Bedside cots

[Outnumb3red]

the ones I've seen seem to be for babies up to around 9 months. Can you get ones that last longer than this?
My lo is around 9 months. He used to sleep through like a dream. But for a good few months now he hasn't. We can be up 3-4 times a night. I settle him and he generally goes back to sleep, sometimes when he's up every 1-2 hours I bring him in beside me and he goes right back to sleep all night.

The lack of proper sleep is really killing me, I have 2 other kids, I can't have naps when lo does. So I'm thinking this might work?

You can take one side off any normal cotbed and it will be sturdy 3-sided.

A rolled up towel should plug the small gap between bed frame and cot frame.

Normal bed movements will make bed and cot move away from each other, making a bigger gap. So you can either wedge the cot up to a wall one side then your bed the other. Or use bungie cords to fasten the cot legs to the bed.

You can get mini cots. I think ikea sell them or you could look on ebay/schpock/gumtree/facebook

Sorry. Wrong post!

I had a Mamas and Papas 'Close and Cosy' side sleeper which was a full size cot bed. So yes they do exist. I got it when DD1 was about 8 months for the same reasons as you! I bought it on Preloved.

I had thought about taking a side of a normal cot, but the one I have is quite big and would take up a lot of room at side of my bed. I can't put my bed up against one wall with my room layout, and my bed doesn't have actual legs Iykwim.
I'll have a look at the mamas and papas one. Thanks.

We just have a normal IKEA cot attached to the side of the bed. It is pretty big, and doesn't make getting in and out all that easy, but has improved sleep for everyone!

Careful with the rolled up towel idea. There was a post from a mumsnetter who's baby sadly died as she'd wedged a towel down the side of the cot and baby got trapped. Just awful

That won't have been the rolled up towel that was the danger iloveberries - it will have been to do with the expanding gap between bed and cot bases. That's why fastening or wedging the two together is important

Still an important safety consideration when considering a sidecar cot - you are right to bring it up.

Do you have a link to this case?

I saw it on one of The bereavement threads a few months ago 😞

I have just searched for the word "cot" (to cover all bases) on Mumsnet theads. There are no mentions of the word cot on any bearevment threads from 1st January 2010.

I have also searched with the words "sidecar cot death" and "sidecar cot died". Nothing in the last 7 years.

A search for cosleeper death will bring you lots of discussion to the Babynest death (7 week only placed on tummy to sleep, cot angles too steeply and side in half-up position). But that was nothing to do with a rolled up towel.

I don't mean to be rude, but these "my mum's mates cousin once read something about a baby that died" kind of things are not going to help anyone make level-headed decisions.

Please can you help me find the link to the thread you are talking about iloveberries?

Yesterday I had a conversation (via mumsnet thread) on someone saying bouncy chairs are unsafe for babies to nap in. It turns out that this came from an article she saw through a Facebook clicky link over a year ago, that she struggled to find and was actually irrelevant to her point anyway. And quite possibly fake news or over-egged clickbait.

These "I once saw/read..." unchecked "facts" are not acceptable when it comes to baby sleep safety.

We use an ikea gulliver cot with only 3 sides. As PP have mentioned it is important to set it up safely:
1 - secure the cot to the bed. We use cam buckle straps which go in a big loop under the cot mattress and under our mattress then around the base of our divan bed and around the base of the cot.
2 - rolled up towel in the gap, we push the mattress against our bed, and the towel is against the bars. It's really wedged in, I can barely push a finger down the side, and DD doesn't tend to sleep right against the bars (prefers poking my face)
3 - large fitted sheet over the towel, cot mattress and under the sheet across the top of our bed, this bridges any gaps.

This has worked really well for us so far (dd is 7 months) but she's starting to pull herself up, so will soon be dropping the height of the cot base, which may be trickier to configure. I expect I'll need a bigger sheet for #3 above and will prob put it under our mattress instead of over.

Forgot to add:
4 - the ikea one only has two heights pre-drilled, so either drill 4 holes at the correct height to match your mattress, or place something under the cot feet to raise it slighty (we used tins of tuna!!)

I also read the thread about the rolled up towel. I believe the poster was on holiday at the time. I'm hesitant about linking to the thread as the incident was very recent and the poster may see this. To link to hers would seem rather insensitive

The Mamas and Papas clise and cosy cot that I mentioned earlier comes with a special bridging cushion. You get special sheets that cover both the mattress and the bridging cushion so there is no gap.

Foobio we used chair risers under the cot to lift it to meet our mattress when we dropped it down to the bottom level.