How are your nights when your toddler is sick?

[LaVitesse2022]

We're facing the first winter at nursery with our 15 month old and viruses have been relentless. Nights are especially hard with frequent waking so we've taking it in turns to sleep in his nursery. Problem is we don't have much space to fit in a bed, a recliner would be a squeeze, so we've been sleeping on the floor. We don't want to get him into our bed for fear he won't then sleep in his own room normally.

I'm curious what other parents do when their young children are sick and need to temporarily co-sleep. Do you take them to your bed? Do you have a spare bed in the nursery? Is a rocking chair / recliner a good option?

We never had ours in our bed for the same reason as you. But that did mean DH or I spent quite a few nights on his bedroom floor when he wasn't well... fortunately the carpet was new and soft, and I had a sleeping bag ready for such occasions.

One of us has always slept in with our youngest ( now 8 ) because of his disability and recurrent illnesses, when he was a toddler we have used a single bed with a trundle and sleeping feet to his head incase of vomiting.
Recliners don't work well, a small ikea sofa bed was better but obviously you need room.
Camping cot beds are quite good as they are smaller and can be put away easily.

If DD wakes in the night I bring her into bed with me til she settles back to sleep then put her back in her cot if she allows - or co-sleep!

We got a foam Z bed thing and slept on his floor. With our eldest we did used to bring her in our bed but no one got any sleep so sacked that off with DS!

We take shifts. It used to be in LO’s room but since having 2 we’ll sometimes divide and conquer with one in our room and one in their shared room. Like tonight probably because the toddler is very ill but 5yo will likely sleep through

I only bring my child into bed with me if he has a seriously bad fever or he is vomiting. I want him in my room in these cases.

Otherwise he's in his own bed.

I don't think we ever felt the need to sleep in with ours, bar once after an A&E trip for wheeze.

If we were up because they were up and unsettled we just sat in one of those IKEA chairs everyone has, usually with a baby on us.

And yes, shifts. We had a rule we could tag the other one in after an hour.

We had a king sized mattress on the floor in our room when ours were little. Anyone who wanted to sleep in it did. The most sleep for the most people was always a hard priority.

Thanks so much everyone, some really good suggestions here.

I think given our space constraints our best bet is a foam Z bed, thanks for the suggestion @mummyh2016 .

@BarbaraHoward do you mean a Strandmon? I used to have one of those and they're great. Worth a thought as a space for cuddles and bedtime stories

Nah I'm cheap - just googled it, it's the poang.

Man I did so much feeding and cuddling in that thing.

My DD won't sleep in our bed, when she's ill it's a merry go round of going into her room, giving her a cuddle, reading 25 books then resettling, only to start the whole process again 20 mins later. She has no interest in us actually being there when she's asleep, but wakes up raging, often.

Yeah it's not fun, I would co-sleep in a second if she was up for it.

Mostly I would try to keep them in their beds but if they were very sad and poorly, high temp etc I'd bring them into ours. Sometimes that meant it took a few days to readjust back to their own beds again but it was totally worth it. I hated the thought of leaving them alone so little and poorly!