Carrycot not approved to use for sleeping everynight.... advice please!

[LittleConnie]

I've recently bought a Bebe Confort Streety travel system for my first lo due in Sept. I'm really pleased with it and was also hoping to use the carrycot instead of a moses basket or crib to save space and money. The mattress feels v good quality to me & is very snug and has good thickness. However the manufacturers tell me the mattress and carrycot fabric have not been safety tested so they only recommend it for occasional overnight sleeping. If I bought a new safety mattress (eg a moses basket one that fits) do you think it would be safe to use, or does the base of the carrycot need special ventilation? Or should I just bite the bullet and buy a crib/moses basket? There's no room for the full size cot in our bedroom...

There is no British Standard test for the use of pram carrycots for overnight sleeping. So, it's not that it has been classified as 'unsafe' but it has not been classified as anything because no such test exists.

I don't think using another mattress inside it will make any difference at all. Other manufacturers make provision for overnight sleeping by building in extra ventilation in the bases of their carrycots (eg Emmaljunga do this).

An instruction manual for the same product from another country may say something different - according to that country's legislation.

I'm not quite sure what the difference would be between sleeping in it every night and occasionally? We had a Bebe Confort Loola with the carry cot and it said the same. Now when DS was small he slept in it all the time (I had a CS and it was great being able to wheel him around the flat instead of lifting him all the time), and when he got bigger and had a proper cot he napped in it when we were out and slept in it when we went away.

The only thing about it was it was very warm, so we found he didn't need many bedclothes, but that's easy to adjust.

The problem is you just don't know what will work for your baby anyway. Our first would sleep happily at night, from day one, but only in her car seat. I suspect that's not allowed, but we felt that she was happy and contented the seat was positioned carefully so it couldn't tip etc. She's 8 now and perfectly fine.

However, when she was a little older (by a few weeks) we managed to move her into a moses basket, which had a stand. One night my dh was woken by a strange noise to fine the stand had broken and dd had slid out out of the basket and was fast asleep under the bed!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was so shattered I was still asleep, but woken by dh and obviously horrified. DD oblivious and fortunately ok.

Thanks very much that puts things in a bit of perspective for an ignorant first-timer! Think I'll just give it a try for the first few weeks and see how we go