What is the point of bed frames?

[Squelchsquerch]

I'm wondering, why is it customary to sleep on an elevated bed, rather than just a simple mattress on the floor?

I need to get my toddler his first bed, but then I'd need a rail to stop him rolling out. He might as well just be in a cot then. Has anyone just done away with a bed frame all together and just had a mattress on the floor? To me there are the pros of saving money and reducing risk of injury if falling out. Tell me, am I missing something?

Use a pool noodle under the sheet stopped my toddler rolling out of bed

Older people find it hard to get up and down from/to the floor. No reason at all a toddler can't have a mattress on the floor. I don't believe the sweat argument.

'Risk of injury'??? You do know that your darling little poppet isn't the first ever to start sleeping in a bed and, you know, most of us are still alive to tell the tale?

You can buy a bed slat base on its own from Ikea, which would raise the mattress enough but still be a floor bed. Google Montessori floor bed ideas. It advocates having babies as young as 6 months in a floor bed not a cot. I didn’t do it with DS (who went into a single bed at 2 and has actually never fallen out). So while I think a normal bed is totally fine, there is a way of doing a floor bed. If you were very scrupulous about hoovering/mopping if wood floors anyway, or I’d think there would be a lot of dust being breathed in!

Yes, it's about circulation of air. In Japan they sleep on futons, basically a mattress on the floor, but they roll them up every day and put them elsewhere, and hang them outside to air regularly. Lots of work to maintain their hygiene.

That picture *cake8 linked to is making me shudder; so much dangly stuff for a toddler to hang themselves from.

Yes I agree! No dangly decorations!!

headintheproverbial how the hell have you managed to get nasty and aggressive over a bloody bed?

Air circulation

Rats

Storage

Warmth, off the cold earthen floor surface

We're creatures of habit.

We had that low extendable bed from Ikea too. They never fell out.

They generally fall out a couple of times, then learn there's an edge and don't do it again. Put something soft on the floor for a week or so if you're worried.

A rail isn’t like a cot at all. The child can get in and out of a bed with a rail, it just covers the bit next to your pillow end.
We have a single bed with a pull out trundle underneath. Pull the trundle out a bit at night, child falls onto soft lower bed if they fall. Could do the same with a mattress under the bed, trundles are quite dear.

DS has always been in an adult double bed as we didn't see the point in getting rid of a perfectly good bed when we had him. He has one side against the wall, the other has a bed guard. He's only fallen out once.

I do really like those stackable ones. Though we have a set of bunks and two singles in bits in the loft (older kids moving into doubles) so don't think I could justify them.

Air circulation. You sweat a lot into a mattress. If it’s on the floor it’ll go mouldy, eventually.

I haven't found that to be the case on hard floors like the concrete floor of a flat, or on the upper levels of a house, BUT, when I lived in a 200 year old house, with drafty floorboards to a fairly damp underfloor-area, the mould was so bad it ate the carpet under the mattress. Also happened at MIL's house - we were only staying a few days, so made a nest for DS on the floor - unfortunately it was another place with drafty floorboards, on the ground floor, and he woke up the next morning with the whole mattress bottom damp (not wee..)

So, yes, mattress on the floor is fine for toddlers, if your floor isn't drafty.

Hullabaloo31 its called proprioception, knowing where your body is, something that develops around 2-3. It's why adults don't fall out of bead, though illness can affect that (& alcohol!) . Even asleep your brain 'knows' where you arms and legs etc are.

DS had a set of bunk beds and hed the rail from the top on the bottom bunk. DD had a Flexa bed with safety rail and at one stage, DS did indeed have a mattress on the floor.

My whole family sleep on futons on ratan mats, we flip it weekly to air. No problems with sweat or mould. Used a futon through both my pregnancies, it does wonderful things to you mobility once your used to it.

When we were young and poor (excuse me while I get my baby boomer violin out) we slept on a mattress on the floor for months while we were saving up for bedroom furniture. I think we just turned it over every so often when we changed the sheets. I don't remember any problems.

its called proprioception, knowing where your body is, something that develops around 2-3... Even asleep your brain 'knows' where you arms and legs etc are.
Unless of course you have dyspraxia, DD never seems to know where her arms and legs are.

High bed - you can see the view out of the window more easily.

Use a pool noodle under the sheet stopped my toddler rolling out of bed

I read this as pot noodle....I assumed it stopped him rolling out as he was sitting up eating it :o

Bedframes make sense as an adult, as it is much easier to get out of a bed which is raised off the floor, than one which is at floor level.

Unless of course you have dyspraxia, DD never seems to know where her arms and legs are.

Ha! another thing to add to my list about DS2 (16) possibly having dyspraxia. DS2 now sleeps in a low sitting double as he falls out if it's a single - we have to be careful where he sleeps when we are on holiday.

Plus, they look a bit ‘tidier’ in a bedroom than a mattress on the floor that tends to look a bit ‘just moved in and haven’t got enough furniture yet’ or just plain ‘crackden chic’.

(Obviously i’m not talking about countries where sleeping on the floor is the norm and the rest of the interior reflect that style of low level living)

All of these are valid but I think for a toddler a mattress on the floor is fine.

I might be biased though because we did that . Our twins managed to jump the bottoms out of their cots about six months before we were ready to buy beds (we’d put money into a bond so couldn’t get it out). It was great tbh. We didn’t have to worry about them falling out of bed, and by the time they did have a bed, they were used to having a bed with now rails.

We do also have a bunk bed where the lowest one is very low to the floor, but it is still on slats.