do I really need a guardrail?

[mamatogands]

I was just rereading some info on co-sleeping safety and am feeling guilty about not having a guardrail. what do you think? ds usually sleeps between my and dh for part of the night, then I roll him over my body onto the other breast and he's between me and the edge of the bed. but he sleeps in the crook of my arm, so I'm kind of holding him.
sometimes he even makes it into the bassinet next to the bed, but not always! :lol

[cklewis]

I think DS was about 7-8 mo when I made some large, firm round cylinders that you attach to the edge of the bed with big piece of elastic. Mollie (greenemama) showed them to me online, but I can't find them now. They gave me piece of mind, and even gave me something to lean on when I slept next to them.

Just a thought. . . .

C

[Roma]

we have a king and Ds sleeps between us so i've never had a rail

[Katherine]

I've never used a rail either. The times I've tried one I had a hard time finding one that was taller than the mattress was thick.. 2 inches isn't going to keep a baby from rolling out, kwim? Then when the boys got older, they wanted to lean on them and climb over them, which seemed like more of safety hazard than not having one, so I always ended up taking them off as soon as I put them on.

I make sure there's a big buffer zone between baby and edge, and use a firm pillow to deter baby from rolling. They have also usually slept in the crook of my arm or on my chest, and when I put them in other beds, it's always a mattress on the floor.

I also start very early teaching my boys how to climb up and down safely on furniture.. like when they start crawling to the edge of the bed I work with them on coming down feet first. My eldest got it in a heartbeat and could get up and down off beds/couches long before he could walk. My 2nd one took a bit longer to learn it. :shrug

I'd love to see those cylinder things if anybody can find the link. :)

[raisa]

We've never used a rail either. After DS was able to roll/crawl I starting keeping him in between us. And now he'd be able to clamber over a rail. So there are only a few months it could have helped at all. He LOVES to play on the bed so sometimes I wish I could have a huge rail around the whole thing, but I don't think that would be practical, so we just supervise or keep him in between us.

[Katydid]

We had a rail at first with ds because I would sleep with him on both sides. But we have a queen, not a king and it made me feel a little safer.... I did take it down when he started pulling up on it, and then we took our bed off the frame, so it's lower to the ground. Now we have a twin on the floor next to the bed, so it's only like a 6 inch drop onto the mattress.

[Roses]

www.snugtuckpillow.com

That's what we've been using since ds was about 5 mos. old. It's the long cylinder with the stretchy thing that goes under the mattress. It's awesome, I love it. He's never fallen/rolled off the bed. I definitely reccomend them!!!!!!!

[cklewis]

www.snugtuckpillow.com

That's what we've been using since ds was about 5 mos. old. It's the long cylinder with the stretchy thing that goes under the mattress. It's awesome, I love it. He's never fallen/rolled off the bed. I definitely reccomend them!!!!!!!


That's IT!!!! That's what I made. It worked REALLY well. :tu

C

[luvinmykidz]

Well let me warn you.....when my firstborn son became a bit older.....I am thinking around 8 months or so he would start to get very acrobatic. We use to have our bed on a bedframe and then he would sleep between Dad and I in the middle. One night we woke up to him screaming...he had managed to climb over Dad and fall off the bed onto the floor :sad2 He didn't get hurt as we had carpet below but he was still very scared. Ever since then we decided it was much safer to remove our bedframe and just have our mattresses on the floor. Then we would push the mattresses flush against the wall and put him between me and the wall. Our bed was also low enough to the ground that if he did fall again he would just kind of roll off the bed. Ever since then we have kept our bed on the floor and against the wall. We tried a guard rail but our son would climb over it in his sleep so I don't think a guardrail is much help....I would just put the mattress against the wall.

[mamatogands]

www.snugtuckpillow.com

That's what we've been using since ds was about 5 mos. old. It's the long cylinder with the stretchy thing that goes under the mattress. It's awesome, I love it. He's never fallen/rolled off the bed. I definitely reccomend them!!!!!!!



this looks cool! thanks for the link. :)

[Radosny Matka]

After my son came close to falling off the bed while sleeping (and DID fall off when awake :eek :( ) we went and put the mattress on the floor. He also naps on that mattress, so this way I don't have to worry.