Any co-sleepers used a bed safety rail with a newborn?

[IlanaK]

Following on from yesterdays question about the humanity family bed, I am now wondering if it would be simpler to just use a bedrail. Someone linked to a site with some nice ones and I liked the look of the Babydan folding down one.

Anyway, despite this being third baby, I have not co-slept before so need some advice. The bedrail looks great except I wonder about a gap between the rail and the mattress - especially as it has mesh in the middle so if baby rolled against it, it would "give".

Anyone who has used a bedrail with a newborn, how did you find it? Did you have to make any adaptations?

Thanks!

No-one???

Hi Ilana,
We've used a babydan bedrail since dd was about three months. I don't think there's really a gap - well, you could push your hand down between the rail and the bed, or I suppose theoretically your dc's arm could get down, but there's not really a gap as such...hmm, not sure, somehow I've never really worried. I'm not being very helpful, am I? One thing though, if your bed is slatted rather than divan it doesn't fold down - as we found out too late. It was a bit annoying but we live with it.

I don't know what kind we've got, it does fold down.

Have used it since ds was about 2-3m (can't remember!) No problem with any gap, though ds (now 14m) sometimes pushes as hard as he can against the mesh. The rail has a strap that goes under the mattress and attaches to the frame under tension, so it is pulled tight against the mattress. hth

We used a bedrail and the shape of the mattress and angle of the bedframe meant it had a bit of a gap where the mesh bit is. I stuffed it with a folded pillow so that the fold was level with the mattress which made it quite firm. We have a metal bedstead with a slatted base and a little lip up around the edge of the mattress, I think if you have a divan you probably wouldn't have that problem.

TBH, when they are newborn they really don't move and you kind of instinctively curl around them and keep one arm around them too so the chances of them falling out are miniscule.

Thanks everyone. I read a review of the babydan one which said that it would not fold down on a slatted bed with a lip. OUrs is like that so I bought a LIndam one at John Lewis instead. It folds down from about mattress height (halfway up the bedrail). Will try to fit it this weekend and see if it works.