Maxi-Cosi Mura Plus 3 - Update

Since Baby A was born last August, I've been mostly using the Maxi-Cosi Mura Plus 3 chassis with the Folding Carrycot accessory - personal choice, the Mura Plus 3 is approved for use from birth, if you use the parent facing & most reclined seat position or if you use a Maxi-Cosi carseat on the chassis.

I love the carrycot, I must say. It looks smart and the fabric is good quality, the build feels solid. The Folding Carrycot has a lovely thick mattress and Baby A has always slept really well in it. The sun canopy provides great cover even from low winter sun, the apron and the poppers at the top to hold the fabric well up and in place even on the windiest of days, and the raincover which just slid over the whole carrycot with elasticated ease. My favourite feature has been the ability to fold it flat with such ease. Its meant that at times when we've been going out in the car, but we'll be out a while so I want Baby A to be extra comfortable, I have been able to put the chassis and carrycot in the boot of my car. Its then quick and easy when you get to your destination and unfold the carrycot again and its ready to go. I loved this feature and its good news now the carrycot is being stored away now its not going to be used anymore.

I feel a bit sad because its another part of Baby A not being quite such a little baby anymore. Sorting out his clothes has been difficult too - when he went from Tiny Baby to Newborn, then slowly onto 0-3 months ... We're on the 6-9 month size now, and he fills the Folding Carrycot when he's wearing his snowsuit for the school run so we've changed over to the seat unit.

In the box with the Mura Plus 3 chassis you get the seat unit, sun canopy, t bar, parasol clip, raincover and instructions. The Maxi-Cosi footmuff fits the Mura Plus 3 and is purchased as an additional accessory. 

All you need to do is fit the sun canopy to the seat unit, which is very simple - the black clips either side of the sun canopy slide into the black slots on either side of the seat unit, with an elasticated back section on it then attaches to it with a loop of elastic which goes around the seat adjustment handle to hold it in place regardless of which recline position the seat unit is in. Once this is done the seat can be clicked into the chassis - parent or world facing.

The Footmuff is a good size, very thickly padded and has a zip down one side and around the bottom as well as the buttons to provide extra decoration and adjust the fit of the footmuff. The outer fabric of this colour has a distinct denim type feel of thickness and durability while the inner grey fabric is a soft jersey material. It feels cosy and comfortable and I am looking forward to using it.

Maxi-Cosi Mura

When I was pregnant with J (born August 2010), I’d been working for the company for a few years, and before I saw two lines appear on a test I knew if it happened that I would choose the Maxi-Cosi Mura pushchair. When it happened, I ordered the Tango Red colour from the 2010 Collection, and as well as the Mura I had a Mura pram body for when he was new-born and a CabrioFix carseat to be used with EasyBase2.

Maxi-Cosi Mura 2010 Tango Red

The Mura isn’t for everyone, but it was definitely the right choice for me. Our town is close to our house and there’s plenty of off road exploring to be done quite locally. It’s a chunky beast, but a small folding product to fit in the boot of my car wasn’t a priority for this – my main, ‘walking’ pushchair. It had large size air filled wheels, and I took it through town, off road, through mud, snow and sand, and never had an issue with it coping. For times when I did want to take it in the car, despite the size of it and the fact that I owned a VW Polo at the time, it did fit. I had to remove the seat unit and the rear wheels, it was a weight to lift so for the first few weeks after delivery it wouldn’t have been possible (but I didn’t drive for 6 weeks afterwards anyway) but once the chassis was in the wheels dropped in at the side and the seat unit laid over the top.

Maxi-Cosi Mura 2010 with Mura Carrycot Tango Red

As a three wheel model, the turning circle was small and neat, even though the Mura itself is a fair sized chassis. I know a lot of people complain about three wheelers not seeming stable, but I never once had an issue with the Mura – you just have to remember that as a three wheeler you can’t drop it down forwards, which is common sense really – when going up and down curbs, push down on the handlebar and spread the weight over the two rear wheels, and it won’t tip. The Mura always felt solid, good quality and it survived much – I used it with the pram body until J was four months old, but as a long child he then needed to use the seat unit. The pram body was suitable for use up to approx. 6 months, 10kg or when baby can sit up, whichever comes first, but as I say J was very long from the start and had to stop using both the pram body and the Moses basket at four months old.

The shopping basket was a good size, and I could fit two very large drinks bottles in there along with a bag of shopping. I frequently went to the local shops and got a few bits each time, though I wouldn’t have fancied trying to fit a weeks worth of shopping onto it and carry the remainder, but again that wasn’t something I needed to do. I had my car for going to the shops if I needed to, or else I’d order online.

Maxi-Cosi don’t recommend hanging anything on the handlebar as the product hasn’t been tested / approved for use with additional weight hanging on the chassis, but I must be honest and say I did. I would never have hung a bag on it and let go of the handlebar, but I would regularly hang the nappy bag over the handlebar and if I went shopping the bags would end up in the shopping basket or tied to the handlebar.

The Mura seat unit is lie flat, which means it is suitable from birth – my personal preference was to use a carrycot for the first few months, but this isn’t a requirement – The first time we took J out in the seat unit was the 1^st Jan 2011. It was a cold day and he wore a snowsuit as we walked around town alongside the river.

The sun canopy wasn’t great – it wasn’t the easiest to open and you couldn’t do it one-handed, which was a pain. After a few months the framework buckled and it was replaced; it wasn’t a particularly deep sun canopy, and while it was great when the seat unit was sitting upright, as soon as it was reclined it didn’t offer much protection and I often felt it could have done with being larger, to shield the child more from sun and wind when they were reclined (and so, more often than not, when they were sleeping)

There was a bar across the back of the seat unit which you lifted to unlock the seat for recline / sitting upright. I found it quite stiff and loud – if J dropped off to sleep and I had to drop the seat unit into a lying position the loud ‘clunk’ noise and the jerking of the back of the seat as the stiff bar was moved normally woke him up again.

To go with the seat unit I also had the Mura Footmuff. It was a quite different design to other footmuffs – it had legs, a wrap over top and a hood. Zips on the Footmuff opened up the sides of the top if you wanted the child’s arms to be free, and the legs could be unzipped to free their feet as they got older, allowing it to be used for longer.

Maxi-Cosi Mura Footmuff 2010 Tango Red

While the CabrioFix carseat can also be used on the chassis as well this wasn’t something I did; if I was going to the shops I’d take a smaller chassis as it would only be a quick journey and if I was going somewhere for a walk I’d take the carrycot or seat unit because I don’t like relying on the carseat too much for things other than car journeys.

Maxi-Cosi CabrioFix 2010 Tango Red

The raincover was a bit of a faff to get right. In sudden quick downpours it could become the stuff of nightmares but I became adept at doing it after a while (though others struggled through lack of practise) It fitted well but had lots of Velcro ties to do up, which made doing it slow process and more difficult in gusty weather as you just couldn’t grab hold of it all quickly enough. Once in place it covered well, and J never once managed to kick it off (despite his best efforts!)

I used the Mura regularly until J started nursery, a few weeks after his third birthday. It was used maybe once a week after that for long walks up until he was a few weeks away from his fourth birthday. The tyres needed pumping up quite often to keep the pSI correct and make sure it was as easy and light as possible to push, but we never had to patch a puncture or change a tyre / innertube.

When we stopped using the Mura I did feel quite sad. Packing it away after cleaning it I noticed it was still in really good condition, despite the years of heavy use. I really rate this product and when I saw Maxi-Cosi had updated it with some improvements I knew I had to get a Mura Plus for Baby …

More Coming Soon ...

Peace N Love

Mummy P x x x x

What You Should Know About Carseat Harness Safety & Winter Coats

As is always the way when the colder weather strikes, the debate about children wearing thick winter jackets or snowsuits in carseats rears its head. To me, there’s no debate about it – a simple don’t do it is all that’s needed, but I’ll explain why here.

It’s obvious when you think about it, that if the child is wearing a thickly padded winter jacket or snowsuit then you won’t be able to tension the harness correctly. In the event of an impact the child then has further to travel forward before the harness stops them, which in turn increases the chances of serious internal injuries / neck and spinal injuries. A carseat harness doesn’t tension the same way as a 3 point seatbelt in the vehicle does so you want to make sure it’s tensioned properly before you set off (a maximum of 2 finger gap between the breastbone and the harness is the recommendation for correct tension) Once the child moves up into a high back booster seat and is using the 3 point seatbelt, this isn’t so much of an issue, as in an impact the seatbelt tension would lock and prevent the child moving forward too far (the same as it works on an adult using the seatbelt)

A lot of infant carrier carseats have cosy-toes available as accessories for the cold weather. I used one for J in his CabrioFix when he was a baby. It goes into the empty carseat, then you put the child in and do up the harness correctly, then zip up the cosy-toes on the outside of the harness. This ensures baby is safely harnessed in the carseat and keeps them lovely and snuggly warm.

Maxi-Cosi CabrioFix Footmuff

Also remember that when you’re in the car, you have the car heating. I don’t tend to wear my coat when I’m driving as I find it restrictive – so I know the vehicle temperature is warm enough that any children travelling with me won’t be freezing cold anyway. Obviously younger babies do need to be kept warmer than an adult, so it’s a good idea to layer them up, but don’t bundle them up for arctic conditions when you’re in the car, it’s unnecessary and will cause them to overheat.

Once J was too big for his CabrioFix carseat and moved up to using the Opal, there wasn’t a cosy-toes / Footmuff option available, so I used blankets over the top of the harness instead. This became more difficult as he got older, since he’d insist on having his hands free for playing with whatever toys he’d brought with him or being able to have a drink or snack while we were driving. I discovered Snuggie Blankies were the best thing ever – gorgeous soft fleecy blankets with sleeves in, you know the ones designed to sit on the sofa wearing on a chilly evening? J was given one for Christmas with his favourite Disney Pixar Cars characters on, and it became my cold-weather go-to for when he was in the carseat as I could tension the harness with him in normal indoor clothes and then put the blankie over the top of the harness, and put his arms through the sleeves so he had no need to shrug it off in order to eat / drink / play. He’s in a high back booster seat now, so it isn’t so much of a concern but I still have that blankie in the car just in case. It’s also helpful if he falls asleep in the car, because I can scoop him into my arms and put it around him to carry him into the house without getting too child (you know you feel the cold more when you’re half asleep) Also a friend told me about a company called Snunkie who make bespoke cosy-toes for pushchairs – I got one for our pushchair, but then also discovered it could be fitted to the carseat as well, using the harness hooks to attach the loops that would normally be around the pushchair chassis and stop it dropping off.

Maxi-Cosi Opal carseat with
Snunkie cosy toes

I can see why people think it’s a faff, but really it only takes a couple of seconds to take off a jacket before putting the child in the carseat and put it back on again when you reach your destination. You don’t have to spend a fortune on the official cosy-toes either, or fancy specially-designed carseat blankets – a normal blanket is fine, or a snuggie blankie as I found, or even just put their winter jacket on backwards once they’re in the carseat harness. At the end of the day though my argument is simple – sure, it may take a couple of extra seconds to remove / put on the jacket before and after every journey, and it might disturb your child if they’ve fallen asleep, but really what amount of time is worth it to potentially prevent them being killed if you crash? The reality is that people find too many excuses for it being inconvenient and taking too long because they quite simply do not have the common sense to see the most serious potential outcome of the child not being correctly harnessed in. Think about it. It’s the same as taking the time to make sure the carseat fits your vehicle properly and is correctly fitted in the first place – this is your child’s life. Sure, they might be lucky and you might have an accident and they might be fine – but are you willing to take that risk? I know I’m not.

Be safe people, and take care of the little ones in your life,

Love,

Mummy P

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