Where do you sleep when your kid is poorly - practical question

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Hello, this isn’t a general question about a style of parenting. I’m talking about quite literally what is the bedroom setup on the days that your child is poorly and wants you to stay with them? Do you sleep on their floor? Do you squeeze into their bed? Do you keep a Z-bed or something?

My toddler is still in his cot, but as we are saving up for a big boy bed I’m wondering if I should get one with a trundle mattress in the drawer. I would like to stay with him on the occasions that he’s poorly (because he doesn’t like coming into our bed) However I don’t think I can sleep on the carpet because I have bony hips! Or do you just squeeze into the bed with them?

Little DD gets in our bed every night any way, so would just put her in with us. Older DD (7) has only ever liked her own bed, so I always sleep on her floor if she’s poorly. Trundle is a great idea!

My eldest has had three surgeries and several hospital stays. For those, of course one of us has been by his side 24/7

But I don't think most people here are talking about that kind of illness. When my kids have the usual bugs, I just sleep in my own room and they sleep in theirs - it's not a mansion so we are easily available, we just all sleep better in our own beds

DS has slept in our bed a handful of times when poorly if he has wanted me. When he had chicken pox, he laid with me in my bed as was so uncomfortable and couldn’t settle by himself. Sometimes I end up transferring him to his own bed once he’s asleep. Also when being sick once as it was easier for me to grab the sick bowl when I could hear him retching rather than him be sick everywhere! (We aren’t just talking about common coughs or colds).
Don’t be made to feel bad or odd for wanting to provide close comfort to your child if they need you with them when they feel at their worst 😊

This. We also kept some of those disposable bed mats in the house. Much easier to swap if they vomitted on them. We kept an IKEA small children's bed mattress under our bed so that we could pull it out if they were poorly. So if the room is big enough a trundle is a great idea. And you can use it for guests too. Both the single beds in this house are trundles now.

Mine have double beds so there's room for me or DH if needed, generally we'd lie with them until they are settled and go back to our own bed. If they have a temperature then they don't need a giant Mum sized radiator heating the bed up.

They sleep with me, DH goes in their beds.

Its comforting and it’s much more efficient if they need me in the night.

They sleep in our room if it’s chest related or croup so there are two people hearing if they get into breathing difficulties and need help. If it’s vomit related we sleep in their bed (full size single) because I don’t want them being sick in mine. I’d rather be close to respond and get the sick all in the bowl rather than have to get up and clean in the middle of the night, it’s more efficient as well as being nicer for the child.

It’s such a race to the bottom on here sometimes.

DB is a firefighter and has always recommended closing all internal doors at night in case a fire happens, as this helps to stop any fire or smoke from spreading.

DB clearly hasn’t got cats!
I’d like to shut all the doors but that’s not going to happen until the cats have evolved thumbs.

Mine is still in her cot but we have the sofa bed set up in her room and one of us sleeps there when she is ill. We initially brought it for occasional guests but it got a lot of use during the first winter at nursery and we use it for reading bedtime stories too.

Mine has had febrile convulsions too so I like to be close when she has a temperature and if there’s likely to be vomit involved I’d rather it be on the old duvet and bedding we use with the sofa bed rather than our main duvet set.

When she moves into a bed I’m debating between buying a small double or just continuing as is but with the sofa bed set up as a sofa most of the time.

Like some others on here, we all sleep in our own beds, illness or not. However my 5 year old sleeps in an Ikea daybed that pulls out into a double, and my 8 year old has a trundle under his mid sleeper that he uses for sleepovers, so I guess if the need arose I would do that.

I sleep in their bed with them. All three are still in toddler beds so it is a bit cramped but works at the moment

I've only slept with mine once when I was worried about breathing. In that case, she slept with me and DH slept in the spare room or her bed (can't remember). For normal childhood illness we're all just in our own beds.

The trundle is really useful to have though, we have one in DC2's room for Christmas etc.

Best life hack ever: get a full sized double bed for them if you have the space. Then one of you simply gets in with them. Life changing as has enabled us all to sleep well for years!

DD went straight from her cot into the double...

Good to know, thank you. I don’t think we can fit a double in his room, but we can definitely fit a single or this trundle thing.

Thanks, I didn’t even think of a sofa bed as an option!

Thanks that’s a good point. If they’re too hot, they don’t need the extra heat.

@WickieRoy thanks can I just ask you about your trundle bed? Is it reasonably comfy enough to do a night on there? Or is it only made for children like flr sleepovers?
Happy to buy it but I have a cynicism that it’s really thin or poor quality. (Plus, no bed shop seems to be open these days to look in person!)

Thank you @Pinkdressandahighpony that’s just it. Giving comfort is something that I really enjoy and I’m pretty sure it helps both of us. We’ve taught him the value of sleep in his own bed, and he doesn’t come into ours but I’m not going to be Draconian about that on the night he needs his mum! Really appreciative of everybody who responded from a practical perspective not a judgement perspective.

We have a trundle - an ikea one. I wouldn’t like to sleep on it for too long but it’s absolutely fine for the odd night.

Has been really worthwhile. Both kids have the same. DH slept on it occasionally when we moved DS in to his own room, until he was settled. One of us will sleep on it if a child is sick. And we don’t have a spare room, so it gives us the flexibility to have both kids in one room and visitors staying over in the other.

When our daughter was at this stage we had one of those IKEA singles that turns into a chair in her room. My niece could use it when she visited as well.

We bought bunk beds when 1st DS was a baby - had a single bed in the nursery as well as a cot. When DS2 was 6 months and came out of our room we put DS1 (then 3) into the single bed until DS2 grew out of the cot and we put the second bunk (on the floor) until they were a little bit older then we stacked the bunks until they were ready for their own rooms. When DS2 came along we bought a couple of roll up mattresses, thinking ahead to sleepovers, and then were good for us to use when they were ill.

My house is tiny so I just left the bedroom doors open. I always woke up they moment they coughed or grizzled.

No it's a proper single bed, raised to the height of a single bed when pulled out, with a proper mattress. It's not in a drawer though, just a bed frame with collapsing legs that slides under a standard bed frame. No difference between it and DD's normal single bed that it lies under. We got it in Harvey Norman, don't think they're in GB, but I'm sure there's plenty of similar beds available.