HELP! Catapults out of cotbed, nightmare of moving to bed, but ok in a travel cot.....

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how long can i really make him sleep in a travel cot without any damage to his back -- i.e. bearing in mind that the mattress is not as good as in his cotbed/now made into a bed?

My son is 2 next week and he started catapulting himself out of his cotbed so we changed it into a bed, put a stairgate outside his door, but the three nights we tried this has been a nightmare. We find him at odd times in the night, with his door open, head leanign on stairgate reading some book or playing with some toy in the semi-darkness. The next day is then a nightmare because his is so overtired. And whereas before he would nap for 2 hours in the afternoon, forget that with the bed, only sleep if he falls asleep in car during school runs - again a nightmare.

I was at the end of my tether and decided to set up the travel cot - he can't seem to get the leverage there to escape -- and he is back to napping for 2 hours and back to sleeping in the night with no escape tactics. My dilemma is, how bad is this for his back? I have put a thick sheet over it and a thin duvet to make a bit more of a mattress, but clearly not a mattress like his bed. He still doesn't talk well enough and i really hoped not to move him to a bed till another 6 months or so at least.

Failing to reassure me that it's ok, can anyone recommend a really good travel cot -- mine is a Baby Dan - which may have more of mattress?

thanks. sorry for going on and on and on! i have also posted this in SLEEP but thought i might also get some answers here.....

You can get better matresses on kiddicare.

DS has slept in a travel cot for about 8 months because he was getting caught between bars etc. No problems at all.

my son climbed out of his cot when he turned 2 so we got a bed asap. He dropped his afternoon sleeps at the same time (and just before our second son was born, great timing!) It took him quite a while to settle, but we did the slowly moving out of the room routine, gradually getting closer to the door each night and then he managed to go to sleep fine by himself without us in the room. He did get up in the night quite a bit too, with no purpose but just to come into us, and still does but is not nearly as bad. We just kept putting him back and he knows now that his bed is where he should be at night. Perhaps just keep putting your son back into his bed, and if he's really tired at the end of the day maybe he'll start sleeping better at night??