Best place to buy a bed for a child?

[BertieBottlesOfMulledWine]

I want DS (2.3) to move into a bed soon (he's currently in mine...) but have no idea where to start looking or what is a reasonable price to pay.

I definitely don't want a toddler bed as would rather one which can last him until he's older, but am rather tempted by the ones with a slide judging by the pictures, I'm guessing he'd be too little for one though? I seem to remember them being much smaller when I was little and always being told I was too big for one (then again that may be just what my mum told me!) also the cost of them seems ridiculous, but they are fairly cheap second hand on ebay.

Secondly - mattresses. Should I buy the best I can afford, or any old cheap thing since he doesn't weigh much, doesn't need any special back support etc and will probably wreck it by jumping on it? I'm guessing it needs to be new, like cot mattresses? I don't have much spare money as am a single parent so I can't spend too much, but at the same time I don't want to get something that might be harmful.

Lastly if anybody knows any good places to get a bed or mattress near Warwickshire that would be great :)

I'm a single mum too and recently bought a bed for DD. If you can find any catalogue clearance type places near you, they have brand new, often high quality stuff, but tend to only have one or two of each type of them. I couldn't afford one with a slide though DD would have loved one! The mattresses also tend to be reasonable quality.

I know, I saw the price and was a bit shocked TBH, but there are a few on ebay for £40 or so.. I am tempted, but not sure if he'd be too little.

I like this one.

Or this is great, has a slide and is on special offer. Still pricey though.

What sort of budget do you have? Don't worry if it's not much. Even a very cheap divan type of bed can look so sweet all made up in brightly coloured kids bedding. We were pretty skint when our twins needed big boy beds (esp as they needed two) and they were still sooo excited and happy with their new beds.:)

I got my ds one from aspace. It was expensive but the storage space has been great. Should be some in the sale at the moment.

aspace

DD has had one very similar to the Thuka one autodidact linked to since she was 4 (hers was actually a cheapo Tesco version).

To be honest, I would say that 2 was a bit young for one of those, specially if it's going to be his first solo bed - there will probably be a lot of climbing in and out in the middle of the night to start with, and it is quite a long way down for a little one. He may not remember to use the stairs or the slide when it's dark...

Could you get a cheap toddler bed on Ebay to use for a year or so and then trade up? Or Ikea do quite good expandable beds that start out toddler sized and go up to single bed size.

the slides takes up a lot of room (my niece had a bed with slide). We got one from Bensons for beds (my zone low sleeper)and the mattress was on offer in Argos - we paid about £80 for the mattress.

DS1 had the Thuka one with a slide from about 2.5 To start with we put a futon mattress on it which was lower than a standard mattress, meaning the rails were that bit higher. We expected a fair bit of messing around from him when he got it but there was none!

However, it takes up one hell of a lot of space. He had what used to be the master bedroom so it was fine but it would be impossible in anything other than a double room.

what about something like this?

Ah okay. His bedroom is quite small but the short side is about the length of a single bed (the long side has a fireplace/chimney breast on though) so there should be room for the slide part to stick out into the room, but it depends how far it sticks out, he might end up with no room for anything else. I don't think he would climb in and out of it as he's never been in a cot, only in a 3-sided thing attached to our double bed, and now most of the time in the bed as he can't fit in the cot any more, but he doesn't get out and play in the middle of the night. He possibly would in the morning if I wasn't there though, I suppose. I'd like to see one in real life to get an idea of size really.

If I get a slide one it will definitely be second hand. I'm not sure on a budget, but over £100 seems a lot. I've seen a few beds on offer for about £50 so that seems reasonable for the base, it's the mattress I wasn't sure about - I just have no idea where to even start or what to look for.

Thanks for all the links already :) I definitely wouldn't go for a high one unless it has sides as DS is known to roll out of my bed when too close to the edge. I can just put blankets down on the floor if it's a normal height bed though.

I quite like the krittur bed in ikea with the bed guard, but is it tiny? I can't think how long 160cm is in real terms. Also I don't know if it would be a pain to have to buy the separate sheets etc for it. I want to get him a peppa pig duvet set to make it all "exciting" etc.

Bump - does anyone know about mattresses? That's the thing I'm most unsure about.

Argos gives mattress size as:

a single bed is 90 by 190 cm's.
a small single is 75 by 175 cm's
a cotbed mattress is around 70 by 140cm's

the ikea mattress is therefore much smaller than a single bed and is somewhere between a cot bed and small single size mattress. You can still get a small bed and use a single sized duvet on it.