Can I put a 10 month old in a single bed or am I mad? Help!

[RubyrooUK]

I am wondering what people think about putting my 10 month old in a single bed instead of a cot.

This is because:
a) He has NEVER slept in a cot. Not one nap. This is NOT for lack of trying - endless weeks of 7pm-3am attempts led us to madness. Even his nursery cannot get him to sleep in a cot, which he finds very agitating and scary. During the day he will sleep happily in a chair or pushchair. At night, he currently sleeps in our bed. On the very few occasions he has even sat in his cot, he has got his legs and arms stuck through the bars and hurt himself.

b) He only goes to sleep at the moment through me lying down and breastfeeding him. I know, I know...self-settling is the right thing, but let's just accept that I haven't managed this at all. I don't want to breastfeed him for the rest of human time but he won't take a bottle. Even the nursery, who confidently predicted he would take one along with the other children, have admitted they can't get him to drink formula in the day when I work full time (he pushes the teat in the bottle and flicks milk at everyone). So for the moment, bedtime is lying down together and as he has no milk in the day, he still feeds a fair few times at night in the morning.

c) Our bed, where he currently sleeps, is very high off the ground and our room is too full to effectively babyproof. So I am terrified all the time when he is in there without us that he will roll out. I can't want to get rid of our bed and sleep on the mattress on the floor because it only fits in at the moment because the frame can go over the fireplace in there and so on.

d) If I did buy him a bed, I would buy a low single bed where I could lie down with him, get him to sleep and then have a bedrail. And nothing unsafe in his bedroom if he got out. And padding on the floor. And a safety gate across his door. I don't care if he gets into our bed during the night where he is safely ensconced between his parents. And frankly that is easier for feeding. But during the evening, I wouldn't worry the whole time that he would fall out of our bed.

But essentially, I am scared having him in our bed in case he rolls out and really hurts himself. I would love him to sleep in a cot and would feel much better about it, but realistically, he is terrified of a cot and won't go in one. So working with that as an exhausted person working full-time and still breastfeeding at night.......is the best option a single bed? Has anyone had the same experience?

Help!

Ds one and two had exactly the same problems as you both slept with us or in a pushchair, they didn't self settle and i bf them to sleep, shock horror, it was the easiest thing to do, theuy are now 4 and 6 and sleep all night in their own beds, so dont beat yourself up about it.
I would say that dc is too young for a full sized single bed unless you get bed rails for both sides, but then you have got a cot again, what about a ready bed (brilliant cheep and thewy are at floor level so can't fall out)
Both boys had one for a first bed, worked a treat then we progressed to toddler beds, although both were in a proper bed before they were two, but think they need to be walking first.

Ds three still fed if he wakes and occassionaly sleeps with us, doesn't have a set bed time but he is happy settled and we are all getting some sleep, but really concider a ready bed if you are ready to move on to a more definate routine, good luck
To avoid all this recurring with ds3 we are using a travel cot, ds loves it sleeps like a baby, no hard bars to get stuck in either

I'd go for a mattress on the floor, and get him a bed to go under it when he consistently no longer rolls out :)

(This is what I would have done for DS if I hadn't had a health visitor tutting in my ear at the very idea of a mattress on the floor. He falls out. But he has a duvet on the floor to fall onto, so he's alright.)

To be honest if i had have thought of that i would have done the matress on the floor, didn't even occur, might do that with dc3, when he starts escaping from the travel cot,

What about one of the co-sleeping cots that attaches to your bed?

I am posting from my phone in bed with my co-sleeping 4.5 year old and next to my nearly 2 year old in his travel cot. I wouldn't have it any other way.

You can get very low toddler beds or single beds or a futon so risk of falling is lessened. Or we have an airwrap cot bumper which stops DS getting stuck in his cot.