Using my old cot

[Triantha]

Hi all, I've just been given the cot I slept in as a baby, for us to use with the little one when she comes. It's a lovely cot, a quality Mothercare one, but it's from the late 1980s and has a drop side.

The mechanism is identical to the one on this cot which is sold now, so I'm just not sure if I'm worrying too much over nothing.

I've attached an image of the cot so you can have a look yourselves. The main worry I have is that the rails are about 2cm from the upright posts and a baby's hand or foot could get caught there.

The cot is very solid and in perfect condition, mechanism included, so I'm not worried at all about baby being able to drop the side herself. You have to lift the side and nudge both pieces of the locking mechanism out of the way at the same time to drop it, so it would be very hard to do that from inside the cot. The bars also meet current safety regs as they're 60mm apart.

The only other worry I have is that the side doesn't lock down, only up, so I would have to be careful not to leave it down with the baby in the cot.

Another option might be to remove the mechanism altogether and screw the drop side to the uprights, using some washers to fill any gaps caused by the side being slightly narrower than the length of the cot. This would mean no drop side though, and I'm quite short!

I know this seems like a lot of umming and aaahing over what is basically a ~30 year old cot, but my parents have kept it all this time and it would mean a lot to them to use it. I could just get a new one of course but I'd like to use it for sentimental reasons as well.

If any of you have experience with cots like this I'd appreciate the expertise.

I think you'd be fine to use it, but you'd probably rather you didn't.

There is a lot of value in those next to me side bed sleepers in the first few months, and then modern cots allow you to raise the bottom up before they are climbing which saves your back as you don't have to lean down far.

I suspect this one might be rather irritating if you have a baby in your arms asleep and you are trying to fiddle with the fastenings. Might it be worth setting up at your parents for overnight stays?

I wouldn't that cot isn't a real sale look at the price. They are not really used in the U.K. any more for saferky reasons and are illegal to sell new or second hand in the US since 2011.

@Barleysugar86 The cot base has 3 positions - if you look you can see the holes, we just put it together on the lowest one - and we'll have a next2me cot at the beginning. This cot would just be for when the baby is too big for the next2me. Keeping it at my parents would be an excellent shout if they didn't have the world's tiniest house lol. I'm going to need a very compact travel cot if baby is going to come with me to stay there. My dad is currently in a bad medical situation so there's enough new accessibility kit cluttering up the place as it is!

@NewNovember drop sided cots are definitely still used in the UK, you can get them from almost anywhere (Argos, John Lewis, etc) but they have a rail that's built into the uprights. The American ban is because USA cots had different (worse) safety standards.

The costcutters one is expensive because it's a commercial cot, for use in nurseries and so on. I've literally bought stuff from them before for work so it's a real site, I promise!

@roseheartfly wow, unhelpful!

Is it a standard size cot to modern sizes? I used my old cot for DD and it was narrower which made buying stuff for it a pain and as DD grew she kept clumping her head on the bars. It was also really noisy when she did that due to the drop side mechanism. Jacked it in at 8 months and bought one that converted into a toddler bed! I don't see why you couldn't use it though.

I used exactly the same (handed down) model for my ds from about 12 weeks until he was 15 months. It was fine. I did the same as you and checked all the clips are still current.

I washed it down with disinfectant, bought a new mattress and bedding. Now, handed on to a niece with a newborn. 😊

Why not use it when you stay at their house (get the sentimental value that way) and buy a modern one you feel more comfortable with for using at home? Best of both worlds that way?

I have to say I wouldn’t use it for a newborn for safety reasons - there have been freak incidents where babies have got trapped / suffocated by unsafe cot, especially drop mechanisms.

If you screw the side in, you could use it for an older baby - this might placate your parents too. Put it in the baby’s room but have the baby next to you in your room in practice (you should do this for the first six months anyway). But I’d have the side screwed in whatever.

My in-laws also had a late ‘80s Mothercare cot that they’d kept from DH, and wanted to give to us when DS was born. They took it into Mothercare as it was closing down to ask about cot sheets etc and were advised not to use it as the protection coatings on the bars wouldn’t be classed as safe now.

I can’t be sure this is the same one, but it looks very similar.

If I were you, I could keep the cot but I wouldn't actually use it. Use a crib or go-sleeper next to your bed. Then wait 6 months and dispose off. Rather than talking to your dps about it.
You could put the baby in the cot inside a Moses basket - small babies often don't like the big expanse of a cot.
I would, in the end, prioritise the baby's safety and my peace of mind over my parents feelings though.

I hadn’t thought of that but yes, this is also true - whatever varnish or surface coating on the wood that was used way back when may not be (a) considered safe now, and (b) in the meantime might have degraded or be giving off some chemical residue anyway (older babies do chew the bars sometimes!)

I just wouldn’t risk it.

The spaces between the bars look quite wide I would be concerned about that?

Thanks all. I hadn't thought about the varnish, that's a great point.

I've measured the bars and the base, it's a standard 60mm bar spacing and 60cm wide base so it would fit a modern mattress I think.

I think on balance I'm going to not use it, the mechanism squeaks very loudly when dropped and I'll just say I can't get it to stop doing that. My dad suggested waxing the rails but that doesn't seem sensible as the baby can reach them.