Convertible cot - Ikea? Somewhere else?

[drspouse]

We'll need a cot with a removable side for DD, rather than a cot bed which we have for DS, as they'll have to share a room at that point and another cot bed won't fit.
The only one I can find that's actually made to be converted is an Ikea one. Is that right or are there others out there?

I'm assuming we'll need the Ikea mattress? But just regular cot sheets, as it's not very very different to other cot sizes? I can always rig up some fitted sheets if not - I've done that for the cot bed as I found it hard to get funky cot bed sheets.

Anyone?

As long as the mattress base doesn't attach to the sides you should be fine using most cots three sided. We've got the kiddicare compact cot as three sided, and I drilled extra holes to get the base up to the height of our bed.

Though she is looking big for it at just 4 months so I'd get a bigger cot!

Oh thanks! We have a crib (and DD is on the 9th centile so crossing fingers she'll fit in it till she's out of our room), we'll have a look around at a few second hand ones locally maybe.

our cot does not turn 3 sided. the sides are what keeps the base in - it is basically a shelf that the mattress sits on. you would have to fashion a fix to make it work.

its an old thing so I'm not warning against a brand in particular just warning you to check carefully!

Bit late to this, but that's exactly what we've done - (inherited from friends) cot bed for ds1 and Ikea cot with one side off for ds2. The Ikea cot actually takes the same size mattress as the John Lewis cot we originally had for ds1, so standard size for cot sheets. I think the difference with the Ikea bedding is that their cot duvet is not as standard a size (not that there seems to be a particularly standard size for cot duvets).

Yep ikea is the only one that's made to do it. Not sure why they made it because it seems so pointless - children can only fit into it up to about 2 years, and why would you want a toddler bed for an under 2 year old? But very useful for co sleeping!

Having said that yes lots of others do work. We had an old mamas and papas one which converted just fine. Just be careful - on the ends, you'll need to drill holes further up. If the end panels are curved at the top rather than square, you might find it's unsuitable to just drill holes into. XP had to attach extra bits of wood to it to support the base, which then ruined it as a normal cot afterwards. I had literally just given birth (I think? I can't remember why he was doing it so late now, maybe I was wrong!) and couldn't really complain about it but I was a bit sad because it had been a family cot and I couldn't give it back.

Oh and YY ikea cots are standard size.

I think with DD being quite small, and DS had the side off the cot before 2y, we may find the convertible aspect useful for about 6 months. We're going to go for the Ikea one but I thought I had a good day to do an hour's drive to the nearest shop while DS in nursery but there's nothing I want in stock. We have a few months though.

I was originally hoping that DD would be in the converted cot until DS could be in a top bunk but I can see that's unrealistic now (2.5 years between them).