Recommendations for travel cots?

[BerthaYoung]

Hi everyone. With the prospect of soon being able to leave the house (!) does anyone have any recommendations for travel cots? They all look incredibly uncomfortable to me - I don’t like that the mattress is often just on the floor. Would love to know which you rate, or don’t! Thank you.

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MNHQ

I have a Joie one, and we have just been away and she slept fine for naps and nighttime (although teething). But we have also used it previously for a few overnight stays, and she slept fine.
It has a bit you attach to the travel cot to raise the base, so not on the floor. And I also purchased a separate mattress, as I’ve always found the foldable travel cot ones to be a bit thin / hard with the groove lines.

They are all much of a muchness TBH. Get one that is the size of a normal cot (60 x 120) as then it should take them up to an age they'll be OK in something like a ReadyBed. A lot of the fancier ones are tiny so no good for taller kids.

The mattresses are really thin for a reason - because the sides are mesh and therefore flexible, it's a risk if there is a thicker mattress that the DC can get trapped down one side of it which is a suffocation hazard, and babies have sadly died like that. They don't seem to mind the thinness, although I'd recommend using something like a fleece blanket as a sheet in order to make it feel warmer, as the plastic covering can feel quite cold.

You can get some travel cots that have the option to raise the sleeping area up for very young babies.

Thank you both for responding. I’m impressed your DD sleeps well in the travel cot @DressingGown87 - I’m not holding out much hope!

Some great tips @BertieBotts - I hadn’t even thought to check size, but now you mention it it would be handy to be able to use the normal cot sheets and protector on it, and DD is likely to be pretty tall. Surprisingly I can’t find many 60x120 - just a few on Amazon. Probably one of those will do!

I can’t recommend one I’m afraid but having just bought one I really bloody wish I’d got one with zip down sides! My back was in bits for weeks! 🙈

I also can't believe how thin some travel cot mattresses are! Avoid the Aldi one, my son didn't sleep at all in that.

I had the huack dream and play, I bought the foldable mattress for it. Expensive, but he slept well in it.

Most of the standard ones like Red Kite, Hauck, Graco are 120x60 I think?

I'm always really wary of amazon for baby stuff these days as there are so many unknown Chinese brands on there that don't always meet safety standards. It's OK for normal brands you can buy elsewhere though. I always google the brand if I haven't heard of it and see whether it looks legit!

Places like Asda often have them for a reasonable price.

I bought a cheap one the size of my baby’s cot and then an extra mattress for it, it fits the exact size so no risk of her getting trapped down the side and this way I can use her cot sheets

The grey joie one is great. We also bought a new mattress for it as the one it comes with is awful! Baby slept very well in it for months

We had a Hauck one and bought the Hauck travel cot mattress to fit it. Was nice and comfortable for both of our dc, they slept well in it.

Thanks all - Amazon has the Hauck ones so good to see a few recommendations here. We may go that route. Zip down sides sounds good though @Piccalily19! I did wonder how you’re supposed to put the baby in it 😬 Maybe they assume you have one of those miracle creatures that goes in awake 🙈