Floor Bed: What to put on floor surrounding bed?

[NightOfTheLivingDad]

We like the idea of a floor bed and we've set one up in DD's room using a relatively thin futon mattress on a laminate floor. DD (7 months) sleeps well on it, but has been known to roll to the edges (and beyond) some times. As a stop gap measure, we've set up some large, thin pillows around the edges of the mattress but I'm looking for a permanent solution. Really I don't care if she ends up sleeping off the mattress, my primary concern is for her not to hurt herself when she rolls off the edge of the bed. Anyone have any suggestions?

Currently, we're considering three options, none of which I'm particularly jazzed about.

1. Surround the bed with those puzzle-piece foam pads. We have some we use for a play area in her room, but it just doesn't strike me as soft enough. Yes, I don't think she'll do serious damage to herself rolling off the bed onto the foam but I don't want her to do any damage at all! She's sitting up on her own fairly well, but from time to time topples over backwards and is in a very mild amount of pain from hitting her head on the foam.

1. Buy a large, thick plush rug and surround her mattress with it. This is a pricier option and it's hard to buy anything online and know it's soft enough.

1. Buy play pen fencing and put it around the mattress. This again is pricey and doesn't look great, but it would stop her from rolling off the bed altogether.

In summary, I'm wondering if anyone has any other ideas. Or maybe links to a rug or play pen fence they liked for this purpose.

Thanks!!

What about a bed guard on either side of the mattress?

How about a mattress topper? You could tuck it under one side of the mattress?

Following as interested. My 11mo DD has slept on a floor bed at my parents' house and I'm considering the pros and cons of doing the same at home. I was considering a double so I could share with her if needed, rather than bringing her into our bed and having to get bed guards etc.

None of these sound like very safe options. What’s wrong with a cot? Or co sleeping in your bed?

Our 3 year old sleeps on a floor mattress for various reasons and we use one of those long pregnancy pillows with 2 "legs" to line up against the wall on one side and the wall at the head end if that makes sense? We don't have anything on the side leading to the floor but we do have a decent carpet there. I would imagine a bed guard or the playpen idea might not be sturdy enough so would probably go for the rug out of your options. You could also try putting a pool noodle under the sheet which I've seen other people do although probably not recommended for a child as young as yours

Honestly I think you're worrying too much, and I am a massive massive worrier

DS has been in a floor bed since 6 months (he's now 3 yrs) . It's quite a thick mattress so probably about 20cm off the ground. He's fallen off a few times (but actually not that many) and he's absolutely fine (and honestly, I'm a super anxious parent) - it sounds like your mattress is much thinner ?

The puzzle pieces will be plenty enough. Or you could get a very cheap carpet put down.

Your child is very young, they shouldnt be rolling onto pillows or duvets as its a suffocation risk at that age. What is the advantage of the floor over a cot? My son started climbing out of his cot at 18 months and did then sleep on a mattress for safety but Ive no idea why a 7 month old would.

I don’t understand. If it’s a floor bed, does it matter if she falls? It’ll be such a small drop, surely? Isn’t that the point of a floor bed?

None of your options sound very safe for sleeping on if she does roll off the mattress. Particularly the fence.

As pp said surely the benefit of a floor bed is that she is very unlikely to hurt herself if she does fall out as it's on the floor, if your going to start fencing her in she might as well be in a cot which is at least safe to sleep in.

Also be aware of damp forming under the mattress on hard flooring.

Thanks for all the replies!

I think a mattress topper as padding would be exactly what we're looking for if we go the completely open route. Good idea, @Sunshinegirl82

Last night we formed a "U" on three sides of the bed using two pregnancy pillows stuffed under the fitted sheet and it worked well. So we bought some foam bed bumpers and tucked them under the fitted sheet. This seems better than either:

A) trying to fit some play pen fencing around her bed (which would look tacky, cost around 130 GBP for the cheapest I could find and might be a hazardous sleeping situation)

B) cheaper than trying to have super soft flooring all around the bed.

The main reason I wanted a floor bed was to make it easier for sleep training. We are just transitioning from co-sleeping and we thought it'd be a lot easier to put her to sleep if we could lay down or sit on the bed next to her during the sleep training process. There's also the whole Montessori independence motivation for getting a floor bed, but I'm not particularly moved by that aspect.

Finally, while I agree falling off a floor bed is safer than falling off a bed on a bed frame or a cot, I am still concerned about her falling off the floor bed. I do not think falling off the floor bed will cause any serious brain injury.

All the research articles I could find focused on mild to serious traumatic brain injury. Even though it's called "mild", mild TBI typically still involves some internal bleeding found in a brain imaging scan. So what about head injuries like toppling over onto a laminate wood floor that are less serious than the minimum criteria for mild TBI and don't really warrant a trip to the A&E? Well, I couldn't find any research on that. And it's possible and likely that there are literally no negative effects from less-than-mild head injuries. It's also possible that there are some small, hard to detect effects from less-than-mild head injuries. I'm happy to spend a little extra time prepping to account for this very small possibility of very small negative effects. I 100% admit it's likely overkill and hopefully this mentality doesn't spiral into an unsustainable attempt at trying to minimize every possible negative outcome ever.

Please research suffocation risks, babies can suffocate with a teddy bear, let alone a massive pregnancy pillow, especially under the sheet where it cant be moved. Babies can start to roll quite suddenly and could easily end up with their face in the pillow, especially if theyre used to the closeness of co sleeping.

At 7 months i really wouldnt be surrounding the baby with pillows or anything like that, the suffocation risk is too high, especially if she's a roller. If youre worried about her rolling off a floor bed Id stick with a cot for a few more months if i were you.

I've never heard of a baby sustaining a serious head injury from being at virtually floor level. I imagine the majority of babies sit or lie on the floor and have fallen and banged their head at least once.
I have heard of many babies who have suffocated on pillows or similar or because got their heads trapped between a mattress and something else, a playpen fence for example.

In trying to remove a minor risk it seems you're potentially creating a greater risk.

Your explanation makes this sound more worrying! She’s too young for pillows, bumpers etc. If you persevere with the floor bed, just using a mattress (no topper, pillows, duvet or soft things around it) would be safer. Im not a doctor or anything, but I believe falling off a mattress onto a floor would pose less risk than suffocating on the pillows. Please google safe Co-sleeping to get all the most up to date guidance about this.

Mattress on carpet or a rug is enough. Anything else is a risk. You don't need a bed guard if you're already on the floor.

This sounds unsafe. If your baby rolls onto the bare floor she may wake up but I doubt would injure herself and injury is better than suffocation anyway.

Placing pillows around the mattress is a major suffocation risk (this does actually happen; it's a real risk not a hypothetical one).

Foam bed bumpers are also a real risk.

Using a soft futon mattress is also a real risk.

Babies need to sleep on a firm mattress for their safety. Most people use cots for babies to stop them rolling out of bed. Once the baby is mobile, a cot also means you know where they are and that they are safe while you are asleep.

Please please listen to people. She is to young for pillows. I've co sleept with my son he's 3 and I still worry about pillows as he loves being close to things. So I won't allow them with him sleeping. What you are doing is so much more dangerous . If she falls of the floor bed she gets a minor bump if she falls into a pillow and can't get up she can't breathe. Seriously don't do it.

Oh god, what a massive faff you're making of this! It really doesn't sound very safe. Get a cot.

Please be aware that mattresses placed directly onto carpet (or whatever ) attract mould over time. I'm sure you'll check and clean regularly though

What a big old fuss though. Just pop her in a cot where she will be safe without all this faff

Since the SIDs 'back to sleep' campaign in the 90s which taught parents how to set up a safe bed for their baby (not using cot bumpers or pillows being one of the factors) the number of deaths while sleeping fell by 40%.

Even so, there are still over 200 SIDs a year in the UK. I think it's worth following the guidelines for safe sleeping.

I think the risk you are creating (of suffocation) is greater than the risk you are trying to minimise.

I just wanted to add another voice saying the risk or suffocation is much higher than the risk of a fall

First, thank you everyone for the input even if it's not exactly what I want to hear.

Second, since I've gotten some strong statements on the safety of the proposed set up I thought it would be helpful for myself (and potentially others) to see what the numbers say.

So looking at some figures from review articles: suffocation deaths were around 13-26% of sudden unexpected infant deaths (SUIDs) - SUIDs include things like SIDs as well as suffocation. In 2017, CDC numbers say there were about 93.4 SUIDs per 100,000 births, so this affects roughly 0.09% of infants. That means that 13-26% of 0.09% of infants were suffocated meaning that this affects 0.015% of all infants. Of suffocation deaths, 69% were from soft bedding, 19% were overlay, and 12% were from wedging. Well, she's not sleeping with anyone (so we can get rid of the overlay percentage) and there's no where for her to be wedged against (so we can get rid of the wedging percentage). So 69% of 0.015 means 0.01035% percent of infants are affected by soft-bedding related suffocation. In 50% of soft bedding related suffocation, there was co-sleeping during the incident - which is no longer happening for DD and thus we can reduce 0.01035% by another 50% giving us 0.005175% or about 5 in 100,000 infants in the specific circumstances my daughter is in. Furthermore, pillows were responsible for 10% of these incidents for infants between 5-11 months (although this number is 20% for infants younger than 4 months). And even then, I don't think pillows refers to the set up we have (which is super specific) but likely refers to regular pillows you would use on your bed. So the final number is: 10% of 0.005175% = 0.005175% or 5 in 1,000,000 infants. The risk of getting struck by lightning has been estimated to be roughly 1 in 3,000 over your lifetime.

All that being said (and it was a lot to say lol), it's hard for me to dismiss this risk. I'm sure plenty of parents thought their setup was safe enough only to unfortunately find out otherwise. I'll check in with the wife but I think we'll go without the bumpers and just have some soft flooring around the bed.

Why not just use a cot if you’re not co-sleeping?

Yes but your calculations assume ALL babies are put into a situation where suffocation can occur.

Most people will not be using pillows or foam pieces with babies under 1 year.