Toddlers: 12 - 24 Months

Big mattress versus crib

My 18 month old seems to enjoy sleeping on a larger mattress which I am starting to think is the reason she doesn't sleep well in her crib.  We are on an RV trip and she has been sleeping in the big bed with me at night.  She sleeps SO well in there (especially when I am NOT in there with her!).  She spins around, twists and turns all night but sleeps great! 

DH and I were thinking about getting her a large mattress to put on her floor at home and maybe put rails on it (does that exist?).  What are your thoughts?

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Re: Big mattress versus crib

  • We ditched DD's crib at 12 months and instead started using a full-size mattress on her floor. Around 18 months, we added the bed rails (from her crib conversion) to get the mattress off the floor. The bed is in a corner with a rail along the open side, so essentially its just a giant crib. ;)

    DD loves it! And I love that I can lay with her while she's falling asleep and read books, snuggle, etc. 

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  • Why not just move her to a twin and leave the crib/skip the toddler bed? Is it the height of a twin bed you are worried about? Because they do make safety rails for regular mattresses but I've never seen a full length rail for the large mattress and it's not very high so even if you manage to put two half length rails together, a determined toddler can go over that rail. It's only meant to stop a rolling child from rolling off, not a climber.  I've seen the rails almost everywhere : Walmart, Target, BrU, etc...

  • Thanks ladies!  KML, I think she likes the space of a large mattress (full or queen) so that she can roll.  We were thinking of getting the box spring/mattress set but only use the mattress on the floor with some sort of railing for one side so that she won't roll off and wake up.  I am super encouraged that this might actually solve our nightly wake ups!!!
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  • WE have had L in a double since he was around 16 months, when he escaped his crib. Its currently the boxspring and mattress on the floor, we have the rails that extend about 1/2 way down the bed. In the beginning he fell out once or twice Embarrassed but almost never woke up since its not a very high fall and we have carrpet. He can master getting onto and off of our bed now (a high king) so we plan on setting up his bed when we re do his roomt his summer. We will be leaving the rails on incase. He sleeps much better then he ever did in the crib. Although many nights one of us ends up in there with him, or him with us. We are fine with that tho!

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  • Mrs Teddy, that's awesome! I am even more motivated to ditch the crib when we get home!  And, yeah, we might have times when we let her fall asleep with us but what a HUGE difference! 
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  • There are quite a few bumpies who have their LOs in full beds so I don't think it's a bad idea. It make sense that she sleeps well with a lot of room to move.




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