Crawling and Cosleeping

[Pengwings]

Hi all,

I have an 11 month old who started crawling two weeks ago. She is very much a mummy’s girl and likes to be joined at the hip. She has always struggled with sleeping due to reflux, eczema and general clingyness. Consequently since she was little we have often co-slept.
Last night my nightmare happened and I woke up to a thump and then crying. She must have decided she wanted to be up and exploring and crawled off the bed. Thank goodness she was absolutely fine but it has left me terrified to co-sleep again. However there are nights she will not settle any other way, and if I am working the next day I really need some sleep to be a functional health care professional. Any advice or tips from other parents of babies who just love cosleeping?

This is how they learn. She'll be much more careful about how she gets off the bed next time. Babies soon learn how to climb out of cots too, and that's a much further distance to fall than out of a bed.

Time to teach her how to get out of bed or put the cot mattress on the floor next to the bed then there’s something soft to land.

Push the bed against the wall so your child is between you and the wall. Or get a bed guard for the same effect

Huh. Mine only fell off once. It never happened again.

Some families take the mattress off the base, maybe that would work for you.
My eldest got out of the cot at 12 months. He was absolutely fine but it was quite the thud. That was a higher fall than a bed so don’t be thinking all those babies in cots aren’t capable of getting themselves into strife.
Have you taught her to climb off things safely? I find that helps them understand better.

Yep, time to start teaching her how to get down safely. Can she go down the stairs sliding feet first on her tummy? Or off the sofa that way? If so, she'll probably get it really quickly (and if not, you may as well teach those at the same time, as it's all basically the same motion).

We did also use a bed guard, but that was more so she wouldn't roll out in the middle of the night.

We taught getting off feet first on her tummy by practicing and praising on the sofa/bed/at soft play and I also got a bed guard off Amazon which stopped her accidentally rolling off our bed in her sleep x

Bed guard on one side and lots of practice getting off by going backwards on her tummy.

Could she sleep in a sleeping bag? Stopped my wriggly ones being too adventurous at night.

Or if you're still having issues, mattress on the floor.

Thank you everyone, time for us to start teaching her how to get down safely. We’re going to do some furniture rearranging asap so the bed is against the wall too. She usually want to be joined at the hip at night so I’m surprised she decided to take the opportunity to explore!!