Converting cot beds into beds

[Mrsbirchall]

Hi everyone

I'm 5 months pregnant and in the process of wading through the many cot beds on the market.

I noticed that some mums had raised an interesting point on some forums - have you all actually converted your cot bed into a proper bed for your little ones? Because some people noted - the actual bed ends are really high, having once obviously been the side of a cot, and aren't actually that great as a child's bed - often mums will end up buying a smaller toddler bed and not using the cot bed as a bed..

I'm just weighing up whether it's worthwhile to invest in a cot bed if the reality is, we may not use it for both functions?..

Sarah
x

We bought our cot bed 10 years ago and it is still in use now (for DS2 - DS1 has long since outgrown it) as a bed. On ours, the head end is still full height but the foot end came in two sections so is now a more regular kind of height. DS2 will be 6 soon, so we will need to get him a proper bed, but it has been fantastically good value for us.

Both the head and foot of ours came apart, so only the bottom third was there once you turned it into a bed.

The downside of it thought was that the sides didn't fold down - they were permanently attached to the head and foot (probably to keep the pieces together!) which I hadn't thought about. It was fine, but did mean you had to lean in once you had the base in a lower position to get the baby in and out.

Ah thanks both, in fact I just spotted this on a John Lewis one I was looked at - one end seems to lower at a bed, which makes it seem less 'initimidating' for a little one encased by these towering bed ends!

Now is for me to discover what on earth the difference is between the many many out there - quality I guess...Didn't ideally want to spend more than £300 and am thinking John Lewis may be an all-round reliable..Boori looks good but so pricey..

:)

Nope - child number 2 is turning up right at the point of No 1 needing to go into a bed. Currently debating whether to go with a toddler bed or straight into a standard single bed. Could convert her bed into a cot bed (Bloom) and buy another one but I'm loathe to spend that sort of money again and would feel bad stiffing DC2 with a cheap cot in comparison.
Should have thought about it more when we were buying a cot in the first place especially as we hoped to have two close together. The Bloom cot was perfect for us at the time though as we needed to be able to move it into our room easily when we had (frequent) guests and it concertinas down in minutes.

Word of warning - the v expensive models of cot tend not to come with a plastic chew guard. I would really recommend buying a cot / cot bed with one.

Congratulations! We just bought a simple Ikea cot for dd and it's been great - still fits comfortably in it at 18mo. There's the option to take one side off, which we'll do at some point as a transition to a bed, and then just buy a single bed for her. I agree that timings of children make a difference - if you might have another in a couple of years then a cot bed might not get its full use.

Mine is a Kubb Madera it's used as a cot for DS 8mo but we have changed it to a bed when my niece stayed over night, it was high but it's day bed style and very nice.

I wondered about this too but am so glad I went for the cot bed. I changed the cot bed into its bed form when DS reached 2. He's a big 2, 98th centile for height, and I can onfidently say he wouldn't have fitted in a cot past 18m. Now that doesn't sound too bad til you realise that as soon as the sides are off/into a bed, they can GET UP. And it can be several months of hell (was for us, even at 2).
Two big ends don't really matter as most toddlers a so wriggly they end up round he other way any way. And the security of the height is nice for them.
I bought a boori (king parrot, their "budget" line) from mothercare, called sunshine I think, but the don't do it now. There is a similar one here though. Quality is fantastic. Got my mattress separately from baby mattresses online.
Good luck. Cotbed will look enormous to start but you'll be glad you did!

Actually just checked and mothercare do still do that sunshine one. Doesn't look much on the web page but it is lovely.

yes. and no. DS1 had his cotbed converted into a bed. The top end was high. It came with a second bottom end though for the conversion which was low. He was in that until DS2 came along and it went back to being a cot again. (It was a east coast marston (sp?) which also had a drop side.

DS2 was ready for it becoming a bed about 6 months ago. He then wouldnt sleep in it because we'd 'broken' it by turning it into a bed. I sold it on ebay and bought a second hand toddler bed which we let him put stickers all over. He was then happy :)

I.only have a cotbed as it was loaned to me by a friend whos dc had outgrown it, otherwise it would have been an Ikea majobba for me.

Ill more than likely take the sides off once dd gets to about three, and then put her in a full sized single bed when I feel she has outgrown (physically) the cotbed.

Regardless of either I wouldnt have bought a tddler bed. Seems like a waste of money.

We have a mothercare cotbed, and the panels on the header/footer split in half for the bed version. Its been great value, DD went into a bed early and we'll be turning it back into a cot soon. The sides don't move but i don't see that as a bad thing.

I wouldn't bother, you can get a nice cot for much less than a cot bed, we got a cot from John Lewis for £100 five years ago. We have a small gap between DD1 and DD2 and DD1 went straight from her cot to her full sized single bed. DD2 is still in the cot at three (with the side off so she can get out without doing herself an injury) but is about to move into a single bed now DS has arrived.

I think both cot beds and toddler beds are just ways of getting more money out of parents, our parents moved us from cots to single beds, why do we need all these stages inbetween?

We have the Henley cotbed from babies r us, and it's been fantastic! Drop sides which was very important to us, plastic chew thing along the sides (DS bites it when teething), and when converting to a bed, there's a panel which you remove from the top and bottom to make them normal size rather than huge. DS is now 19 months, and it's been one of the only large purchases we made that I can honestly say was perfect - will be using it again when we have DC2 and buying DS1 a full sized bed at that point.

Thanks everyone, really helpful advice! xx