The Hello pushchair is suitable from around 6 months, but with the carrycot it can be used from birth (but only until you baby is 10kg). You use special connectors to attach the carrycot to the pushchair frame to use it as a pram, but the Capazo’s big selling point is that you can also clip it into the car so that your baby lies flat while you are driving.
What we love
The Nurse Hello Capazo travel system is a really smart looking travel system – I love the Tube map fabric design, and it’s a style that appeals to both mums and dads. Any expectant mum receiving it through the door will be delighted with all the matching accessories – the pram bag has a cute foldaway changing mat, and can be hung from the handle. The raincover also comes in its own bag.
It’s great that the pushchair can face forward or rearward – it’s so much nicer to be able to see and talk to your baby, and a lot of childcare experts recommend it.
The Capazo carrycot also looks smart and is manageable to carry with your baby in it. Our friend Raef Khan, 3 months, really seemed to like it. The hood is attached to the carry handle, and when I pulled it right up, he loved to look at the colourful fabric.
Once the Capazo carrycot is on the pushchair frame, Raef could face me, which was nice. I felt that it was quite bouncy on the frame, but Raef didn’t seem bothered. It has a nice wide band with Velcro so that you can strap your baby in, which I really like as it feels much safer, even if you’re not in the car. There’s a knob at the end that you turn to raise the base up, so the baby can be a bit more upright as they get older.
You can also use the Capazo carrycot as a bed, which saves buying a Moses basket. I had a similar one for my older children, but it also had a frame that you could keep by your bed and slot the carrycot into so it was up off the floor. As far as I know, there’s nothing like this for the Capazo.
What to watch out for
Firstly, and one of my biggest bugbears at the moment, the instructions are poor. I found them difficult to follow, the pictures are not clear and the translation from the original Spanish is not great.
It took me well over an hour to work out how to put the Nurse Hello pushchair together and practice putting the Capazo carrycot in the car, which is fine if you buy it in advance of your baby arriving, but not so great if you’re an exhausted new mum trying to do it between breastfeeds and nappy changes!
In the UK, the Hello pushchair seat is recommended for use from 6 months, so you would use the Capazo carrycot until that age. The pushchair is meant to be suitable up to 3 years. My daughter Martha is 2 years and 4 months old and she was far too big for it. Although it has multiple lie back positions, it doesn’t actually get any longer, so her legs dangled off the end and she had to bend them until her knees were practically up to her ears to fit them on the footrest. The seat also didn’t seem deep enough – I felt that Martha was perched on it rather precariously. I then tried Martha’s 18-month old cousin, Evie, in it and her legs were also too long, although she did seem to like it and wanted to go out in it.
Folding and changing the handle position were the worst parts of this buggy for me. The two functions are part of the same mechanism. There are four handle positions, but you must have the handle in the shortest position to fold the buggy. This is where the problem lies. At one point, I extended the handle as far as it goes and it then took me numerous efforts over two days to put it back in again. The handle also wobbles up and down a lot when you are walking along, which I found quite annoying. To fold the buggy, you have to turn the centre of the handle with one hand, whilst pulling up a hook with the other. Your wrists have to be very strong – I really struggled with it. I managed to fold it a couple of times, but on about the third occasion, I simply couldn’t do it, and gave myself blisters trying. Raef’s mum and dad also tried and failed to do it. In the end it took me, my husband and a screwdriver to get it to work. If I owned this pushchair, it would drive me mad.
I had a few problems with the connectors that attach the accessories, such as Capazo carrycot, to the frame, but if they are working properly, the seat slots in fairly easily. However, to take it out again you almost need three hands – two to unlock the connectors and one to hold the handle steady and lift the carrycot out. It’s also noisy when you’re walking along, because the metal clips that you use to fasten the carrycot into the car bang up and down.
I love the idea of your baby lying flat in the car, but the reality was not so great. It took me ages to work out how to clip the Capazo carrycot into the car – the instructions are hard to follow and this is something that would be much easier to understand if you could watch someone else do it first. I did the best I could, but the carrycot simply didn’t feel secure in the car – it wobbled about all over the place. I didn’t feel confident enough about my fitting of it to take Raef out in the car in it.
Another issue is space – this is great if you only have one child, but not so good if you have one or two older children. There was only just room on the back seat of my car for the Capazo carrycot and 2-year-old Martha’s car seat. And to fit the carrycot, you need easy access to two seatbelts, which means taking the older child’s car seat in and out of the car every time you want to use the Capazo, which is bit of a pain. The Capazo won’t last your baby as a car seat until they’re ready for a Group 1 seat, so you will probably still need another Group 0 car seat.
Who is the Nurse Hello Capazo travel system best for?
Parents of one who like stylish products and insist on a lie-flat car seat.
With a bit of fine-tuning by the makers, the Nurse Hello Capazo travel system could be vastly improved. The option of forward or rear facing modes is great, and having a lie-flat car seat in the early days is appealing. However, you’ll probably need to buy another Group 0 car seat, as your baby won’t be accommodated by the Capazo long enough to make it the Group 1 stage. Also the Hello pushchair isn’t easy to fold or big enough to last your child through the toddler years.
