on a recent trip that at least some airlines don't charge any fees to check strollers of any size, so there's just not much reason to get a smaller stroller for travel unless you're trying to squeeze a bunch of stuff into a car trunk or something and need to know exact dimensions. We just got back from a week-long trip with our Cruz, and it went through airports, on city buses and streets, in hotels, etc., no problem. We didn't use the Uppababy-approved bag they sell for plane travel, which may have voided our warranty, but it only got some minor cosmetic scuffs, no mechanical damage. I'm not saying nobody will benefit from travel strollers, I just think they're far less essential than many people make them out to be, and you can probably cross that bridge at a later time if/when you decide to travel with the baby.

With all that said, what are my recommendations?

If you're on a budget, I think Graco provides excellent value, can easily be found at major retailers, and is frequently on sale for even better prices than usual. Chicco is another popular budget option, but honestly, the Graco stuff just looks and feels way better in my opinion. We now use a Graco all-in-one car seat, and we liked it so much that when it went on sale, we bought another one of the exact same model for my father's house out of state, which saves us from having to carry it through the airport and such when we visit.

If you're willing to splurge, it's hard not to recommend Uppababy. All their products are built like tanks. Ours is quite capable at carrying groceries as well, so much so that we'll sometimes carry our daughter back to the car so we can fit more groceries in the stroller. The only real downside to Uppababy (aside from price) is that they can be a bit bulky and don't fold down quite as compact as competitors, so if you are really tight on space or strolling in stores with narrow aisles and such, they may not be the absolute best fit. We've been in a good number of situations where our stroller felt a bit unwieldy, but we've always managed to make it work. I liked some of the Nuna products as well when I tried them, but they also did feel a bit flimsier than Uppababy.

Thank you so much for taking time to write in detail! I appreciate it!

[wineandplaya]

We've used Chicco Keyfit infant car seat for our two kids. Our youngest is just now growing out of it, at 15mo.

The car seat has been great, but I wish we had gone with a fancier stroller to go with it from the get-go. You use a stroller so much every day with a kid that it's worth it to get a higher end model. I'd probably pick a used high end stroller over a new mid range one. The car seat should be new for safety reasons. Here in the Midwest, big wheels are important when there's snow.

[sureshoe]

We've used Chicco Keyfit infant car seat for our two kids. Our youngest is just now growing out of it, at 15mo.

The car seat has been great, but I wish we had gone with a fancier stroller to go with it from the get-go. You use a stroller so much every day with a kid that it's worth it to get a higher end model. I'd probably pick a used high end stroller over a new mid range one. The car seat should be new for safety reasons. Here in the Midwest, big wheels are important when there's snow.

4 kids later, we have only used the Chicco. I'm honestly not sure what these "higher end" strollers do. This gets great Consumer Reports rating and is super convenient. We have a single stroller, bases, and a double stroller.

I would be curious what "high end" actually gets anyone.

[dboeger1]

We've used Chicco Keyfit infant car seat for our two kids. Our youngest is just now growing out of it, at 15mo.

The car seat has been great, but I wish we had gone with a fancier stroller to go with it from the get-go. You use a stroller so much every day with a kid that it's worth it to get a higher end model. I'd probably pick a used high end stroller over a new mid range one. The car seat should be new for safety reasons. Here in the Midwest, big wheels are important when there's snow.

4 kids later, we have only used the Chicco. I'm honestly not sure what these "higher end" strollers do. This gets great Consumer Reports rating and is super convenient. We have a single stroller, bases, and a double stroller.

I would be curious what "high end" actually gets anyone.

To be fair, a lot of it is brand reputation and selling parents on the illusion of improved safety/quality, but there are some differences. Materials like fabrics and leathers tend to be more premium on higher-end brands. In terms of functionality, the single biggest difference would be the wheels. Higher-end brands tend to use large rubber wheels, as opposed to the smaller plastic wheels found on cheaper brands, making for a smoother and more durable ride. In general, durability, support, and warranties tend to be better on higher-end brands as well, though not universally. Some brands seem rather overpriced for what are essentially similar products to brands like Chicco. Uppababy is somewhat notably for having arguably the toughest, best-built strollers on the market, and you can easily feel the difference between them and something like Chicco. Cheaper brands have more mass-produced mechanisms like brakes and hinges that tend to break sooner, and because of the economics of their production, you tend to just replace them rather than repair or maintain them. Granted, higher-end brands often cost several times what a competing cheap offering will, so there clearly is a strong value proposition with the cheap ones, albeit with higher environmental impact.

If planning on having a single kid, I think cheaper brands (at least the more reputable ones; my impression from online reviews was that some cheap brands like Safety 1st and Evenflo are a noticeable step below Chicco and Graco) are arguably a better value. With multiple kids, it's kind of a wash in the end because even if the cheap brand lasts you through all of them, the feel/experience of the better brand might be perfectly reasonable given the amortized cost difference over the years.

[flyfishers83]

We've used Chicco Keyfit infant car seat for our two kids. Our youngest is just now growing out of it, at 15mo.

The car seat has been great, but I wish we had gone with a fancier stroller to go with it from the get-go. You use a stroller so much every day with a kid that it's worth it to get a higher end model. I'd probably pick a used high end stroller over a new mid range one. The car seat should be new for safety reasons. Here in the Midwest, big wheels are important when there's snow.

4 kids later, we have only used the Chicco. I'm honestly not sure what these "higher end" strollers do. This gets great Consumer Reports rating and is super convenient. We have a single stroller, bases, and a double stroller.

I would be curious what "high end" actually gets anyone.

Over my objection, we got an orbit g5 for our second kid. It’s ridiculously expensive, but we got a few things out of it.
1. Older kid likes riding on the skateboard attachment.
2. It really is well thought out and well made.
3. An uncomfortable number of comments about our stroller, particularly when going to festivals/events.
4. Marital happiness, as my wife really wanted one.

I’m hopeful we’ll get some money out of it when we try to sell. If not probably still worth it