Why use a toddler bed not a normal single bed?

[reastie]

. We've been offered from family a free toddler bed (just need to buy a mattress for it). We have a single bed in the spare room we were going to in time move to DDs room (no urgency).

Just wondered what the purpose of having a toddler bed is and why people don't go straight to a single bed [clueless] as we arn't sure whether to take up the offer or stick to our initial idea of going straight to big bed

We didn't for dc1. She was fine. We did for dc2 because there wasn't enough room for a full sized single. I wouldn't bother if you already have a single to use.

Depends how high your single bed is off the floor (for falling out of). Even with a bedguard, my 5yo can manage to fall out. I personally like toddler beds although obviously they have a limited lifespan.

We went straight to single. No problem at all - I wouldn't bother if you already have a single .

Can't see any point in toddler beds except to make more money for bed manufacturers. Well, I suppose there might be if you didn't have room but they'll need a single sometime... stopgap till 2 DC old enough for bunks maybe.

I have no idea (apart from space issues). If you already have a single bed then use it.

We worried a bit about falling out - we kept DDs old cot mattress under the bed and pulled it out to provide a soft landing. She never did fall out though!

I don't know. We had a cot thy converted into a toddler bed and never used it. single beds are fine and presumably much easier and cheaper to get bedding!

no point imho unless it's for a very small room. both my dds went straight from cot to single bed with no bed guard and it wasn't a problem at all.

we had a cot that converted too.

dd1 was in the cot for 3 years, then went into a single bed (which we already had) as dd2 arrived.

dd2 has just moved on from the converted cotbed - she was 5 earlier this week.

so we used one for quite a while, but I wouldn't have specifically bought one.

We bought a cot which could convert to a toddler bed eventually, but before that happened my mum bought a single bed to put in her smallest room when selling her house (tip from the estate agents to prove that it was big enough for a single bed in there) and she gave it to us. So we just moved DD to the single bed. She has fallen out a few times since we've taken the bedguard off, but we have a folded quilt on the floor. Its something we'd have done if she was in a low, toddler bed anyway though.

We still have the cot and are using it for DC2 when he or she is born, and its far more likely they will use the cot as a bed until we eventually get rid of it and we buy a bigger, single bed.

Space isn't an issue for us , so really it's just useful if you have a small room or it can be a bit lower down so less far to fall. We have to buy a new mattress for our single bed, but tbh at least that will be in use for years, whereas a toddler bed mattress would be used for a couple of years or so.

DD1 went straight in to a half hight bunk at 3.5 and now has a full hight bunk and has never fallen out.
DD2 has always had a whole double bed to herself and aged 10 still falls out of it occasionally. She's also fallen out of DD1's high bunk when wide awake.
Fortunately she fell on a quilt or something. (I didn't get told about this till a long time later, so I think silliness was involved).

mine have junoir beds as we have spacwe issues.that would be only reason frankly as not much difference other than length

Ds used to roll into the sides of his cot so he would easily have fallen off a normal bed. I bought him a toddler bed and, funnily enough, I found him on the floor every night. He's 12 now and still rolls around in his sleep, he has a cabin bed as it has high sides. It depends on your child and how 'active' she is when she's asleep.

We had one for DD1 - her room in our old house was quite small.

We're in a bigger house now and DD2 has the toddler bed. She went into it at 18 months and I confident to do that as it was low to the ground and had side rails.

She's a bit of a nutter and has dived bombed headfirst off DD1's single bed more than once so I just wouldn't trust her in a single bed of that height just yet. Not necessarily because she'd fall out when sleeping, but I don't like the idea of her waking up before us and mucking about on a high bed.

Depends at what age you move your child out of the cot. DD came out of the cot at 16m (or rather, refused to go back into it and kept pointing at pictures of beds in magazines and catalogues!). After three weeks of screaming, with her sleeping only if her mattress was taken out of the cot and put on the floor, we finally got the hint.

We'd not intended to get a toddler bed but since we had a cot, not a cot bed, and DD was so small that a single bed seemed extremely high and very big, we went for the toddler bed. At least moving into it that early she'll get good value from it. She can get into it herself which is important for independence (at 2.5y, she's still too short to climb onto our bed without help), and if she does fall out, it's not far (fallen out twice).

DBs have both gone for toddler beds due to needing cot for DC2 whilst DC1 is 2yo or younger - again, single beds just seem too big. None of our kids are big though, DD is

We have a toddler bed as moved dd1 at 18 months as needed cot for dd2. I preferred it as it was lower so she could get in and out and had a guard around so she couldn't fall out. It was a good intermediatry I think.

We will get more use out of it though as dd2 will get it when she outgrows cot, or we have dc3 to put in it.

We got one as DD was 19 months (and just 20lbs) when DS came along. We brought a second hand cot bed with mattress as we didn't know whether to move her into a bed or stay in cot. Staying in the cot was too much hard work in the end so when he was a week old DD moved into the bed configuration. We had the cot and the bed set up and DD was offered a choice.

Also in our 2 bed flat we won't get a single and a cot in the same room. If we had the room and a single already, we would have started her on a single mattress on the floor and then moved to a single bed.

I do like the toddler bed, no new sheets needed and she can get in and out by herself.

Just buy a bedguard and use the single, that's what we did.
We put it in his room with the cot for over a month before putting ds in it to sleep for the first time. He took to the bed no problems, after just 4 days sleeping in either the cot or the bed according to his choice, he stuck to the bed (as it were!) and we took the cot away. No idea if it was easy transition cos we had both in there for so long without pressure, but it's nice to think so.

We decided on the toddler bed because of all the "pee" accidents we were going to have.
A proper single bed mattress is expensive and you will need to change it again before they hit their teen.
DD1 is 7 and will move soon to a single "clean" bed and leave her "dirty" toddler bed to her sister.

Of course you can used those complete plastic cover to protect the mattress, but I would not want to sleep on one (noisy, sweaty, horrible... and IME the pee can leak onto the floor).

All the other protections are only semi protective. I did clean DD1 accidents straight away and the mattress is still stained and we are lucky that she didn't have many.

i did a whole thread about whether toddler beds were pointless or not as i had just planned to get a single with bed guard for DS.

then DH's parents wanted to buy him a bed for Christmas... and he now has a novelty toddler bed shaped like a racing car! I'd been totally against it but he bloody loves it! it's got slightly raised sides so he can't roll out.

If you have the money to not mind buying another a few years later then they're nice but as others have said a normal single with a rail is fine and gives you a spare guest bed as well, with DC in a readybed on the floor!

I managed to find a low small single bed. It's longer than a toddler and smaller than a single. Lower than most toddler beds. DS moves a lot in his sleep and went into it at 20 months. We put bed guards up.

It was a nice compromise between the two options and will last him until he's an early teen I'd say. We'll get the same bed for DD too.

We used them because they were cheaper and fitted in small rooms. If you already have a single bed, I'd not bother.

We got given a toddler bed, which had the same size mattress as the cot, so didn't have to pay anything for the bed.

Also, space was an issue as the box room only fits a single bed if its either a high sleeper, or you're happy to climb over the end of the bed to get to the rest of the room.

DS and DD1 never fell out of bed, but DD2 falls out a couple of times a week (sleeps sideways and shuffles out between the rungs of the bunk bed ladder ) so I'm glad she's in a low bed.

dd3's is an extendable bed from Ikea. I like it because she isn't lost in it and it takes up less space in her small room. I like toddler beds because they are in proportion with the clientele . Granted you don't have to have one but they are nice imo.