Does anyone have the BabyBjorn travel cot? Do you need the sheets?

[origamifriends]

We're heading away very soon and looking at getting the BabyBjorn travel cot for baby DD. The only thing is it's not cheap to start with, and the sheets are v. expensive and a non-standard size (70x105). I can't find any non-branded versions.

I've seen a couple of reviews where people said they used more normal sized sheets and just tucked in - e.g. 70x120. What have others here done? Thank you!

With young babies in cots you need the sheets to fit well to reduce the risk of them coming loose and becoming a hazard. Because travel cot mattress are light they won't hold a poorly fitting sheet in place.

If I were you if you absolutely must have the Babybjorn I'd buy the cot second hand (there are loads available) but buy a new mattress and sheets for it.

FWIW my DD hated the travel cot so I splashed out on an expensive one similar to this and it made not a bit of difference to her happiness in there. In the end I sold the expensive one and stuck with the basic one which she eventually got used to.

Thanks @INeedNewShoes. Good point re the weight of travel cots relative to normal cots. If the sheets can come loose that's obviously a no go.

We started off looking at cheaper ones but we're ideally looking for something light and compact that goes up and down easily as it's a long trip with lots of different stops. The BabyBjorn kept coming up for those features, although I'm open to any other options. I'm fully expecting our DD like yours to refuse to sleep whatever we pick 😅

Have you looked at the Little life Arc 2 travel cots?

We bought ours new with tags on eBay for half the price. Man I love that thing. It was still expensive but worth every penny. The light weight of it, the ease of folding up and down and the sturdiness of it for plane holds are all just fabulous.

And yes, you 100% need the official sheet as it has little red tabs on it that connect to the feet to keep everything secured to the base.

The cot does come with a sheet however and it's washable so you wouldn't have to buy another.

Oooh yes they did come up quite early on! I thought they looked pretty nifty but wasn't sure if their footprint might be a bit big (some of the places we're staying don't have much floorspace). DH also thought potentially a bit fiddly to assemble, but I think worth another look. Thank you!

We had the Cuggl travelcot, think it's a knock-off of the Baby Bjorn one, but much less expensive. Really happy with it. We just used standard sized cotbed sheets.

https://www.argos.co.uk/product/7074486

Thank you! So many reviews said "worth every penny" or similar when it comes to how easy it is to transport/put up early etc. which stood out. It didn't seem as divisive as some other big ticket baby items.

When you say it comes with a sheet is that the mattress cover? On the BB website it seems that the basic product only includes a mattress cover, but you can pay extra to include a sheet: www.babybjorn.co.uk/products/travel-cot/travel-cot-light/

Ooooh we were also looking at that but could only find one video of it being assembled and DH thought it looked more fiddly than the BB. Marginal though. I was/still am v. tempted as the price is a steal in comparison! Great if you can use standard sheets too. Thank you (even if I'm now starting to feel like going back to the drawing board, argh 😅) !

Honestly I found it really straightforward, and close enough to the Bjorn to be thrilled at the huge saving. I've been a nanny for 20+ years and volunteer at a baby bank so I feel like I've put up more than my fair share of travelcots and I was really pleased with this one!

If you’ve got a sewing machine it would take all of 10 minutes to make a standard size cot sheet into a babybjorn size one.

@origamifriends Oh interesting. It must be the cover then. It looks like a sheet to me! Either way, it covers the mattress so you don't actually need to put anything on top of it :)

We’ve got the baby bjorn - it’s the mattress that attaches to the base, not the sheet.

We bought the cot itself second hand and then new mattress and one new sheet. It is a great travel cot and lasted both of ours til 3. However I think recently another brand has basically copied it for much cheaper - can’t remember the brand now but you could look at getting that version or checking whether their sheets fit.

@JumpinJellyfish The white zippered sheet is the bit with the red tabs that connect to the feet though 🤔 The mattress itself inside the white zipped sheet is just a cardboard like structure with a foam topper.

Ok maybe we have an older version then? Ours isn’t zippered, it’s a fitted sheet that stretches over the mattress. The mattress has red tabs.

We bought our cot secondhand in 2019 and new sheets and mattress at same time, so maybe they have updated it.

@JumpinJellyfish Oh wow ok yeah that definitely sounds different to our 2021 version. Sorry for the misunderstanding, it didn't occur to me that they might have had another version at one point.