What happens when your co-sleeping baby starts crawling?

[TheNewShmoo]

DD has just started crawling and we're worried now she'll crawl off the bed. Not so worried about night time as she'd have to get past us, but concerned about her day time naps. She's in a side car cot bed with the fourth side down (Ikea Gulliver). We tried putting the fourth side up but she hated it as the cot became too small for her. Kept wacking her head on the rails and waking up. Also kind of kills the whole co-sleeping thing. Would one of those bed rail thingys work?

Watching with interest! DS has been crawling for a while now, but thankfully hasn't got off the bed so far. I pile up the duvet and pillows at the edges of the bed so that he won't roll off in his sleep (although he doesn't move too much) but he could easily crawl off if he wanted to. My method at the moment is to keep a very careful ear out for him moving about on the baby monitor! I have to rush up to take a look if I hear him!

Mine never crawled off the bed. They rolled off while asleep on occasion but never crawled off.

We did teach dd1 how to get down from the bed when she started crawling at 6mo so she could get down but she always just sat up and waited to be collected when she woke up! Dd2 is a poor neglected second child so has just had to work things out for herself but she's almost 2yo now and still just waits for someone to come and get her when she wakes up even though she could easily jump out of bed and run to wherever in the house her preferred person may be!

Same as jeewizzjen here.... but you can't relax at all if all you are trying to do is detect any noise in the other room. I put something interesting next to sleeping to DS so it grabs his attention as soon as he wakes up. He loves all the lights on the baby monitor so it stands right next to him. I also taught him to climb off the bed very early on so I know he won't try to dive off the bed head first.

Hmmm yes I thought I should teach DD how to get off the bed herself... Will start with that from tomorrow. Just hope she's not too overzealous with it! She does hold on to me tightly whenever i fly down the stairs with her so i think she has some grasp over the fact that falling from a height isnt good news.

She fell off the bed occasionally. It's not a big deal, she learned not to.

DD sleeps on our sofa at work. We just pad the floor below with a few cushions, coats etc. If she falls she's won't hurt herself. Not fallen yet though (age 1).