Product Review: The Doona

By far the one piece of equipment that I’ve had on this mom journey that has got me the most comments has been my Doona. It is a relatively new product so many people are not aware of it and so when they see it in action they are suitably impressed. As they should be.

The Doona is awesome.

Why I like the Doona

It’s small, lightweight and easy to use. When we were looking for a travel system I was overwhelmed by the choices out there, and most of them are pretty much the same. I’m 5’3” (1.61m) and not exactly the biggest woman, so all the popular travel systems seemed really big and bulky to me. Pushing them around was fine but opening and closing them and carrying them was another matter.

The Doona immediately stood out to me because of the size. I went into Kids Living to give it a test run and found it really easy to operate. Even as a car seat it is small enough for me to carry comfortably.

The massive bonus for the Doona is, of course, the fact that it is the car seat and pram all in one. There is no need to buy an entire travel system because this will be all you will need for the first year or so. Plus, when you are out and about you don’t need to struggle with opening a bulky pram and taking the car seat out and putting it in the pram, and you never have to carry the car seat anywhere really because you can simply unfold it into a stroller.

Even better is using the Doona for travelling. A common question I get from frequent fliers is: Can a Doona go on a plane? And it can! The Doona can be used on top of an aeroplane seat, as long as it’s a window seat (for the comfort of other passengers). Remember that this requires buying a ticket for a seat for your child. If your child is under 2, it’s likely that you’re not paying for a ticket for them which means they won’t have a seat. But the Doona is easy enough to use throughout the airport and even onto the aeroplane. If it can’t fit in the overhead locker, they can store it with the other strollers at the front of the plane.

How to use the Doona

Folding and unfolding the Doona is super easy. To fold, it’s simply a matter of putting the pram in lock position, put the handle in the upright position, holding down a button at the back of the pram and pushing the back towards the front. Then it clicks easily into your ISOfix or it can strapped in with a seatbelt. To unfold, you hold down the same button and pull the back of the pram up and away from the front.

If that doesn’t make sense to you, you can rather watch the videos :-)

For me, the Doona has been amazing. It’s been so simple to go around just me and Baby J and it’s always been so quick and easy getting in and out of the car.

A few niggles with the Doona

There are only three sadnesses for the Doona. The one is that your little one will grow out of it quite quickly – J has now almost outgrown his Doona (he’s 10 months and 9 kgs) so we’re now on the lookout for a new pram and car seat – but I suppose this happens with other travel systems anyway.

The second is that it’s definitely made for city living. It’s great for going shopping or walks around the neighbourhood but the wheels don’t handle so well on gravel or grass. Our wheels have definitely taken a beating because of all the walks it’s been taken on around the park.

The third is that there is no storage basket. Anything extra you want to take with you – nappy bag, hand bag, shopping – you have to carry. There is a bag that you can buy as an accessory which clips onto the handlebar easily and that actually made a huge difference for us. Or this one which clips onto the front.

Other accessories you can buy are the Doona rain cover and sun cover.