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!!

Do not stuff pregnancy pillows around the bed, what on earth are you thinking.

Foam pieces are the safest option if you really don't want to get a cot. Don't use mattress toppers, or pillows, or big thick rugs. All suffocation risks.

By foam pieces, I mean the jigsaw foam mats. Sorry, that wasn't clear

Foam pieces are the safest option if you really don't want to get a cot. Don't use mattress toppers, or pillows, or big thick rugs. All suffocation risks

I agree

Mmm. Interesting stats. In a RL situation babies either survive babyhood or they don’t. Removing / choosing not to add known risk factors remains advisable.

Pillows etc are a suffocation risk- a cot would be safer

Gosh, I think you're making a massive deal out of this.

I think you should go with the safest option. For me, it would be a cot. Every baby eventually sleeps! Even my twins... Eventually 🙈

Seeline is completely right. Your numbers are based on all babies, not the babies who sleep with pillows/soft furnishings etc.

I am very interested in this actually; if you get your baby to sleep on the floor, at what point do you bite the bullet and move them to a bed?

I'm not being sarcastic, I think I am just missing the reasoning. Unless it's one of those things where you find yourself at breaking point and willing to try anything to get a decent night's sleep!

Just put the child in a cot. Honestly you’re making this far harder than you need to. Put them in a cot. Do a bit of sleep training if you want to. Child will sleep.

Join the Facebook group ‘Safe Infant Sleep - evidence-based support group’ - you’ll soon put your 7 month old in a cot!

I wonder if the same people being rude on this thread have looked at any actual data from primary sources of information? Or if they're merely parroting back NHS guidelines without any understanding, or attempt to understand, their basis. You can't say "it's not worth the risk" if you don't actually know what the risk is or haven't even tried to understand the risks. Would you be similarly rude about co-sleeping which also goes against the guidelines? What about blankets which are also contraindicated?

Or let's go back to my initial worry about her hitting her head when she topples over from a sitting position: almost everyone on this thread was happy to dismiss the risk as not being a problem at all, despite any lack of data on the matter. Get facts or be nice - you have to do at least one.

@Seeline @Elbeagle you guys are totally right about that calculation being wrong! I think the statistics of interest aren't available anywhere because we don't know what proportion of the population uses pillows - or in my case foam bed guard bumpers, an even more niche statistic.

Looking at the trends though, specifically that suffocation tends to happen with blankets in older infants and not pillows (nevermind the fact that what we're using don't really count as pillows as far as those statistics are concerned) and that a much bigger risk in older infants is wedging (again not a concern with our setup), I'm going to stick with the floor bed and bumpers.

@AudacityOfHope: we want her to have a floor bed until she's old enough to get into a bigger bed by herself.

I am happy to report that last night she only woke up once the whole night - which is the second time this has happened in a week compared to her usual song and dance of being up 4 times a night.

I think a lot of people just thought that it was simpler to use a cot. You seemed to be having to do a huge amount of research (which is fair enough, if you want to!) and many posters seemed to think that you could possibly bypass all the hassle if you just used a cot, as must people do.

I didn't really notice much rudeness, just people expressing opinions.

I'm so glad you're here to explain it all.

SomeHalfHumanCreatureThing

Was that aimed at me?

If so, am I not allowed to reply to the OP? I wasn't attempting to explain anything to anyone else. My comment was directly responding to the OP. Please don't be so easily offended.

I’m pretty sure SomeHalfHumanCreatureThing’s comment was aimed at the OP and his ‘mansplaining’.

There are and have been many campaigns and guidelines on safe sleep because it is a big safety issue. The fact that this is not the case for toppling over from a seated position suggests that this is not a big safety issue.
I really think you have your priorities a bit wrong and you are dangerously misinterpreting the data.

Wait until she’s crawling, how are you planning to get her to stay in bed? I’ve never been able to work this out.

Buy a cot.

If anyone would care to explain to me what response I can provide to the questions and discussion we're having that doesn't count as 'mansplaining' I would be very grateful. I was under the impression this was a place I could ask for advice and try to talk through my situation and reasoning, but it seems that I'm not allowed to do that because I have 'Dad' in my username.

OP, I really don't understand why you want your baby to sleep on the floor as opposed to a cot? Is sleeping on the floor a 'thing' now?
Surely if sleeping on the floor was more safe and effective than a cot, manufacturers of baby equipment would have invented the perfect 'floor mattress' in order to exploit this market?

I actually never noticed your username, I never look at usernames.

I just think it's a bafflingly pointless idea. You want to give a baby who is getting close to toddling age the ability to get up and wander around unnoticed, for no reason I can see. What's to stop them getting out of bed and finding something tiny and round to put in their mouth while you watch TV or sleep next door?

You're making life harder for yourselves by changing the child's sleeping arrangements now, and then again later.

For those of you being unhelpful by suggesting that we should just "Get a cot".

We have a cot... We tried it for months, she hated it. We needed to sleep. Traveled to visit family, they had a mattress on the floor for our DD and for the first time since she was born, she slept well! (And so did we!!)

Both my DH and I have done extensive research what is best for our daughter and sleeping safe.

Montessori promotes extensively floor beds with very safe strategies, we've been researching this a lot. And our DD being able to get herself out of bed with independence to explore around the room, is actually considered a positive!

We are more than happy to share back what we found, everything is working out great, daughter is sleeping, we are sleeping, we are happy! :)

I hope that some of you can look into Montessori beds for babies and toddlers as they are pretty great and very helpful in our case.

Unfortunately many of Montessori theories are now thought to be old hat, and in some cases downright harmful.
You'd better be prepared to empty your DDs bedroom or anything that could be harmful to her. My grandson (18months) wakes up in the night and we can see by watching on the monitor what he gets up to in his cot. He likes to sit, jump, walk about, tries to get hold of things. Luckily he's safe in his cot so none of these things could result in harm to him.
If he were to sleep in the floor now, his whole bedroom would need to be emptied and a lock would need to be put on the door as he is now able to open it. That just seems like a completely daft thing to do! And before you say that it's ok for your DD to wander to your bedroom once she can crawl, you'd also have to make sure everything else on her route is cleared of any dangers.
Honestly, I think your common sense has flown out of the window. My DDs both slept on ordinary mattresses on the floor when they were old enough to be able to climb out of their cots, so about 2 1/2 yrs old.

And our DD being able to get herself out of bed with independence to explore around the room, is actually considered a positive!

Let me guess, this is your first baby?!