Talipies (clubbed feet)

[clarenoodles]

My 22month old wears boots and bar at night time to correct his feet, I had to move him into a toddler bed a few weeks ago as he climbed out of his cot. The cot was providing a safe place to contain him at night when he turned over and moved around in his sleep wearing his boots and bar, now that he is in a cot bed with no sides (the ones you can get that go under the mattress he would push over) he is falling out of his bed during the night several times and last night he somehow managed to come off the futon which I have beside his bed for a soft landing and smack the back of his head on the hard floor at the other end of his bed and off the end of the futon. The problem is when he rolls over in the night the boots and bar are causing him to roll off the bed because of their weight and the angle at which his legs are fixed. He is a strong boy and I am concerned for his safety as he keeps on banging his head and disturbing his older brother who shares his bedroom.
Any other Mums struggled with this? I am thinking I may have to sleep him on the floor on the mattress and do away with the bed or even sleep him in a sturdy playpen, but if last night is anything to go by then he is going to be at risk of hitting his head still. In the end last night having attempted sleeping next to him providing a human barrier to the floor I ended up sleeping on the sofa with him in the playpen downstairs (he slept really well, did not hear a peep out of him) but surely it is a bit cruel to sleep him in a playpen with no mattress every night - what do you all think?

Also how do you protect your furniture from the steel bar and boots, there are several nasty marks and scrapes on the walls next to his bed now as there is no cot to take the brunt and he is fast becoming too big for a pod which helps a bit.

Any advise from other Mums with children who sleep in the boots and bars would be appreciated, or just other Mums who have had similar situations.

My DD had this exact problem. The boots and bar are so heavy that they use so much momentum to turn over, and then they just go flying. I would find her all over her room, and she was always sleeping. We had an IKEA crib and when she was old enough we took the side off, so it was a really small toddler bed, and we used a guardrail from IKEA. It's shown on this bed. I don't know if it would be suitable for your set-up. Good luck.

www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/S39887442/

My daughter didn't like her cot bed so we put her in the double bed we had in the room. We use pillows on the edge but you could use a bed guard. I also put a pillow against the wall in case she bangs into it.

You could do as teapot suggests but turn the bed so that the rails are along the outside iyswim.

Personally I'd put him in a playpen with an ikea mattress cut to size if it worked.

Thank you all for your replies, it has been a week nearly and I have been sleeping on the sofa all that time and he has been sleeping in the playpen next to the sofa, for the most part he has been sleeping well - the usual occasional middle of the night outburst, but all in all I have really observed that he is more settled perhaps because he feels more secure in the playpen, when he rolls over he is not falling out like in the cot bed. We have ordered a toddler bed guard which is wooden like the old rails from his cot, so I hope that this proves to be secure enough - I believe from the description that it fixes to the base and can clip in and out of fixings, it has good ratings and is described as secure. I will let you know how I get on when it arrives, until then its the sofa for me!

Update, have had success with the wooden toddler bed guard, it has kept little one in his bed which has been a great relief. However, it does not fix directly to the bed base and actually fits to the underside of the mattress with straps and a kind of hook mechanism, but it works and has not been pushed over yet, we may try and adapt it a little to fix it to the actual bed, but we will see. Thank you all for your help.